Ned Vizzini's Blog, page 2

Events for THE OTHER NORMALS

Thanks everyone who has stepped up and bought my new book The Other Normals!



Here are my scheduled events for October. I hope to see you this month!

Goodreads Live Video Chat with Ned Vizzini

when: Saturday, 10/06/12
2:00pm EST | 1:00pm CST | 12:00 noon MST | 11:00am PST
where: on Goodreads.com!
From Goodreads: "Join us on Saturday, October 6 at 2pm EST / 11am PST for a live video chat with Ned Vizzini. We'll be talking about his new book The Other Normals, as well as his previous work, and his life as a writer. Don't miss it!"
To join the chat, please RSVP here. You must RSVP by 15 minutes before the chat. This event is FREE and open to the public.
The Other Normals at Los Angeles' Renowned Book Soup

when: Wednesday, 10/10/12
7:00pm
where: Book Soup
8818 West Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90069
I'm doing my first live reading from a hardcover Other Normals at BOOK SOUP! Copies will be available for purchase. Afterward: Q&A. I'm not having a party for this book -- so this is the party!
This event is FREE and open to the public. [more]
THE OTHER NORMALS in-booth signing at New York Comic Con

when: Saturday, 10/13/12
12:00 noon
where: Jacob Javits Convention Center
655 West 34th Street New York, NY 10001
I'm signing copies of The Other Normals at booth #1005 (the HarperCollins booth).
Please note: this is my only NY-area appearance for The Other Normals!
Later in the day I am doing a presentation and signing with Chris Columbus for my next book project, the fantasy adventure series I am co-writing with Chris, House of Secrets!
Ticket required for entry.
Weekend Reading: The Other Normals at Mysterious Galaxy Redondo Beach!

when: Saturday, 10/20/12
2:30pm
where: Mysterious Galaxy Redondo Beach
2810 Artesia Boulevard, Redondo Beach, CA 90278
I'm thrilled to come to Southern California's premiere science-fiction and fantasy bookseller, Mysterious Galaxy, for a rare WEEKEND READING. I'll present The Other Normals and sign whatever you bring me (that I've written). I'll also do Q&A.
This event is at the Redondo Beach store, not the one in SD.
This event is FREE and open to the public.
LA Teen Author Reading Night

when: Thursday, 10/25/12
6:30pm
where: Los Angeles Public Library - Central Branch
630 West 5th Street Los Angeles, CA 90071
From LAPL: "A reading and Q&A panel with young adult authors Carrie Arcos (Out of Reach), Jennifer Bosworth (Struck), Laura Ellen (Blind Spot), Hilary Graham (Reunited), Nancy Holder (On Fire), Gretchen McNeil (Ten), and Ned Vizzini (The Other Normals). Hosted by Cecil Castellucci (The Year of the Beasts)."
This event is FREE and open to the public.

Thank you for your support and I hope to see you soon!

The Other Normals: Choose Your Venture

I have a new book out called The Other Normals !

Well, it's not technically out yet, not as I write this, but it will be out in a week, so I'm starting to just consider it out and deal with the consequences. It's like turning 29. It's best just to assume that you're 30 and move on.

I have three giveaways I'm doing for the book that involve prizes for YOU:

#TheOtherNormals Camp Mortification Hashtag Contest

The Other Normals is about summer camp (as well as swords -- and growing up) and it's based in part on my summer camp experience. I had some bad times in summer camp and have horrible stories like this one:



But I know I'm not the only one. So for this contest:

Tweet your most mortifying summer camp memory @ned_vizzini and tag it #TheOtherNormals (the memory can be in the form of a picture, a vlog, a tweet, a blog, etc.)
The 10 best (worst) memories will get a SIGNED HARDCOVER of The Other Normals with a personal response to your memory from me.

Good luck!

The Other Normals Choose Your Own Adventure Twitter Game

Kaitlin Pike has created an amazing Other Normals Twitter Game that plays like the old Choose Your Own Adventure books!



