Nicholas Ponticello's Blog, page 6
March 18, 2023
First REAL Publication Ever!
I finally got something published! And it wasn’t published by me this time. Adelaide Magazine published my essay about the Gable Mansion on their website and in the their recent print volume. My new year’s goal was to get published by someone else, and I did it!
The Gable Mansion is a legendary Victorian manor in my hometown of Woodland, California. If you have ever lived in Woodland, then you know exactly what I am talking about. Pictured below (photo credit: Mike Payne), the Gable Mansion is a California historical landmark. Looks can be deceiving, though. In my essay, I describe what the Gable Mansion looks like on the inside. And it’s nothing like what you’d expect.
Please take a moment to read my essay here and comment on whether you liked the piece.
November 2, 2022
SCBWI-L.A. Writers Day Contest: And the Winners Are…
SCROLL TO THE END!
by Brenda Scott Royce, Contest Coordinator
A highlight of Writers Day every year is the announcement of the winners of the writing contest. It’s not only exciting for the lucky ones called to the stage—hearing what the judges had to say about the stand-out manuscripts can also be instructive and inspiring for the rest of us. While cheering on our fellow writers, we just may hear something that sparks an idea for a revision or a whole new story.
Please join us in celebrating the 2022 Writers Day Contest runners-up and winners, who were announced at the SCBWI-L.A./CenCal Writers Day event on Saturday, October 23. Excerpts from the judges’ comments are included in the list of honorees below. If you’d like to contact any of the winners to request their manuscript or discuss publication, please let us know!
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October 21, 2022
“Cuckoo Cuckoo” by Nicholas Ponticello
Cuckoo Cuckoo
Nicholas Ponticello
Independently Published (2022)
ISBN: 978-0990824725
Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (10/2022)
Charles Abernathy Vanderough, also known as Charlie B, has just graduated from the Price-Harold School for Boys. What makes this school distinctive is that is a private school for clones. Charlie had a donor, rather than a father. Expecting to graduate with great wealth, like his classmates, Charlie is dismayed when he discovers that his donor, Charlie A, wanted him to have a different life than one of great wealth and privilege, and left him barely enough to support himself for a year. Charlie A wanted to help Charlie B escape committing suicide, as he and his predecessor had done. He felt a meaningful life could help prevent this. By meaningful, he meant a life where you have to earn a living. Charlie B is furious! So, he decides to go to Charlie…
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October 18, 2022
NEW PICTURE BOOK RELEASE!
Good morning, friends! This month I have a surprise new release that is available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback editions now. It is my first picture book, called A Pig Named Pan about a pig who loves to read.
Pan is a pig with many identities: singer, pirate, explorer. Pan can be whatever he wants to be with the right book. This exciting story for early readers was illustrated entirely by an artificial intelligence program called DALL·E. Check out the colorful renderings that accompany a text full of warmth and encouragement. Join Pan on his many adventures and discover just how liberating reading can be!
DALL·E is a program from OpenAI that uses artificial intelligence to generate images and illustrations from short text prompts provided by the user. For this project, the author fed phrases like “oil painting of adorable pig singing on stage with trees and stars” into the DALL·E interface to generate images that fit the story he wanted to tell. Hundreds of renderings were generated for this project, and the author chose the 28 best images to illustrate this story about a pig named Pan who loves to read.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER NOW ON AMAZON!
Cover of Paperback Edition
October 15, 2022
Book Review: Crew of Exiles
A transcendent being has been banished to human form. His exile to a depopulated Earth will drive him mad if he can’t find a way out. Getting dragged along on an adventure by the last remaining Earthlings isn’t exactly what he had in mind.
What reviewers are saying:
“Dark but wholesome”“…quests for restoration and survival lead to an afterlife that simmers with new possibilities.”“Our heroes are a sort of Dorothy-Scarecrow-Tinman-Lion crew of misfits united by a common purpose.”Order it through your local bookstore! Also available from AmazonOr from Barnes and Noble
She glanced over her shoulder. “You don’t find it odd that of all the people in that facility, only you and I survived?”
