Oh, By the Way...

If you're in the Decatur/Atlanta, GA area, please come see me at the Decatur Book Festival this weekend. I'll be reading and signing and trying not to feel outclassed by all the other authors there.

New Glasses

In her classes, without glasses, she could barely see the board.
With her specs she checks the teachers, sees their frightened, frozen features...

Oh. So that's why, when she raised her hand, Medusa was ignored.

From Frankenstein Takes the Cake, in stores now.

A Message From Adam Rex

We The Robots

Are you reading Chris Harding's We the Robots yet? Why not? Are you dumb?

NOTE: Not for young children.

Amazon.com–eerily insightful, or really stupid?

Lately I've noticed that the Amazon page for my new book includes this claim:

To be clear, Amazon is willing to offer you a special deal if you buy them together. My funny rhyming kid's book about monsters and their problems, and Alan Moore's dense, dystopian graphic novel about doomsday anxiety and the nature of heroism.

This is hardly the first time Amazon has surprised me with the odd bit of non sequitur. They've always had a sort of free-associative, Dadaist organizational structure there. One might have expected that Frankenstein Takes the Cake would be "better together" with Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, its companion book, but...the thing is, I LOVE Watchmen. I've probably read it twenty times. I've finally sort of gently bullied my wife into reading it, in anticipation of the upcoming movie. Is Amazon being absurdly random about their pairings...or are they looking deeply into the souls of each and every one of us? Does Frankenstein Takes the Cake and Watchmen share some unexpected connection, like the one people are always trying to tell you exists between Pink Floyd and The Wizard of OZ?

When the audiobook of Frankenstein and the DVD of Watchmen come out, I'm totally playing them at the same time.

SCBWI Summer Conference

I was asked to be a member of the faculty of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Summer Conference that took place in LA a week ago. I had a really good time, and met all kinds of great people, and saw some great folks I don't get to see often enough. But I never bring a camera to these sorts of things, so the picture that Lisa Yee sent me of the two of us together will have to do. Please understand that I have my arm around Lisa here, but in a larger sense also have my arm around all the good people of the SCBWI, and around LA in general.
Read a much better wrap-up of the conference on Lisa's blog.

I also got to play with Lisa's Peepy:

BOOK! Shirt!

New product in the shop, for those who asked.

Headless HowTo

Jules over at the blog Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast just posted a loose sort of step-by-step of how I created this image from my new book, Frankenstein Takes the Cake. Why don't you pop over for a look?

Link

Headless Horseblog

Another image from Frankenstein Takes the Cake, in stores now. This is from the Headless Horseman's blog, Off the Top of My Head.

SHOP!

Folks have already been noticing the links to my NEW SHOP at right, or on my home page. There you'll find t-shirts, a bumper sticker, and the poster shown above. I just got a copy of it in the mail today, and I couldn't be happier with the quality.
I hope you'll have a look around, and maybe suggest other designs in which you might be interested.

The Best Man of Frankenstein Makes a Trip to the Buffet

Another one from the new book, Frankenstein Takes the Cake.

I've been getting reports from people who've already found the book on shelves, and Amazon is already shipping it, so I'm going to go ahead and say AVAILABLE NOW! NOW! There.
In keeping with the monster spirit, I recently purchased myself a Monstera Deliciosa, or Monster fruit. Here's a picture of it. These things are delicious. They taste like banana Sprite. But I can't eat this one until the scales fall off or it'll be poisonous. MMMMMMMonstera!

More Advertising...

...from Frankenstein Takes the Cake, in stores this September.

Witch Weight-Loss Program

...and with only one bucket of water a day!

From Frankenstein Takes the Cake, in stores this September.

Frankenstein Takes the Cake

I think it's about time to start previewing stuff from my September book, Frankenstein Takes the Cake. Details about it have already been trickling onto the web, including some nice reviews here and here.
So this blog is far from the only place where you can see the finished cover, but first thing's first. I also posted a color sketch of same previously. Oh, and happy 4th, if you're American.