Here's how it works:

Tweet "@OthrNrml start" to start playing.
The game will interact with you through your "@ Connect" tab. Follow the prompts.
As with life, most paths end in death! But if you manage to beat the game, take a screenshot and tell me and you will get a FREE SIGNED BOOK.

Credit for the coding of the game goes to:

Kaitlin Pike
@kcpike
http://kcpike.com/

She wrote about its construction here. Good luck!

The Just-Tweet-"#TheOtherNormals" And-I'll-Send-You-A-Bookmark Contest

This is the easiest of all! Just send out a tweet tagged #TheOtherNormals and then tell me about it (through Twitter, Facebook, or my contact page) and I will send you a free signed handsome Other Normals bookmark:



Quantities are somewhat limited. My time is very limited because I am going to Hawaii for the filming of Last Resort , the new show in ABC that I am writing for! But I will get your your bookmark.

When It's Kind of a Funny Story came out, I started signing it "Rock on, be strong" because I thought it sounded mellifluous.



I'm signing The Other Normals "Choose your venture." Because I've been lucky enough to choose mine, and I don't think I'm particularly smart or worthy.

Enjoy the book!

The Other Normals / Beyond The Wall Banner Giveaway Contest

Okay so we are a month away from the release of my next book The Other Normals!



I am running a contest to promote the book.

Call it the Other Normals / Beyond the Wall Banner Giveaway Contest (because that's easy to say). To enter:

Take this gif banner code and put it anywhere on your blog:
<a href="http://ned-vizzini.livejournal.com/18...http://nedvizzini.com/writing/#ton"><img src="http://ned-vizzini.livejournal.com/18...http://nedvizzini.com/images/banners/Other_Normals_300x250.gif"></a>
Comment on this blog entry with a link to the blog where you put the banner
You will win a signed copy of Beyond The Wall, the anthology I contributed to about the Game of Thrones books:


...But it'll look even better than that, because I will personalize it for you and spell your name right and everything.
Copies are limited so please enter now to guarantee your prize!
As always with these things, I pay shipping because I'm like that.


Thanks for entering! There's lots of other stuff going on but I'm not going to be able to talk about it until next month because book promo waits for no human.

When Did You Last Fear for Your Life?

UPDATE: I will be at San Diego Comic-Con this year on Sunday, July 15th!

If you are coming, please say hi at one of my SDCC events.


And now...


The Sullivan Canyon Bike Path Story

A few months ago, my wife was getting her hair cut and I was watching our baby. In the salon they had magazines, and one of them was Los Angeles's "Bike" issue. "Well," I thought, "as a person who lives in LA and rides a bike, this is perfect."

The magazine had suggested journeys for different skill levels. I eyed "Mandeville Fire Road" for "Intermediate" (because obviously I'm not "Beginner"). I asked the lady at the salon if I could rip it out of the magazine.

"Of course you can," she said. "Nobody ever asks."


Whenever I rip things out of magazines I feel compelled to follow up on them. So the Fire Road clipping stayed tacked in my office, taunting me, as I got a new job on the amazing show Last Resort (coming to ABC this fall!) with offices that are too far from my house to bike to.

On July 1, I decided to do it.

I didn't care that I hadn't been on a bike in two months. I didn't care that the trail was "Intermediate." I didn't care that it was 82 degrees. I didn't care that I forgot to bring water.



I immediately made a wrong turn. Instead of Mandeville Fire Road I got on Sullivan Fire Road. Sullivan Fire Road isn't paved. It's a road that the LA Fire Department uses when they need to drive to brush fires. But that's not so bad. What's bad are these tempting paths that branch off from the main road.



I mean, if you're biking on a gravel road, and a trail opens up that looks like it leads to the summit of a mountain, it's tough to stay on the road.

I should've stayed on the road.

Every time I got off it, the trail quickly became a BMX NES exercise. They had mounds of dirt to do tricks off of. I hadn't been on my bike on months, and I didn't have monster-truck tires (although I do have Kevlar tires -- KEVLAR), and I basically was falling down a mountain at 27.9 mph (my GPS says so) in fear of my life. At one point I flew of the bike like Superman. Somehow all I did was get a bug bite.



