FAT VAMPIRE Trailer Two–Vampire Hunters

FAT VAMPIRE Trailer One

Starring Mac Barnett and featuring Jon Korn. Directed by Shawn Harris. Written by Mac, Jon, and Shawn.

Clock Without a Face Update

Remember Clock Without a Face? If you don't, click here to see my previous posts about the book. Click here to visit the official website, and read stories about real treasure hunters who studied the book and were rewarded with emeralds. It occurred to me that I never posted my portrait of the world's greatest sleuth, Roy Dodge, so there he is on the left. Click to make bigger.

What I'm really excited about, however, is listening to authors Mac Barnett and Eli Horowitz talk about the book this morning on NPR's Weekend Edition. Listen to the story here. You'll also hear from one eighteen-year-old in southern Wisconsin who describes her successful search for the number eight.

There are still three numbers left in the ground! Including the twelve, which contains as many emeralds as all the other numbers combined! Emeralds! Okay, that's all.

Interview!

I couldn't think of a better title than that. Pretty good though, right? It's punchy, it says what it is.

Anyway, the anonymous editor of Editorial Anonymous conducted an interview with me recently and it's up right now on the blog. Go find out what I was talking about when I said "my own amateurish blindfolded plate-spinning might actually be a legitimate means to an end."

They Grow Up So Fast

Previously, I presented the pigeon nesting on my porch, and later the one-week-old results of her efforts. Here they are again, now no older than three weeks.

Mugwort Jon Smelly, and Bert Lane Rasputin.


And here they are again, a day later and with a different camera.


I also shot this of the parents, Penelope Van der Pigeon and Andrew Toodlewinks de la Xavier, who are now nesting on the other side of the porch.
Thank you all for the naming help.

BEA Comic

This is a bit of a last-minute reminder to those of you actually attending Book Expo America this week, But I'm in New York at the moment and my internet access has been spotty. I sign my next novel, Fat Vampire, today at ten o'clock. As evidenced in this little comic I created from an excerpt of a longer interview with Edward Nawotka for Publishing Perspectives. Hopefully the longer interview will be available soon–that web address they told me to include at the bottom of the comic doesn't seem to work.
Click to enlarge.

Nice Interview with Mac Barnett Over at SLJ

Link.

Where do Baby Pigeons Come From? They Come From My Porch.

Previously, I posted about a pigeon nesting on my porch. She produced a couple eggs, but frankly I didn't follow up on it because they turned out to be duds. I'm sure that's the correct term an ornithologist would use–duds. But the pigeon mother and father rebuilt the nest and tried again, and yesterday I noticed mother was absent for the first time in weeks. So I stood up on the porch railing and saw this:

I know they look huge compared to that egg on the left (another dud?), but a little internet research tells me they're not much more than a week old. I probably shouldn't get attached, but I would like y'all's help in naming them. Thank you.

Guys Read: Funny Business

San Diego People

I'll be at The Yellow Book Road this Thursday, the 6th, at 10am.

7200 Parkway Dr #118
La Mesa, CA 91942
619-463-4900

Bookie Woogie

I had a really fun time video-chatting with the Z-Kids from the blog Bookie Woogie the other day; and their dad, Aaron Zenz, just completed the harrowing task of transcribing our meandering conversation and posting it as an interview. So please go check out what Isaac, Gracie, Lily, and I (and Aaron) had to say to each other. illustration above of zombies at the zoo by Lily Zenz, age 7, based on the zombies from Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich by Adam Rex, age 36.

And the Rest...

Like the theme song from the first season of Gilligan's Island, I'm just going to cram all the other players from the book The Clock Without a Face into one final post. Seriously, you need to check out the link there if you haven't already. Find out all about this weird book, and let me know when you've uncovered one of the very real treasures that have been buried in twelve different spots across the United States of America.

Actually, I may be taking it for granted that all the treasures are in the U.S. One of them could be in Guam or Ontario for all I know. But I'm pretty sure they're in the U.S.

Anyway, for your consideration: the paranoiac,

the puzzle ladies,

the superfan,

the doormen,

the hamster-man,

the mime,

and the artist (encased in plaster).

Where Koobish Come From

First, a little background: in my novel, The True Meaning of Smekday, there is a kind of alien livestock called the koobish. Here are a couple of them in a photo with one of the story's protagonists, J.Lo:

I'd like to explain how the koobish came to be, and to do that I first have to tell you about a very bad tattoo I got back in 1991.

I was eighteen, and away at college, and four of us decided on a whim to get tattoos. What, you may be thinking, could possibly go wrong. If memory serves I believe Liza got a Tazmanian Devil. Kim got some sort of dolphin/rainbow/Earth combo. I can't remember what Brad got, but based on these previous choices I'm going to go ahead and guess it was the Chinese character for "stupid."

I had begun writing a bit at this point, and I fancied myself something of a humorist, so I got a jester on my ankle. Like so:

I was not drunk.

I don't think I'm giving away too much at this point in the story if I tell you I no longer have this tattoo, but this is how it looked to the best of my recollection. Like Bea Arthur. I didn't even draw the original design myself. I picked it off the parlor wall. I was an art student AND I PICKED MY TATTOO OFF THE PARLOR WALL.

Anyway, years passed. I quickly grew to hate the tattoo, but it was on my ankle, and I almost always wear socks, and literally months could pass where I didn't think about it at all. It was so inconspicuous that I dated my wife for a whole summer before she noticed it was there. We managed to pull through as a couple.