BEA Memories

'Bout time I posted some pictures from my visit to Book Expo last month in LA. This was hands down the most fun I've ever had at a signing. No offense to the guy last year in the gorilla suit.

I include the first photo, in which I am relaxing in a rotating restaurant/bar with the Gorgeous Ladies of Harcourt (GLOH), only to document that I'm drinking something called a Gummitini that has actual Gummi bears drowned at the bottom, silently evanescing in their boozy grave.

The remaining photos document the signing itself, at which Frankenstein and his Bride renewed their vows and had cake. It was all, of course, to commemorate the debut of my new book, Frankenstein Takes the Cake, which will be in stores in September.

Stickyfish Explained

I received a really amazing email about a month ago from one Tom Speers. Speers bought a copy of The True Meaning of Smekday recently, liked it, and passed it around his office. These photos are from this office, where Tom says some Boov and Smekday-related, non HR-approved materials have been appearing lately, wrenching old Dilbert cartoons free of their pushpins and subverting the natural order of things.
One of the photos shows Tom's own rules for Stickyfish, a sport I only mentioned in passing in my book:

STICKYFISH
The Game Of Boov Champions

Stickyfish is the most popular of Boovish games.

It is played by teams of thirty-six Boov. The total number of teams playing in any one game is determined by the Referee (known as the Eeeurrrp), who drops a nine-sided cube (known as the Zoool) in the middle of the playing field when no one is watching. The number which comes up on the Zoool (One through Nine) determines the number of Stickyfish teams which will play -- unless the number is Zero, in which case all nine potential teams declare themselves victorious and everyone goes for pizza. If the number One comes up, all nine potential teams are declared to have lost, and everyone goes for pizza.

The goal is to carry the Stickyfish (known as The Stickyfish) across the goal line of any opposing team, during Nine periods of play (known collectively as Krooom), lasting approximately twelve minutes each, with a break after the Fifth Kroo. Each time the Stickyfish crosses a goal line counts as One Point. Having three or more teams on the field results in spirited games and multiple scores; the winner, naturally, is the team who scores the highest number of points.

The break period is sometimes referred to as "The Fifth Krooo Arglbargl", as during this pause, individual Stickyfish team members congregate, hold conversations and discussions about world events, take photos, trade Boovish Stickyfish player cards, consult the Touching Tree Oracle, order snacks, and so forth; the noise resulting from these activities sounds like "Argle-bargle Argle-bargle".

The Stickyfish is an actual Boovish fish, approximately 24 to 36 inches in length, capable of holding it's breath for up to four hours. It spends the "The Fifth Krooo Arglbargl" resting in a tub of partially desalinated Gatorade. During the game, there are few written rules governing how a team may carry the Stickyfish across an opponent's goal line, except that tradition dictates it must be physically carried by a member of a team -- it cannot be tossed, thrown, launched, de-materialized or teleported.

While the Boov sometimes prefer a direct approach, there is plentiful opportunity in Stickyfish for subterfuge and misdirection -- ranging from shouting, "Hey! You are to be looking up there!" to distract an opposing player, all the way to full musical theatre productions, or attempts to sell an entire opposing team on the idea of term life insurance.

One team, the legendary BIGFIELD FIGHTING KOOBISH used the insurance sales tactic so well with a rival team that they scored repeated goals by carrying the Stickyfish across the goal, backing up, then crossing again, while the other team was busy filling out medical history forms . The final score was 691 To 0, a score never since equalled in Stickyfish league play.

It should be noted that Stickyfish Day is now an official Candian holiday.

You're Cordially Invited...

...to the wedding of Frankenstein and his Bride. Where? Book Expo America 2008, at the Harcourt Children's Books booth (#1400). When? This Friday, May 30th, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Will there be cake? THERE WILL BE CAKE.

I will also be signing my new picture book, Frankenstein Takes the Cake.

Gordon!

