Kurtis Scaletta's Blog

Question nobody asks but should: Who reads your blog?

The truth is threefold, and all three folds involve a bit of a confession. The first is that I have a site tracking software in action so kinda know how many visitors I get and what they do here, where they are and where they came from, etc. If you read the site through an aggregator, then I don't get to track you, but otherwise I know all. Except who you actually are, of course. Just that your ISP is Comcast and you use Firefox for PC Windows

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As you can see, some magician has shrunk me down to where I am half the size of a garden flower. Fortunately, the evil doer also shrunk my house so every thing is still to scale.

I hope I don't get eaten by a crow or bullied by squirrels!

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When Cthulhu calls, you pick up the phone — in this case, to take up the challenge to participate in Project Cthulhu, and pen a pastiche to the master of the monster story, H.P. Lovecraft. Also, to give Max the sequel he requested. And so it gives me unflinching horror to bring you….

At the Moundville of Madness
(The Unauthorized Sequel to Mudville, by the Author of Mudville)

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I got two emails yesterday. The first is from Max, age 10, who has a suggestion:

Hello I have an idea for the sequel of Mudville it could be be called Snowville and it takes place 25 years after where Mudville ends. And Roy's grandchildren play Sinister Bend. Please think about it.

Thanks for the excellent idea, Max!

The other is from Mike, who I think is 14 or so. Mike links to a blog entry of his where he writes:

I've been wanting to write a Cthulhu mythos story for years—some dark and debased tal

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Jodi is giving away a book to a lucky commenter, all books by Minnesotans, including Mudville and some other excellent offerings from the Land O'Lakes.

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I hope not to plummet, but there are three events coming in the autumn where you can meet me, have a book signed, or (for the one in Cable) hear me talk about writing and publishing. Here they are:

1. The Minnesota SCBWI conference on September 12 at the University of Minnesota Continuing Education and Conference Center in St. Paul, Minnesota . Find out more here: http://minnesota.scbwi.org

2. The Northwoods Children's Book conference at the Telemark Resort in Cable, Wisconsin. Find out more here

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One reason I'll never be John Steinbeck or somebody like that is because, for me, there are basically two kinds of trees: pine trees, and the other kind. Birds come in "big" and "small." (I could probably ID a parrot, but the opportunity rarely presents itself without it being obvious, like, there's a sign that says "African Grey Parrot (Zambia)" or somebody just told you "that's Aesop, my pet parrot.") To me, there are sunflowers, and there's red flowers, and bluish flowers, and purplish ones t

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Books! My buddy Steve Brezenoff is giving a collection of his Field Trip Mysteries for the best field trip story. Here's where you can enter.

Brainteasers! If you'd rather do puzzles, check out the growing collection here by the "Read My Lips" project. Puzzles like these are a basic staple of children's book clubs. The "Ballin' with Books" puzzle finally gives me a way to search for my own name without using Google.

Bowling! Lastly but not leastly, remember that Sunday is Pins for Pets. If you liv

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Question nobody asks but should: What are the bestest songs EVAR?
The problem with any kind of "bestest" list is that it's hard to sort things out, and also, to a large degree, completely unnecessary. And yet we all love to do it, and hence everything from the Oscars to ALA Most Notable Books to "Bestest [...:]

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To be fair, sometimes people do ask what the last book I read is, but they never put it in scare quotes. The last book I "read" I listened to, at work today, and is called Neil Armstrong is My Uncle (and Other Lies Muscleman McGinty Told Me) by Nan Marino.
It's a fun, poignant book, [...:]

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