I know I'm going to regret this...

My "author photo" is sadly out of date—by which I mean it makes me look younger than I really am—so yesterday my brother Joe took some new photos. Some of them are pretty good, and I'm still undecided as to which I will use, "officially." Here is one I will definitely NOT be using. Except for here. Just this once.

Rest in Peace

Last week, Peter D. Sieruta passed away. Peter was an author, a librarian, a collector of children's books, a critic, a teacher, and no doubt many other things. His death was sudden and unexpected. He was (I think) about sixty years old. Those who knew him, whether personally or through his work, feel his absence deeply.

I did not "know" Peter other than through his writings and a couple of emails, but I have thought of little else for the past several days. Peter was a remarkable man—a man who loved his work profoundly and without reservation. Check out his blog, and you'll see what I mean. I wish that we could all leave this world is such a state of grace.

My most recent interaction with Peter was on the occasion of The Big Crunch winning the L.A. Times Book Prize. Peter was one of the three judges. I was pleased to win, of course, but an even greater honor, last month, was to have my career profiled by such and astute and thoughtful critic.

I wish I'd had the opportunity to meet Peter Sieruta in person. Still, I am glad to have known him through his writings.

When I heard of Peter's death, I spent a couple of hours rereading his blog, and I became curious as to what this amazing man looked like. Was he tall, short, large, small, brown, white, bald, bushy, or...? I know it doesn't matter, but I craved some sort of visual connection. So I googled him, which is how we connect these days, and found hundreds of pictures of book covers and dozens of pictures of authors—but not one photo of Peter himself. Not even on his Facebook page.

That was frustrating, but I quickly saw that the absence of Peter's image on the web, after years of him being extremely active online, was a part of who he was. It had to be intentional. Peter D. Sieruta was all about the books and authors and things and ideas he loved, not about the flesh and blood shell in which he spent his days. A lesson for us all.

The picture above is his Facebook profile image. Naturally, it is a detail from the cover of a book he loved.

Blade, Boys...Crunch

My final bookstore event of the season (and possibly the year) will be this Friday, May 11, 7:00 p.m., at The Red Balloon. I'll be doing a short reading (not sure from what yet), a Q&A, a book-signing, a cookie-eating, and a wine-drinking.

The Red Balloon Bookshop is located on Grand Avenue in St. Paul.* They have a fabulous selection of books for young readers, and a smattering of adult titles as well. Events are always well-attended, by which I mean, All Your Cool Friends Will Be There. Please come if you can! The author will only be reading and talking for a few minutes, then you get to hang out with your friends and wash down your cookies with some first class literary plonk.

The featured books will be my new sci-fi novel, THE OBSIDIAN BLADE, and my almost new romantic comedy, WHAT BOYS REALLY WANT.

We will also have copies of THE BIG CRUNCH, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for YA Literature.

*The Red Balloon is one of many good reasons for book lovers to love St. Paul. While the number of bookstores has been declining nationwide, the doughty booksellers of St. Paul have been busy. Just down the street and around the corner from the Red Balloon, Garrison Keillor's Common Good Books has moved into a new and larger space across from Macalester College, and their old space will soon be hosting a new bookstore under new ownership. Last night, at Common Good Books, I had the pleasure of hearing Julie Schumacher read from her new (and very funny) YA novel, THE UNBEARABLE BOOK CLUB FOR UNSINKABLE GIRLS. I bet they'll have copies of that at Red Balloon too! Also, I heard a rumor that Julie herself might be on hand to crash my party. I hope so!

A Scene from The Big Crunch: the Chinese Translation

In The Big Crunch, June gets a summer job with a bank piecing together thousands of checks that were mistakenly shredded. The scene was inspired by an actual event in (I think) Minneapolis back in the 1970s.

Now, bank workers in China are performing their own version of the task. A woman with a mental disorder tore up 50,000 bank notes. Here, they are being pieced back together.

It seems to me it would be simpler to find all the right hand corners of the notes and count them, but according to the article, they are attempting to reconstruct every bill.

My Fabulous Weekend, and More

If you follow such things, you may have heard that The Big Crunch won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature.

Friday night I was at the awards ceremony on the USC campus, sitting in an auditorium with about 700 book people, waiting for the category winners to be announced. All of the finalists in the Young Adult category were sitting in the same row. To my left was Libba Bray (Beauty Queens) and her husband Barry Goldblatt. To my right sat David Levithan (who edited three of the finalists), Maggie Stiefvater (The Scorpio Races), Mal Peet (LIfe: An Exploded Diagram), and Patrick Ness (A Monster Calls). Libba, Maggie, Mal, and Patrick are four of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure to meet, and David is, needless to say, a remarkable editor.

The program was entertaining and well-organized, but of course I was sunk deep in my own hopes and fears, wondering if the things that were happening in my chest were signs of an incipient cardiac event.