Here is how my time was allotted on the bike trip:

bicylcing - 33%
walking my bike up hills - 33%
EEEEEEEEEE NOOOOOOOOOO - 34%

I planned on making a 10-mile trip. After five my heart started beating really fast and I had to lie down. I kept thinking about Quentin Tarantino's editor who died of heatstroke in a Hollywood canyon. Or about snapping my ankle and getting eaten by mountain lions. Or about falling into the canyon.

In the end, I lived, and I came out with photos of the trip and a GPS report (elevation loss, 1,418 ft?!). That's the thing about Los Angeles: you have all the comforts of a major metropolitan area, but minutes away is feral, natural death.



San Diego Comic-Con 2012: HUMOR IN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY / Sunday, July 15th

I'm coming to Comic-Con on July 15th at 10:00am for the panel "HUMOR IN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY."

The panel features me, Richard Kadrey, Doyce Testerman, Rob Reid, Gini Koch, Nathan Long, and Nick Hurwitch. It's moderated by John Scalzi.

The panel takes place in Room 25ABC.

Following the panel, at 11:15am, I will be signing and giving away 50 advance copies of my forthcoming book The Other Normals in the autographing area.



Later in the day, from 2pm to 3pm, I will sign and give away 50 more advance copies of The Other Normals at the HarperCollins suite of booths: Booths 1017, 1019 & 1021.

Copies of Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire signed by me will be available at Booth 4300 courtesy Smart Pop Books.

These events are open to the public but require a Comic-Con badge for entry. More info here. Hope to see you there!

What's In Your Head When You Wake Up

I had a nightmare about missing an important plane flight and ruining my career as a result. I have these dreams every so often; they're the adult version of the dreams when you show up for history class but you don't have your history project (and you're naked). But this time I woke up with a few lines of poetry in my head:



Maybe someday I'll use that in an epic poem about failure.



In the meantime, thankfully, things in my non-dream-world career are going well. I'm writing for the new ABC drama Last Resort which premieres in fall (Thu. nights, 8pm)!


[click to watch trailer]

If you're interested in following the process as it unfolds, follow the Last Resort writers' room on Twitter.



And my next book The Other Normals comes out on September 25, 2012! If you can't wait, enter this Goodreads contest to get a galley:



Okay, I gotta get to work!

The Story of Jon-Erik Hexum

I love Jerry Bruckheimer's tweets. There are just two topics:

Bruckheimer's 2013 mega-production The Lone Ranger
the LA Kings hockey team (e.g. "GO @LAKings GO!")

Recently, an item from category #1 brought an unexpected conversation into my home, the kind of conversation I love because it introduces me to forgotten culture and makes me go, "Damn!" Here's the tweet:



Of course, that's Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer as Tonto and The Lone Ranger in the forthcoming film. The picture sparked some controversy as to whether Depp is part-Native American, as he claims, but never mind that -- as soon as my wife saw it, she said:

"That guy looks like Jon-Erik Hexum!"

I had never heard of Jon-Erik Hexum, but here he is:



He was the star of a 1982-3 television series called Voyagers! that had basically the same plot as Quantum Leap, except instead of just a guy traveling through time, it was a guy (Hexum playing someone named -- no joke -- "Phineas Bogg") and a kid. Here are the credits:



You look at Hexum in that video, and in pictures like this --



-- and you wonder what happened to him. The guy doesn't just look like Armie Hammer. He looks like Ryan Phillippe. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A big star. Apparently someone said about him:

"If that boy has a single thought in his head, then there is no God."

(Curiously, "someone" is the only credited source for this quote.)

Well, here's what happened to Hexum, excerpted from Findadeath - Celebrity Deaths:

"On the morning of Friday October 12th, 1984, Jon left his home in Burbank, to report to work. Jon was making a show called Cover Up, being filmed at Twentieth Century Fox in Century City. He wasn't earning the big bucks yet.