Eventually I realized that while I would never pay to have it removed, it might be worth one or two hundred bucks to get it covered up with something else. So I designed this little fellow:

Here it is filled in:

And actually on my ankle:

I liked it, and I named it the koobish. And it occurred to me that I'd like it even better if it had some actual significance, so I wrote it into the novel I was working on.

Ta da.

Sometimes people ask me why I write, and sometimes I answer, "To correct the mistakes of the past." And then they nod sagely, and pretend to know what I'm talking about, and I reach down to pull up my sock.

Clock Without a Face 7

The clown, who lives one floor below the kids.

Clock Without a Face 6

Got a little behind on these. Here are the kids who live one floor below the future-man. Nobody seems to know what happened to their parents, but they don't mind. They think they're doing just fine.

Be sure to check out the website for Clock Without a Face. Join the hunt! Part of the treasure could practically be in your back yard.

Residents of Kansas City!

I will be a participant in this week's DNA Lit Fest. Please click that thing for more information. Also participating are Uri Shulevitz, Brian Selznick, Kate Klise, Patricia Polacco, and Judy Sierra, so give me a break, just go already.

If you don't want me coming and messing up your city now's the time to say something.

Ada Lovelace Day, Again

I can't believe it's been a whole year since the last Ada Lovelace Day. Phil Hilliker reminded me this morning, so I've decided to rerun my post from last year.

As Cory Doctorow puts it, Ada Lovelace Day is "the day that bloggers all over the world post about women in science as part of a global day of awareness and appreciation for the (often underreported) role that women play in the sciences." I love women in science (or at least one particular woman in science), and I'm a huge fan of awareness, so I'm blogging about my wife, Marie.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, she's an astrophysicist. That's her, second from the left, in a photo by Gaelen Marsden. Marie is here depicted in Antarctica in 2006, where she and her team built a telescope and launched it on a balloon to the edge of space to search the infrared spectrum for signs of star formation in the early universe. She was there for two months. Why yes, as a matter of fact she is cooler than your wife. That's nice of you to mention it.

Clock Without a Face 5

Once again I post a portrait from a forthcoming treasure-hunt book, The Clock Without a Face. Here's the future-man, who lives one floor below the hunter.

Today I have more to report, however, as I've noticed the official website seems to be back up again. Check it out, because there's a wealth of information about this weird little book, and about twelve emerald-studded numbers that have been hidden across this great country. These numbers will be yours for the keeping, if you find them first. Really.

Also, a great long-form review of the book up on the Fuse #8 blog.

There's a Pigeon Nesting on my Porch.

Clock Without a Face 4

Another portrait from The Clock Without a Face. Here's the hunter, who lives a floor below the hoarder.

An Open Letter

Dear Itawamba County School Board:

Forbidding Constance McMillen to attend prom with her girlfriend is bigotry. But it's unsurprising, run-of-the-mill bigotry, and I'll admit it's not what moved me to write.

To cancel prom rather than risk Constance's and her girlfriend's inclusion is petty and unconscionable, knowing (as anyone would) that it would lead to blame, harassment, and threats aimed at the girls.

But thank goodness that, due to your actions, there haven't been any "distractions" this year. That's what you were trying to avoid, right?

Take Care,
Adam Rex

The Clock Without a Face 3

Yet another portrait from that forthcoming book I've been talking about. This is the hoarder, who lives one floor below the alchemist.

Once again, this book is both a mystery and a treasure hunt. Readers will find clues inside that will lead them to twelve different bejeweled numbers hidden across the United States.

More information soon.

The Clock Without a Face 2

Here's another portrait from that forthcoming book I mentioned Sunday. This is the modern-day alchemist, who lives one floor below the billionaire.

Once again, this book is both a mystery and a treasure hunt. Readers will find clues inside that will lead them to twelve different bejeweled numbers hidden across the United States.

Someone asked on my last post if there was a way to get additional information. There will be soon, but the official website for the book hasn't launched yet. I'll pass along everything relevant when I can.

Tucson Festival of Books

If you live in or around Tucson, or if your car recently broke down here, I hope you'll join me this weekend on the campus of the University of Arizona for the second annual Tucson Festival of Books. Follow that link for a lot of information. Here, though, is my schedule:

Saturday the 13th:

10am–I'll be introducing the awards presentation for the Flash Fiction Contest on the Story Telling Stage in front of the Psychology building.

2-2:45pm–I'll be signing books at the Kids' Center/Simon & Schuster booth. No, I don't know where that is, either. Somewhere on the mall.

3-3:30–I'll be in the Teen Author's Lounge, which I understand is some kind of tent. I may be reading or drawing or just answering questions–it'll depend on who shows up.

4-5pm–I'll be on a panel with Jon Scieszka, Mac Barnett, and Chris Gall in the Kiva Auditorium in the College of Education building. We're apparently going to talk about being funny. To paraphrase Elvis Costello, talking about being funny is like dancing about architecture. So come watch us dance in the Kiva Auditorium in the College of Education building.

5-5:30–I'll be autographing some more in the designated area.

I've been to a lot of book festivals, and the one Tucson put on last year was among the best I've attended. Let's all get out there and show everyone what kind of town we live in.

The Clock Without a Face

Look at this thing. This unlikely-looking thing is a book, a mystery book titled The Clock Without a Face. And within this book lies the clues to uncover twelve bejeweled numbers which have been hidden across the United States of America. I'm not kidding about this.

The Clock Without a Face will be available this May. It features staggering environmental drawings by Scott Teplin, and those drawings are the stars of this book. But I'm happy to say that I provided portraits of its cast of characters, and I'm going to start sharing these today. Below is the billionaire–the emerald-studded numbers were stolen right off the face of his once-valuable clock.