When The Big Crunch was announced as the winner, all the tension drained out of me, to be replaced with a shaky, hallucinogenic calm that was equally weird but much more pleasant. I don't remember exactly what I said in my acceptance speech, but it came off okay. If the L.A. Times Book Prize people put up a video of the ceremony, I'll post a link.

The next two days at the L.A. Times Festival of Books was fabulous! I did a panel with Libba Bray, moderated by Angelina Benedetti. Angie proved to be an expert moderator, and Libba is smart, funny, and altogether good company. The panel was a blast. Afterward, Libba's husband, Barry, came up to me and said, "I'm glad to see there wasn't any chemistry between you and my wife!" Barry is almost as funny as Libba.

I arrived home at 1 am Sunday night. On Monday, Mary and I were having a quiet, relaxing dinner at home when the doorbell rang. It was our good friends Ilene and Zoran, who said they were in the neighborhood and decided to pop in. Great! Ilene and Zoran are welcome anytime. A few minutes later, the doorbell rang again. Another pop-in! My brother Jim and his wife Dorothy. What a coincidence, I thought. Then the doorbell rang a third time I began to get suspicious (duh!).

It was my first surprise party, organized by the amazing (and sneaky) Mary Logue. Needless to say, it was a very fun evening. Here's a pic of my mom. Ain't she cute?

And look at what my friend Mary Altman gave me!

Stalkers Welcome

I'm leaving Thursday for the Los Angeles Times Book Festival—four days of BOOKS, WRITERS, and BOOK PEOPLE. This should be fun!

For those of you in the LA area, here is my schedule of events:

Thursday, April 19

 7:00 PM — "this is teen" LIVE event with Libba Bray, Pete Hautman, and Siobhan Vivian, moderated by David Levithan

at Mrs. Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop, 1030 Bonita Avenue, LaVerne, CA 91750  (909) 599-4558

Friday, April 20

7:30 PM — Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Ceremony

Bovard Auditorium, USC Campus

The Big Crunch is a finalist in the Young People's Literature category!

Saturday, April 21,

12:00 PM — PANEL: “Young Adult Friction: Writing YA”

Robin Benway, Libba Bray and Pete Hautman

Moderator: Angelina Benedetti (Award winning teen librarian and reviewer) Followed by Book Signing with other panelists

3:00 PM-4:00 PM — “this is teen” signing at Diesel/Scholastic Booth (Booth # 975)

Pete Hautman/The Big Crunch and What Boys Really Want

Libba Bray/Beauty Queens

Maggie Stiefvater/The Shiver Trilogy and The Scorpio Races

Sunday, April 22

11:00 AM — Book signing at Once Upon a Time booth (Booth # TK)

12:30PM — Book signing at Diesel/Scholastic booth (Booth # 975)

Hope to see you there!

Everybody's an Art Critic

Let me be clear about one thing: I am big fan of Peter F. Hamilton. I've read all of his novels and most of his short fiction. Peter Hamilton writes astonishing space opera; his imagination is prodigious, and although his writing is not exactly of "literary quality," his ideas, storytelling, pacing, and fearlessness place him among the very best sci-fi writers out there.

I am also a fan of Tor Books—I think I must be among their best customers.

And I try to avoid ridiculing anyone in the book business because 1) it is bad business to do so, and 2) it's just plain mean.

But...I have to say that the cover of the 1999 mass market edition of The Nano Flower (now out of print) is possibly the worst book cover I have ever seen. It is so awful that I can't stop looking at it. So dreadfully silly that I feel compelled to share it with you.  Here ya go:

Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!

This Saturday, April 14, at 1:00 pm, I will be signing books (and possibly chatting, reading, or whatever seems appropriate) at Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis. The featured books will be The Obsidian Blade and What Boys Really Want. We will also have copies of Minnesota Book Award finalist The Big Crunch on hand. Please come if you can!


Wild Rumpus, for those of you who have not experienced this fabulous shop, is one of the two best children's bookstores in the known universe. (The other best kidlit bookstore in the universe is The Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, where I'll be doing a signing on May 11th.)

Last year it was strawberry jam.

After the Wild Rumpus event, I'll be heading to St. Paul for the Minnesota Book Awards Gala, where I will attempt to win another statue. What flavor will the statue be this year? I do not know, but I covet it all the same. 

If I don't win, it'll still be a great evening.  The other finalists in the Young People's Literature category—The Books of Elsewhere: Spellbound by Jacqueline West, The Tanglewood Terror by Kurtis Scaletta, and With or Without You by Brian Farrey—all deserve to win, too.


The event is nearly sold out, but as of yesterday they had a few tickets left.