He arrived on the Fox lot. During the day, he was inevitably to film a scene lying in bed - probably shirtless, on Stage 18. He was playing around with a .44 Magnum prop gun, as you do. At around 5:15 p.m. he put the pistol (according to witnesses, it was loaded with three empty cartridges and two blanks) up to his right temple. Just before he pulled the trigger he smiled, and said, "Let's see if I got myself with this one." He was apparently unaware that at close range, a blank can cause great damage. And damage it was. The explosion drove a quarter-sized piece of his skull far into his brain. Turns out that the blank was packed with paper inside, and it went straight into his temple and made a bone chip lodge in his brain. Killed by paper.

A witness account: "John smiled and pulled the trigger. There was a loud bang and a bright flash, then black smoke. Jon screamed in agony, then looked kind of amazed as he slumped back onto the bed with blood streaming from a severe head wound. It was horrible." [more]

Crazy. Unbelievable. Among the most ridiculous deaths in entertainment, with Clifford Brown and Paul Stojanovich. But at least Hexum isn't forgotten. He has a Fan Club & Archive that plays the theme from Voyagers! when you visit.

And what about that kid who starred with him? His name is Meeno Peluce. He's alive and well. A photographer now, in Los Angeles. Follow him @meenophoto.


Links

Thanks to Figment for posting my picks of some of their best writing:



Thanks to reader Laura Kraft for sending me this kitten video. I have been trying to find this show Too Cute! Kittens on Animal Planet for me and my wife to watch and this will tide us over: "Le Petite Kitten".

I got a message from Sam Mistry of St. Paul, MN this month that was pretty amazing. Sam wrote an essay about how It's Kind of a Funny Story changed his life and won first place in the MN Charter School Essay Contest. Congratulations Sam!



Sam got lots of press for his accomplishment. Here goes:

"Books still change lives, students say - TwinCities.com"
"Ruben Rosario: Legislators, this is what real courage looks like - TwinCities.com"
"Young Minn. writers honored at state capitol | kare11.com"



Until next month. Thanks for reading!

"Game of Thrones" Parenting Lessons + Appearing at LA Times Festival of Books

This essay for Salon was a year in the making, believe it or not: when you count contacting the editor, pitching something that doesn't work, drafting the piece, editing, and re-editing, these things often are. So please check out the whole thing. You don't have to know Game of Thrones to like it; one of the fun things about it was that the editor hadn't seen the show, so it appeals to people who haven't.



In other news, there's a lot going on but the thing that I would love for you to keep in mind (please) is that on September 25, 2012, my next book The Other Normals will be published.



There's a Goodreads contest going on now where you can win an advance copy.



Also, I don't want to get too geeky about this, but Permanent Midnight is one of my favorite books of all time, so I am excited to announce this event:


where: Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California, 699 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90089
when: Saturday, April 21 at 10:30am

I will be on a panel with April Smith and Jerry Stahl!

The "Page and Screen" panel will be moderated by LA Times Arts + Entertinment writer Steven Zeitchik. You will need a ticket to enter the panel. Tickets are available here. You might want to get some in advance. I will be signing books after the panel.

Uuuuuuurrh.com

Want a free book? Signed book giveaways for March!



Back in 2003, Monroe Mann (author of The Theatrical Juggernaut, the only self-help book I know of that advises its readers to max out their credit cards to get famous) told me about a website called Myspace.

He said that it was the next big thing, especially for bands. He said you could post pictures and make connections there, like on Friendster but less terrible.


Friendster in 2012

I forgot all about Myspace for two years, but in 2005 it went supernova. News Corp bought it for $580M. The New York Times asked "Do You Myspace?" If you were online at this time you may remember the sudden flip into inevitability -- Myspace went from being something no one had heard of to something everyone expected you to have, seemingly in an instant.

I joined. I had to. I had a book to promote.



A year later, I faced the same situation with Facebook. What people were calling "the new Myspace" had gone from an Ivy-League status tool to an expected avenue of digital access -- overnight. I was reminded of Jeff Goldbum's iMac ad where he perfectly crystallized the embarassment of admitting, "I don't have an email."



I held off on Facebook as long as I could, telling people I was too successful for it (nice try), but then I had a librarian tell me that her teen clientele was confused by my absence from Facebook. Not curious or surprised: confused. You don't want your potential readers to be confused.

