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Sorry the blog's been so fallow lately. Too busy. But I had to come up for air a moment and share this, the Korean edition of Billy Twitter and His Blue Whale Problem.



I haven't had a lot of translations of my books, and there's always something cool about Asian editions, isn't there? Maybe it's just me.

Anyway, I hear from Mac Barnett that the title actually translates as IF YOU DON'T LISTEN TO MOM'S WORDS, I'LL BRING A LONG WHITE MUSTACHE WHALE TO YOU. Isn't that nice? Tells you everything you need to know. I look forward to collecting other Korean editions such as THE CAT IN THE HAT IS THE CAUSE OF AND THE SOLUTION TO ALL OUR DIFFICULTIES and maybe WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS THERE IS POETRY AND ALSO A FUTURE SITE FOR FURTHER SIDEWALK DEVELOPMENT.

Does anyone out there read Korean? I'm curious which part of that cover is my name.

Toy Story 4

Finally got around to seeing Toy Story 3 yesterday. Whatta movie.

I have a pitch for Toy Story 4 now: the toys go on a quest to confront God and demand to know why they were given sentience and free will when it can only cause them pain.

Goblins

A couple minor characters from my next novel, which is written but not illustrated yet. It'll be the first volume of a new middle-grade trilogy (by which I mean it's for middle-grade readers, not that it's a mediocre, utility-grade trilogy), and will be in stores some time in the winter.

These guys are goblins, and are described in the manuscript thusly:

They were each perhaps just a half-foot taller than Mick, with milky-white bodies but startling red faces. Red as if they’d been dipped to their chins in blood and the stuff had dripped some foreign alphabet all over their necks and collars. From top to bottom they had: bald pates, all the worst features of both toad and bat, little wool grey suit jackets with ties, short pants, and chicken feet.

So I just wanted to point out that I was right.

A little while back I worried publicly about my review of The Ring of Solomon, which I decided to advance over Sugar Changed the World in this year's School Library Journal Battle of the Books. I just learned that TRoS went all the way to win the title!

So, that's comforting. Here's my review, in case you're interested.

BRONZE.

Say! The cover design for my book Fat Vampire won third place in the Children's Trade category at the 25th Annual New York Book Show!

Though I didn't photograph it myself (it was photographed by Dan Saelinger) and I'm only partially responsible for the finished design (Carla Weise collaborated), the whole thing was based on my sketch. So.