Minicon and Fritatta

I had a great time at Minicon yesterday—got to hang out with a lot of people I hadn't seen in a long time, and gawp at a lot of geeky cool stuff.  I came THAT close to buying a Green Lantern cape. The guy selling them pointed out that the velcro neck fastener made it safe for kids. I said, "Kids?" Like I wouldn't totally wear it to Easter mass. If I ever went to such a thing.

Ooh! Ooh! I met George R. R. Martin!  In fact, there were about a dozen versions of him stalking the convention halls. Of course, they all claimed to be somebody else entirely, but I don't believe any of them. I wanted to photograph them all, but by the time I thought to do it, most of them had retired for the evening, presumably to work on Book Six of ASoI&F.

On the menu for Easter brunch: Ramp and potato fritatta, with a bacon and ramp garnish.

Magic Doors: Sci-fi or Fantasy?

Like most authors, I am pathologically fascinated by reviews of my books: moments of joy interspersed with episodes of tooth-gnashing fury and bewilderment. I've been enjoying the reviews of The Obsidian Blade (one week to pub date!) both because they have been generally positive, and because the reactions have been so wildly mixed. Two contradictory points of view that have come up repeatedly in some of the early blog reviews are (I am paraphrasing): "I don't usually like science fiction, but I loved this book," and "Suitable only for hard-core science fiction fans."

From Geeks are Sexy

Is The Obsidian Blade science fiction? That depends on how you define science fiction. It is a time-travel story, and the means of traveling through time are not explicitly defended or explained. Conservative sci-fi definers ask that their sci-fi have a basis in real science, and the "real science" of time-travel is both sketchy and enormously technical. The Obsidian Blade is more of a "portal fantasy"—a subset of the sci-fi/fantasy uber-genre. Portal fantasies, or magic door stories, can tilt toward fantasy (Neil Gaiman's Coraline), or in the sci-fi direction (H.G. Wells' The Time Machine), or be all over the map (Doctor Who).

The Obsidian Blade is more Wellsian than Gaimanian, but it does not have the hard core sci-fi chops of, say, Gregory Benford or Connie Willis or Robert Charles Wilson. While it uses both language and tropes familiar to sci-fi readers, it is not about the science, and therefore exists in the nebulous space between hardcore sci-fi and the more pliable worlds of fantasy. In fact, that is true of nearly all time-travel fiction.

The Obsidian Blade will be officially released next Tuesday (April 10), and then we will find out how the non-professional reading public receives it. I am anticipating the gamut.

The Hunger Games

Yesterday afternoon I went to see “The Hunger Games.” I had enjoyed the novels tremendously, and just about every review of the movie version has been positive, so I had high hopes.

The theater was populated by two dozen humans and three glowing smartphones. (Why do they hold the phones UP while using them? You’d think they would be discrete enough to put them in their laps. Snort, grumble, gnash. I am becoming Andy Rooney.) Shortly after the film started I moved to one of the front rows so that I wouldn’t be irritated by the texting activities. I got a sore neck, but was able to immerse myself in the Games without further distractions.

Rock-face Peeta

First, let me say that I did not get up and walk down the hall to watch “John Carter of Mars,” which was my fallback strategy if THG didn’t work out. “The Hunger Games” is eminently watchable. Jennifer Lawrence did a fabulous job—almost (but not quite) as good as she did in “Winter’s Bone.” The film’s pacing is breathtaking (like the book), and the movie is, technically, nearly flawless. As a movieization of a novel, it succeeds admirably.

But as a movie? Well, it reminded me of the first two Harry Potter movies. It reminded me of the first Twilight movie. It felt soulless, like a very well done paint-by-numbers version of the Mona Lisa. I left the theater feeling sated, but mildly dissatisfied.

I’m wondering how well it worked for people who never read the book.

Note: I am not always disappointed by movie adaptations of books that I have read. A couple of months ago I saw the U.S. movie version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and I loved it. I also liked “No Country for Old Men,” and the third Harry Potter movie.

Elves (or UPS) Left a Present at My Door

There are several rewarding moments that come in the book-making process. The moment when you know your early scribblings are sufficient to build a novel upon. The completion of the first draft. The completion of drafts two, three, four, and so on. The acceptance letter. The check. The first look at cover art. The first advance reading copy. The first positive pre-publication reviews. The first bound book. Showing it to your dog. And then, always momentous, a big brown box appears on the front steps. What could it be?

Official pub date for The Obsidian Blade is April 10, two weeks from the date of this post. On April 14, I'll be doing my first signing, at Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis. There will be chickens and other beasts in attendance. Then, that evening, I'll be at the Minnesota Book Awards Gala in St. Paul, where I get to hang out with my fellow book award finalists and a bunch of other book lovers.

If you can't make it to either of those events, I'll be at St. Paul's The Red Balloon Bookshop on Friday, May 11th.

Hole in the Sky Book Trailer

Hole in the Sky is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel set in the near future, after a virulent strain of influenza has wiped out more than 99% of the human race. Michelle Lane, the organizer of Cavalcade of Authors (scroll down to see my post about the fabulous event) and her husband made this cool video about the book. Thanks, Michelle!