So I joined. I had to. I had a book to promote (even if it was the same book).



I thought I could avoid Twitter. It seemed like a time sink that just aped the funcitonality of Facebook. By not being on it, I could be more productive, more mysterious, less aware of how embarrassingly unpopular I really am... and also get off the treadmill that I recognized by the time of Twitter's rise.


me

As a person who writes books, I know it's vital to connect with my readers. But social networking moves faster than writing. The moment I join a new connection platform, another one takes its place as the one I'm expected to be on. In the next few years, I think it'll be Tumblr, and then maybe Google+ (or maybe not), and then Zibbo.com, and Plinque.com...

And soon enough it will be Uuuuuuurrh.com, where you can post musings direectly from your squip.

Maybe then the treadmill will stop. Until then, I started a Twitter! I'm @ned_vizzini. If you'd like to follow me, I'd be super-grateful. Please don't mistake my compaints about format switching with my humble admiration for the people who let me do what I do.

I had to join, see. I had a book to promote. At least now it's a new book!


Comimg September 25, 2012!




In addition to The Other Normals, I have another book coming out this year:



Beyond the Wall is an essay collection from Smart Pop Books and I'm one of the contributors; I have a piece about the genre wars, the history of fantasy, and George R. R. Martin's place in both. If you're a fan of Game Of Thrones you're going to want to pick this up.

I'm looking for blogs and websites to help spread the word about Beyond the Wall. If you know of any, you can score yourself one of the SIGNED goodies below, FREE of charge (AND I pay shipping).

Signed Prize Books
Triumph of The Walking Dead: Robert Kirkman's Zombie Epic on Page and Screen



Smart Pop Anthology I contributed to in November 2011.

Through the Wardrobe: Your Favorite Authors on C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia



Smart Pop Anthology I contributed to in 2008. Two copies available.

Cool - Und was ist mit Liebe?



German edition of Be More Chill, published in paperback in 2006. The literal translation of the title is "Cool -- And What About Love?"

Mi Ammazzo, Per Il Resto Tutto Ok



Italian edition of It's Kind of a Funny Story. The literal translation of the title is somewhat striking: "Kill me, for the Rest Everything's OK".

The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy



Smart Pop Anthology I contributed to in April 2011, currently burning up on Amazon.


Okay, so the rules are simple: comment on this blog entry with a suggestion of a website to contact about Beyond the Wall, and I'll send you a free signed book of your choice.

It should be a website that could review the book when it comes out in June 2012 or interview me about it, or just plug it and pass the word on about its existence. So I'm looking for Game of Thrones fan sites, but also fantasy geek sites, RPG sites, and maybe even an M:TG site. (Although I can't visit those. They're worse than Twitter.)

Thanks for your help!

Things I'm Glad I Didn't Say to Ron Perlman

Heads up: two big events in February!


Things I'm Glad I Didn't Say to Ron Perlman When I Saw Him Walking His Dog in the West Village

[image error]

"Hellboyyyyyyye!"
- - - -
"Are they making a Hellboy 3?"
- - - -
"Do you want me to throw that baggie away for you?"
- - - -
"Wow, you're smaller in person."
- - - -
"You and David Attenborough are my two biggest man-crushes right now."

- - - -
"I have this thing I've been working on?"
- - - -
"I kind of thought your dog would be bigger."
- - - -
"Are you going to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D? Because you were in that Beauty and the Beast TV show? Remember?"


- - - -
[fist-bump]
- - - -
"Pardon me, do you know where Ground Zero is?"
- - - -
"'Well, like my daddy said right before he killed my mom: if you want anything done right, you gotta do it yourself.' From Blade 2? Remember?"


- - - -
"Oh can my wife please take a picture of us please?"
- - - -
"I love your work."
- - - -
"Do you follow Kurt Sutter's Twitter?"
- - - -
"Love you, man." (I did actually say this.)



Literary Death Match LA, Ep. 6!



I'm honored to compete in long-running global phenomenon Literary Death Match on Wednesday, February 22nd at 8:15pm in Los Angeles.

