A big HEY! and a high five to the sixth graders of Gaspar de Portola Middle School. Thanks so much for a fun morning. You have the most fantastic ideas for stories, and that humdinger you told about Mrs. Weiner’s accidental lock-out was hilarious. I’m glad you were all able to escape the classroom; thank […]
New gig: San Diego Children’s Book Festival, May 4, 2008
San Diego now has its own children’s book festival! The free event, held on May 4, 2008, will be a dynamic, day-long family festival that invites children – from tots through teens – to experience the magic of books and meet some of the country’s top authors and illustrators. The Festival promotes literacy and benefits […]
Writing with My Feet
I wrote my second novel, BIG MOUTH, in five months, during my triplets’ naps. The boys were just 12 – 17 months old in that period, and the darlings obliged my budding writing career by sticking to two naps a day, lasting a minimum of 1.5 hours each. Then the selfish little critters dropped their […]
On the Fritz
Having computer problems is like trying to walk a marathon with only one shoe–you can do it, but it hurts. Right now, I have some kind of USB cable problem that prevents me from downloading photos from my camera. That’s why I’m posting an old photo of my son at the keyboard. Perhaps the fact […]
New Gig: Southern California Writers Association
This week I spoke with a class of third graders about the joy of stories–writing them, reading them, loving them. Next month I’ll be speaking to a group of professional writers aged twenty to seventy about the business side of publishing. In between I’ll be writing about poker. I have the best job, don’t I?
Shout Out to Ms. Staberg’s Class!
Thanks, gang, for all your great questions and for being such wonderful hosts. I hope you turn all those clever ideas into stories. Happy reading!
Big Mouth to be an e-book!
Word just came that BIG MOUTH will be published as an e-book. What fun! Delacorte/Random House says the e-book edition should be out toward the end of July, a month after the hardcover hits stores. So folks with an e-book reader will be able to download it come summer. I’ll post more as I know […]
Honk If You Think Pepsi Kicks Butt
HONK IF YOU HATE ME may have a few laughs at the expense of the fast food world, but in reality the fast food world needs no help from me when it comes to inciting giggles. Here are some stand-out fast food moments from the past year: McDonald’s, Part I: “Salt lands McDonald’s employee in […]
Honk If You Love Holes in the Ground
I pulled Monalisa Kent, the reluctant star of my novel HONK IF YOU HATE ME, out of a hole in the ground. An eight-inch-round hole, to be precise. One of the first things I ponder when I read a new book is the inspiration for the story. What sparked that initial idea, or image, or […]
Honk If You Love Men in Tights
HONK IF YOU HATE ME is a book about secret identities, about the wish to be greater than who you are, about the need to feel like you’re more than the schlup that the outside world sees. Kind of puts you in the mind of superheroes, doesn’t it? Think Superman. Think Batman. Think Wonder Woman. […]
Shout out to Hillsdale Middle School
Hey, all you Huskies in Ms. Walther’s and Ms. Morrison’s classes. Thanks for two great days of book talk, hot dog talk, tattoo talk, and all the other stuff we yakked about. And a special thanks to all of you who shared your stories with me. Looks like there are some future novelists at Hillsdale. […]
“Odd” Jobs
I was a professional video game player. No lie. Someone actually paid me to play video games five days a week, eight hours a day, for nine months. My mission? To figure out the secret codes and hidden levels in the hottest games and then work them into one-page summaries of the games’ instruction booklets. […]
Honk If You Love Futons
Futons. What a fabulous word. Go on, say it: Fuuuutonnnns. Can you hear it? Doesn’t your mouth love making those sounds? Ain’t it just plain fun? And isn’t it completely spectacular that there is a person in this world who could, in all seriousness, give a piece of furniture such a delightfully quirky name? I […]
Pickin’ Bones
I’ve got a bone to pick with New Line Cinema. There I was, so excited to be playing on their “Golden Compass” movie website and getting “matched” with my personal daemon that I wrote a blog post telling the world about the great site (okay, so maybe the whole world doesn’t read my blog, but […]
I Need an Extra Head … Or Seven
The late 19th century ushered in some big things for the USA: the concept of Manifest Destiny, the abolition of slavery, the opening of the U.S.’s first hotel in Saratoga Springs…important stuff like that. The 1880s, in particular, were quite interesting: Americans cheered the publication of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Treasure Island, they […]
