We are still in the midst of finalizing tour dates for the launch of The Search for WondLa, but I wanted to drop a couple of confirmed events from the first leg of the tour:

Wednesday, September 22 @ 3:30 PM
Books, Bytes & Beyond
197 Rock Road
Glen Rock, NJ 07452
(201) 670-6766

Wednesday, September 22 @ 6PM
**NYC LAUNCH EVENT**
(Hosted by Uma Thurman)
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011
(212) 989-3270

Wednesday, September 29 @ 7:00 PM
Rainy Day Books
2706 West 53rd Street
Fairway, KS 66205
(913) 384-3126

Thursday, September 30 @ 6:30 PM
Wild Rumpus Books
2720 West 43rd Street
Minneapolis, MN 55410
(612) 920-5005

Additional regions from the first leg (Sept. 21-Oct. 2) of the tour will be New Jersey, Long Island, Philadelphia and Chicago.

Leg two will start on October 12th and will include San Francisco (finally!), Houston and the Texas Book Festival.

I will also be speaking at the Mazza Museum in November (12-13) and am planning on an event or two in the Columbus, Ohio area. The following weekend I will be signing at the Miami Book Fair (Nov. 18-21).

For all of my friends and fans across the pond, the WondLa UK tour has been pushed to fall 2011. We just could not wedge it into my hectic fall schedule.

That’s all for now, more details as I get’em!

With a little more than a month to go before the release of The Search for WondLa, I am finally able to share some jpegs of my favorite illustrations in the book (there are 70 total). These are all 2-page spreads that open up each chapter. There will be a small block of text on each, which is basically the inverse of what you usually see in a 500-page novel (think of the art in the chapter openers in the Harry Potter books, for instance). This first one is of my heroine, Eva Nine, and it is the opening image of Chapter 1.

…Here is Eva’s first encounter with the gruff curmudgeon, Rovender Kitt…

…and this is the wicked huntsman, Besteel, with his sonic boomrod…

This was one of the first finished images that came to mind for this book. Its of the mysterious Arius in her den.

This is Queen Ojo with her royal procession.

…and this is the world they inhabit, Orbona. Its named after the goddess of orphans…

Enjoy! I’ll be posting more, plus tour dates VERY soon!

Connie Tyrrell Burns, of Mahoney Middle School in South Portland, Maine write a fabulous starred review of The Search for WondLa in the current issue of School Library Journal. Here is my fav part:

…The abundant illustrations, drawn in a flat, two-tone style, are lush and enhance readers’ understanding of this unique universe. In addition, augmented reality is used in three places. By holding up the page from the book to a webcam, an interactive map appears on the screen. Readers can watch as the landscape where Eva Nine is traveling unfolds. DiTerlizzi is pushing the envelope in his latest work, nearly creating a new format that combines a traditional novel with a graphic novel and with the interactivity of the computer. Yet, beneath this impressive package lies a theme readers will easily relate to: the need to belong, to connect, to figure out one’s place in the world. The novel’s ending is a stunning shocker that will leave kids frantically awaiting the next installment.

She got it! She really got it. Yeeessss!

If that was not enough, Debra Lau Whelan did a lengthy interview with yours truly discussing the origin of WondLa, the sequel books, and the developing movie at Paramount Pictures. Please to enjoy!

For my friends and fans who can’t wait for my U.S. fall book tour this September, Stuart Ng Books is offering a handful of signed The Search for WondLa sketchbooks for sale on his site.

As I posted before, I produced this 2-color, 34 page sketchbook in conjunction with Simon & Schuster in a limited edition of 2000. We’ve been giving them away at various conventions this summer (like San Diego Comic Con) and I’ll be handing them out on tour this fall to some lucky attendees, but if you can’t wait…well then here is your chance.

I am excited to reveal an extremely limited  exclusive giveaway, a sculpted maquette of Muthr – the robotic character from my upcoming illustrated novel, The Search for WondLa – that will be available at next week’s Comic Con in San Diego.  Take a look:

The maquette and signed books will be available at an auction to benefit The Comic Book Legal defense Fund. Here are the details:

From the mind of Tony DiTerlizzi, creator of The Spiderwick Chronicles comes The Search for WondLa, the start of a new trilogy that’s already been optioned for the screen!

This maquette, MUTHR is generously contributed by DiTerlizzi and Simon & Schuster Young Readers. MUTHR is Multi Utility Task Help Robot, and is brilliantly sculpted and painted by Martin Meunier, the award-winning sculptor/model maker and graphic designer whose film credits include Coraline, James and the Giant Peach, and The Spiderwick Chronicles the film on which he met author and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi. Martin has worked for FX Company as well as film studios Industrial Light and Magic, Pixar, Disney, and Universal.