The crowd IS a factor in these competitive reading events so please come and support if you are in the area! From the site:

The evening will feature a fierce foursome of scribes, including Ned Vizzini (author of It's Kind of a Funny Story and Be More Chill), Steve Abee (author of the upcoming Johnny Future and The Bus: Cosmic Ejaculations of The Daily Mind in Transit), short-fictionist Antonia Crane (representing SLAKE journal) and debut novelist Michelle Haimoff (author of These Days Are Ours).

This event is open to the public. Advance tickets available here for $7 ($10 at the door). Be there!

Location: Busby's East, 5364 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90036

Barnes & Noble Teen Writing Workshop



The B&N Teen Writing Workshop meets on the last Friday of the month to address a specific writing skill (e.g. "dialogue," "the anti-hero") through discussion and writing prompts.

Our second workshop of 2012 takes place Friday, February 24th at 5:00pm in Glendale, CA.

This is a FREE event open to middle- and high-school students. Barnes & Noble will provide refreshments. Student work will be featured on the online journal Give Us Money.

Location: 210 Americana Way (2nd floor event area), Glendale, CA 91210

The Words of Winter

I love Post-It flags. I admit it. Those skinny little Post-Its for annotating books? I'm terrible. If I see a display like this, my afternoon is over:



Over the years I've gotten some nifty designer ones --


[$10 at Bob's Your Uncle]

-- but I'll use whatever I can get my hands on. I'll even dog-ear pages if there aren't any Post-Its around. If I'm writing a review, I'll flag favorite passages and critical facts. (You'd be surprised how easy it is to finish a novel and be like, "How old was Scout again?") If I'm reading a book for pleasure, because I'm a dad, I limit myself to marking vocabulary words.

Steven King says in On Writing that with vocabulary, a writer should "use the first word that comes to mind, if it is appropriate and colorful" (emphasis his). It's good advice, but some people take it too far and decide they always have to use "said" instead of "scoffed" (or "smiled") and they can never use a Words-With-Friends word such as "ort."

If, like my father, you can pull off ort ("a morsel left at a meal" -- Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged), you belong to druidic order deserving of great veneration.

One person in this order is George R. R. Martin.


[Arya Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire by Jordan Saia,
who is doing the map for The Other Normals ]

Martin is the author behind Game of Thrones, for anyone who doesn't know, and I would've had a lot less fun reading his latest A Dance with Dragons if my wife hadn't scored me an online membership to Webster's Unabridged. If you haven't read GRRM, you probably didn't know that English has 65,000 words for horse, including:


garron
Scot & Irish : an old broken-down worn-out horse
destrier
a large powerful horse used as a war-horse by a medieval knight
palfrey
especially : a light easy-gaited horse suitable for a lady


Or you may require polishing-up on your armor knowledge:


greave
[image error]
armor for the leg below the knee -- usually used in plural
gorget
[image error]
a piece of armor defending the throat
vambrace
[image error]
a piece of medieval armor designed to protect the forearm [smoking glance not included]


And then there are the words that only Martin (and Brian Jacques, R.I.P.) could pull off:


mews
plural but usually singular in construction, chiefly Britain : stables
chivvy
to harass, annoy, or tease especially with persistence and by petty vexations and often for a specific purpose
croft
chiefly Britain : a small farmhold usually of 5 to 10 acres that is worked by a tenant
seneschal
a bailiff, steward, or majordomo of a great medieval lord or king representing the lord
torque
a usually metal collar or neck chain worn by the ancient Gauls, Germans, and Britons
limn
to outline in clear sharp detail : delineate
flense
to strip (as a whale or seal) of blubber or skin


Recently GRRM posted an chapter of The Winds of Winter, the next book in his saga, and there was "garron", front and center. Recognizing it made me feel like part of the druidic order too.

But I might need an OED to read Winds of Winter -- Martin is starting to use words that break Webster's Unabridged. From Dance with Dragons, p. 549:

[T]he baggage train followed: mules, horses, oxen, a mile of wayns and carts laden with food...

Okay, I understand what it is in context, but does anyone know what a wayn is? I can't even find it on Google.