Tempe Event

By the way, I'll be at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, AZ this Saturday (the 3rd) at 2pm, talking about COLD CEREAL. The book, not the cereal.

Head Games

“You!” he barked as he dismounted.  “Stay there!  Keep those hands where I can see them!”

 The normal-sized man with the tiny wrinkled head raised his arms.  “These hands?” he asked.

 The rider was all in black, with some thick and undoubtedly bullet-proof vest and an oily black gun slung over his shoulders.  He reached back to touch this gun as if drawing some shallow sense of strength and security from it, which of course he was.  He also had a small stone around his neck on a tether, a coldstone, and this was busily giving off purple sparks.  But in the glare of his headlamp the rider hadn’t noticed.

This old man was strangely built, like he hadn’t enough head but had entirely too much neck.  “The park isn’t safe tonight,” the rider told him.  “You should return to your home.”

“Mind turnin’ that off, lad?” the old man asked.

“Sorry,” said the rider, and he reached up to switch off the pink light of the helmet.

“Yeh have somethin’ in your eye,” the old man added.

“I…huh?” 

The rider pulled the goggles up and over his helmet.  And then he winced when he saw that, while the old man was still standing before him, his head had just now disappeared.

(From Cold Cereal)

Cold Cereal Available In Stores

I mean, obviously.  But my new book, Cold Cereal, is also now available.  I'm visiting schools in the midwest at the moment and couldn't make the time to really mark the occasion of its official on sale date earlier today, as I was too busy teaching children about the concept of the Uncanny Valley vis á vis pictures like the one to the right.

But Cold Cereal is available!  Now!  I was super flattered today to see that its audiobook performer, Oliver Wyman, called it the best kid's book he's ever read.  So.

Here are some Mick paper dolls for your amusement.  If there's enough interest I'll put high-res versions up somewhere and people can use 'em for bookmarks.

Appearance at Anderson's

ILLINOIS PEOPLE: I'll be reading and signing at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville this Wednesday from 7-8 PM. If you'd rather I not come to your state, now's the time to say something.

Outtake

With the publication of Chloe and the Lion approaching, I thought I'd share a video of author Mac Barnett I made for the trailer but which the publisher did not eventually use.  Waste not, want not.