Where the Heck is Lake Agassiz?

Until a few months ago, I had no idea. But thanks to Minnesota's Legacy Amendment, I have become educated. Ten thousand years ago Lake Agassiz covered an area about the size of Hudson Bay (that's BIG) reaching from Minnesota to the Northwest Territories. It's present-day remnants include the still-enormous Lake Winnipeg and several tens of thousands of smaller lakes.

What does that have to do with the Legacy Amendment? Well, the amendment has, among other things, designated funding so that our library systems can bring authors into the smaller outstate libraries and schools. So this week I'll be visiting six libraries in the Lake Agassiz Regional Library System. 

If you live anywhere near what used to be the southern shore of Lake Agassiz, please stop by one of the libraries and say hello! I'll be in Ada, Moorhead, Hawley, Crookston, Climax, and Hendrum.  All the visits will take place on Wednesday and Thursday. For details on times, etc., click here.

I'm Back

You didn't know I was gone? Well, I was. I've been in Washington, in the Tri-Cities of Pasco, Kennewick, and Richland, on the Columbia River. I was one of twelve(!) authors presenting to 650(!) teens at the Cavalcade of Authors.

It was an amazing experience, and probably the most well-organized events I've ever experienced. The Cavalcade, founded by the redoubtable Michelle Lane and co-chaired by Leslie Olds, has been going and growing for several years now, and this was the biggest one yet. Next year, I am told, it'll be even bigger!

It was wonderful meeting all the other authors—Frank Beddor, Royce Buckingham, Janet Lee Carey, Alex Flinn, Colleen Houck, Blake Nelson, Ridley Pearson, Alexander Gordon Smith, Vivian Vande Velde, Robin Wasserman, and Jim Whiting. But the best part was meeting the teens, every one of whom had read books by at least four of the authors. They kept us on our toes with many thoughtful, interesting, and often startling questions.

Here's a photo I shot from the stage during the closing Q&A session.

Editing in the Digital Age

I know that some of you are writers who have not yet been published, so I thought you might be interested in what line editing looks like circa 2012.  Here I have reproduced the first two pages of the What Boys Really Want manuscript with line edits from David Levithan, and my responses. I love working this way, with lots of room for comments and changes. Sometimes a manuscript will go through several rounds of changes, with all of the interactions recorded.

(Click to enlarge)

Desperately Seeking Affirmation, I Discover...

...yet another starred review for The Obsidian Blade.

Well I'll Be a Blue-Nosed Gopher!

The Big Crunch is a finalist for the 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

I will be attending the ceremony in L.A. on April 20th, and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books to follow.


The other finalists in the Young Adult category are formidable writers all: Libba Bray, Patrick Ness, Mal Peet, and Maggie Stiefvater.

Yikes.

Peanuts, Dots, and Stars

When I was in the third grade, my teacher, Mrs. Siegel, graded papers by giving them a shiny gold stick-on star, a red stick-on dot, or a frowning peanut head drawn in black grease pencil. Since then, I have suffered from a crippling fear of peanuts and a pathological reverence for five-pointed stars. She was a great teacher. She made an impression.

Pre-publication reviews of The Obsidian Blade—from Kirkus and Booklist—arrived today. They both gave me stars.

Vivid imagination and deft storytelling...sure-handed plotting and crisp prose, equally adept with flashes of snarky wit... —Kirkus Reviews

This fast-paced opener to the Klaatu Diskos trilogy will satiate adventure seekers, and the refined brain candy will be delicious to more thoughtful readers. If anything, there simply isn’t enough of everything, but it’s hard to fault a book for being too tantalizing. —Booklist

Having a good day so far. I've posted the full reviews on my website.

I just learned that Leo Siegel, who was the principal of Cedar Manor Elementary School, just died at age 91. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Eldora Siegel.

Not a Kids' Book

The first book I sold, way back in the 1990s, was the funny, profane, and violent tale of 73-year-old Axel Speeter, a taco vendor at the Minnesota State Fair. The Mortal Nuts was named a New York Times Notable Book in 1996. It has been out of print for several years now.

I finally got around to making The Mortal Nuts available as an ebook.  So far, it's just on Kindle. To celebrate, I'm running a Valentine's Day Special, which runs through April May 15th. I guess that makes it a Valentine's/St. Patricks/April Fools/Tax Day/Cinco de Mayo Special, and that makes it very special indeed! How special is it? Why, you could buy this book in a dollar store.

99¢ through April May 15th

So far, it's only available in Kindle format. On April May 16th, the price will go up to $2.99 (still a cheap date). By then I should have it ready for the Nook, and on Smashwords, and I'll be ready to publish my next blast-from-the-past ebook: Short Money.