Scott Westerfeld and Sarah Rees Brennan

We were so very fortunate to host the wonderful Scott Westerfeld and Sarah Rees Brennan yesterday, talking about their new books Leviathan and The Demon's Lexicon. And I must say that if you couldn't make it to the event but get a chance to hear them, go, because it was a great presentation - both were intelligent, funny, and made you want to rush straight home to start their books.

Scott talked about the history of illustrations in books. For example, I had no idea that Conan Doyle never described Sherlock Holmes as wearing a deerstalker hat. That was the invention of the illustrator. But can you imagine Holmes without his trademark hat? Leviathan is the first of a trilogy so of course there will be four books. I'm quoting. Oh yes, Scott also said he had no plans to write another book for adults in the near future.

Sarah showed us the Japanese cover of her book, because The Demon's Lexicon had no illustrations. And she's currently writing a romance with Cassandra Clare. Now there's one to pine for.

They both graciously signed every book their fans had brought with them - some fans even brought gifts (see Sarah's pumpkin). And if you read this, Scott and Sarah, thank you. We're so glad your tour brought you to Menlo Park.

I'll post our reviews of both books over the weekend. And here are videos of both Scott and Sarah talking about their books, Leviathan and The Demon's Lexicon.