Had a great time at the Philadelphia Book Festival last weekend. Thanks to everyone who came to see me. And Brian Biggs and I got our picture taken with Sesame Street's Roscoe Orman! As Brian said right before this picture was taken, Sesame Street had a lot to do with people our age getting into this business.

Has he aged a day since I watched the show in the seventies? I don't think he has.

Hulk at the Tropicana, 1965

EDIT: It's been pointed out to me that readers may not realize I made this short myself. So, for what it's worth, I made this short myself. There is no one else to blame.

Magic Carpet, R.I.P.

I just learned via BoingBoing that beloved Tucson institution Magic Carpet Golf closed for good recently. I'm in Philly right now, but I lived in Tucson for ten years, and never failed to appreciate Magic Carpet's funny/scary magnificence while driving by. Even in the nineties it was a thing of beauty that was nonetheless cracking up and falling apart, like Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.
I guess this is the problem with a lot of beloved institutions: in my ten years in Tucson, I think I only played golf there twice. Like the ice cream truck or reruns of Are You Being Served?, I always expected it to be there even if I never wanted to partake.
There's a beautiful flickr set here, taken after it closed.

Post Post

I was itching to post something, so here's something–a book cover, copyright Wizards of the Coast.

TRIVIA CHALLENGE! Name the monsters in the background. Extra credit for both the Type number and the common name. The winner will receive the admiration that always accompanies knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons ephemera.

Philadelphia Book Festival

I'll be stopping by the Philadelphia Book Festival on Saturday the 17th at 3:00 for some reading and signing. Come see me in the Story Hour Room of the Main Branch of the Free Library at 19th and Vine.
It'll be the day after my 35th birthday, so I'll finally be constitutionally eligible to kick off my campaign for the Presidency. So feel free to ask me to shake your hand or kiss your baby.
I'm the kind of candidate who thinks that hard-working Americans shouldn't have to read a whole blog post without getting to see a picture of a cuttlefish stuck to a puppet head, so here you go:

The Norton Award

So my novel, The True Meaning of Smekday (not pictured), was nominated for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy. That award was presented last night, and it was presented to J.K.Rowling. And I knew it would be, what with the final book of the Harry Potter series in contention. Now Ms. Rowling can squeeze the Norton into the vast undermountain storage facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania where she keeps all her awards and money.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share the statement that would have been read at the awards banquet if I had won. But I didn't.

TO BE READ AT THE NEBULA/NORTON
AWARDS BANQUET, IN THE EVENT THAT
ADAM REX WINS THE NORTON AWARD:

Wow. Really? Gosh, I should have come. As it happens, I’m currently at home in Philadelphia, feverishly working on the illustrations for a picture book that’s six months past due. And I really didn’t think I was going to win.

But now I wish I’d attended, of course. I don’t even know who’s reading this. Does he read well? Maybe it’s a she. And I don’t know what the venue in which you’re all crowded looks like. If nobody minds, I’m going to go ahead and imagine that it looks like that scene at the Galactic Senate in Star Wars Episode 1 where everybody’s riding those hockey pucks.

Thank you to everyone who has read The True Meaning of Smekday, particularly the members of the nominating and selection committees. And thank you to my fellow nominees, and to all kids’ authors who strive to keep the bar high.

And…if we could all imagine now that that “get-off-the-stage” music is starting to play…I make my exit, waving graciously, seated in the plush throne of a tricked-out hockey puck pulled by tiny unicorns or whatever.

Thank You.

So There's a Primary Here Tomorrow...

...but otherwise I'm currently working late into the night in my wife's office, here at the University of Pennsylvania. And one of Marie's colleagues tries to head home via the rear doors of the Physics building, only to be escorted back inside by the Secret Service. Seems he has to exit another way. So this is when Marie and I stick our heads outside for the first time in four hours, and learn that Hillary, Bill, and Chelsea Clinton are all not more than 200 feet away from us, speaking to a large crowd in the basketball arena.

Four Cats

From left to right: Jarrett Krosoczka, Baker, Me, and Taylor at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference in Dallas.