Intricately crafted and cast in hard resin, MUTHR Maquette is a limited edition of 100 worldwide, signed by Tony DiTerlizzi.

The auction will be held next Saturday night at 7:30 in room 3 of the San Diego Convention Center.

I can tell you these maquettes are EXTREMELY exclusive. Of the 100 made for Simon & Schuster, most were given to early industry supporters of the book. Two have been raffled off so far (one at BookExpo and one at last month’s ALA conference), but this is the only time one will be available for purchase.

Best of luck to all attendees and happy bidding!

I’ll be doing a special signing event at Comic Con International next week in San Diego.

The signing will be next Thursday, (7/22) from 11:30 – 12:30 in the autographing area at table AA19. It will immediately follow the panel discussion and is limited to 100 attendees only.

The 100 attendees will receive a FREE advanced reader copy of The Search for WondLa as well as the limited edition sketchbook. Supplies are extremely limited so we are offering line tickets at 9:15 Thursday morning. Details can be found here.

Simon & Schuster reps will also be handing out line tickets at the panel discussion, so if you miss the ticket line in the morning, you may be able to nab one there…but remember, we’ve only got 100 books. Seeya there!

Simon & Schuster has released a couple of finished illustrations from my upcoming illustrated novel, The Search for WondLa, so I thought I would post a few here.  You may even recognize the early versions of these images that were shown in the teaser which was posted last month.

These are shots of some of the color printer’s proofs that I received this past week. Wondla is printed in an old-fashioned manner with a second spot color throughout (in fact, the green is inspired from Alphonse Mucha’s palette). The book is printed on a heavy ivory-colored paper (the same paper we used for Spiderwick). The separation process on these was tough, but the end result is rich. I hope you like it.

The Search for WondLa will be available on September 21st, 2010. The book is 500 pages with 70 2-color illustrations. I will be touring the US and the UK this fall in support of it.

It has been a number of years since I released a self-published, limited edition sketchbook. Actually it was back in 2003 when I was a guest of honor at the Gencon Game Fair. There, I did a retrospective sketchbook to coincide with the exhibition showing a decade of illustrations I’d done for role-playing and collectible-card games.

I am about to release a NEW limited edition sketchbook, this time marking a decade of creating books for children. With The Search for Wondla’s release fast approaching (Sept. 21), I thought this would be the perfect time to create a new sketchbook sampling the visual development that went into the characters, artifacts and settings.

With slick layouts from award-winning designer John Lind, Simon & Schuster has produced a beautiful two-color, 32-page limited edition sketchbook which we will give away FOR FREE at upcoming summer conventions. And we are going to start with this weekend’s American Library Association Conference in Washington, DC (June 24-29th).

Simon & Schuster will be holding an in-booth reception for Wondla at 3:30 this Saturday, June 26th (booth #2644). The first 200 friends to stop by will receive a signed advanced reader’s copy as well as the limited edition WondLa sketchbook.

If you cannot make it to the ALA conference this weekend, don’t fret. Our next big giveaway will be at Comic Con International held in San Diego on July 22-25th. I have also set aside a number of copies to give away on my site and on tour this fall. But hopefully I’ll see some of you this weekend!

Simon & Schuster Audio, along with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers announced today Teri Hatcher will narrate The Search for WondLa, by award-winning author and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi. Hatcher is best known for her roles as Susan Mayer in “Desperate Housewives” and Lois Lane in “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.” She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her role as Susan Mayer in 2005. The Search for WondLa will release in September, 2010.

Tony DiTerlizzi’s books have met with enormous success, from his award winning picture books to the bestselling The Spiderwick Chronicles. The Search for WondLa will follow a similar track, with three novels over three years.

“From the start, I wanted a woman, preferably a mother, to lend their voice to the audiobook of ‘The Search for WondLa’ – and Teri has the perfect talent to bring it to life. I have been a fan of hers since the “Lois & Clark” television series and was thrilled to hear she was on board. Her multi-dimensional performance in the feature “Coraline” was fantastic. Her voice and acting skills are smart and nuanced – exactly what you want when listening to a fairy tale set on an alien world.” – Tony DiTerlizzi

Recorded in Los Angeles last week, Hatcher brings DiTerlizzi’s fantastical creatures and magical landscapes to life, introducing listeners to an incredible new world full of unique characters that children will become attached to.

“As a mom and huge fan of the author, I was honored to lend my voice to bring this magnificent story to life. It’s an exciting adventure for any child to hear, with heartfelt lessons about love and relationships, friends, trust and courage.  The Muthr/daughter one is especially beautiful. Tony has created powerful and colorful characters, you can’t help but love or love to hate. It was a pleasure to be a part of this audiobook production.” –Teri Hatcher