That’s because we both have immortal genetics. But Beryl wasn’t keen on reminding her that his body was a mysterious contradiction—the best life-preserving genes, the worst life-enjoying genes.
He said, “Strange happenstance…
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August 3, 2022
What’s in a degree?
Dear Ponti,
Is post secondary education worth it? With all that blood, sweat and tears + debt, do you really get a better job?
– Wondering If It’s Worth It
Outlines of four graduates between columns of university buildingDear Wondering,
I was a sophomore at UC Berkeley in 2003 when I seriously considered quitting college. At the time, I was deciding on a major. I’d dabbled in philosophy, math, and literature, but I found myself drawn more and more to astrophysics: the study of the universe. Why astrophysics? It was fascinating to try to understand where we come from, why we’re here, and what’s going to happen to us and our planet in the future. Astrophysics combined the best of philosophy with the best of science. And it tickled my intellectual fancy.
But I wasn’t happy. I remember falling asleep at night before midterm exams and dreaming restlessly of…
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August 2, 2022
Welcome to Dear Ponti
I started this blog as a writing exercise. It is a way for me to learn about other people while simultaneously expressing myself through personal reflections and stories. Feel free to send your query to info@booleanop.com. I will try to give your question my deepest consideration and provide advice based on my own lived experience. I will publish the original query, omitting your name and any other identifying information.
Query me: info@booleanop.com
Or fill out this anonymous form: https://forms.gle/w3bKfB6NY5SY8fmw6
August 1, 2022
Cuckoo Cuckoo by Nicholas Ponticello
Check out this awesome review of Cuckoo Cuckoo!
Kathryn's Book Review and Other Thoughts
This book comes out July 1st, 2022
I really enjoyed reading this, it was a short read and I liked that it took real world events and had science fiction elements in it. I liked getting to know Charlie and the struggles that he had in everyday life. One of the lines that rescinded with me was ““Oh Maggie. You’ve been so good to me. I wish I could remember you better.” Maggie looked away. “It’s probably best you don’t,” she said and switched on the kitchen television set.”
It really made me think about the idea of cloning and what the consequences of that are, this was a really well done story and I look forward to more from Mr. Nicholas Ponticello.
I recieved this book from Netgalley and am writing a honest review
5 out of 5 stars
July 20, 2022
Cuckoo Cuckoo
Just got an incredible review of Cuckoo Cuckoo by W.A. Stanley! Read it here:
Cuckoo Cuckoo
Written by Nicholas Ponticello
Most of us (of a certain vintage, at least) remember when Dolly the Sheep, the first cloned mammal, was born. Nicholas Ponticello, author of Cuckoo Cuckoo does, with this cloning laying the groundwork for his novella. Set in a version of 2016, where Dolly’s cloning has led to those with the funds to do so now cloning themselves, Cuckoo Cuckoo chronicles the misadventures of one such clone.
Narrated by Charles C. Vanderough, a clone of Charles B. Vanderough (or Charlie B, as he is known), who, himself, is a clone of the original Charles Abernathy Vanderough, Cuckoo Cuckoo tells the story of Charlie B, who, after graduating the Price-Harold School for Boys and stepping out into the world, is ready for what he is certain will be a life of luxury, funded by the original’s fortune. Charlie B soon learns the original Charles has…
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July 13, 2022
Just Do It! Enter the 2022 SCBWI-L.A. Writers Day Contest
by Brenda Scott Royce
Why do we enter writing contests? Prizes are awfully nice, and hearing your name announced as the winner is a definite thrill. But perhaps even more motivating is the validation that comes with recognition of your work. There’s nothing like learning that the speck of an idea you plucked from thin air and coaxed into shape over weeks, months, or maybe even years, actually has wings and can fly.
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