Greg Van Eekhout's Blog: Writing and Snacks - Greg van Eekhout's blog, page 19

Your daily dose of Dozer

He had a really good first night in a new place. There was a little bit of battle to keep him off the bed, but he eventually settled on his blanket and only got up when I did. No accidents in the night, and he whizzed as soon as I took him down to the bushes this morning. He was only at the shelter five days, having been transferred from another shelter, and they didn't really know much about his background, but I think he was already housebroken and came with some leash training. We'll see what he's like today, but I'm optimistic about him being a good officemate.

Also, oh god I've become one of those people.

From Dozer

Dozer

The household now includes Dozer, a six-month old terrier mix adopted from the Helen Woodward Animal Center, where we could have also picked up a cat or a horse or a sheep or some goats. But, no, just Dozer this time around. I think he's enough for now.

He really, really did not want to get in the car with me. Like, full stop, dig in, eyes of terror. But after a whole bunch of reassurance and cooing and cuddling, he went willingly into his carrier, and he was great the entire drive home.

He's been home for about an hour now. He's had a leak, stuck his nose into everything, drank some water, got freaked out by his rubber bone, bit my laptop, barked at something I couldn't see, and now he's having a bit of a nap. When he hears something weird, one ear perks up and the other one flops down. It's so cute it's cracking my molars.

At some point I expect him to hold still in adequate lighting and in such an orientation that I might be able to snap a good pic of him, but until then, expect more of this kind of thing.

From Dozer



From Dozer

From Dozer

From Dozer

Crimes and mustaches

I've been doing a lot of research on heists (for a book, it's for a book I'm writing, this is just for a fictional book novel I'm writing), and I've come to the conclusion that I could totally be a master criminal. And so could you.

Check out the FBI's page about the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist. This is the biggest art heist in U.S. history. The thieves stole works whose value is estimated as high as $300 million, and they pulled it off by disguising themselves as Boston police officers and convincing the museum guards to let them in. Skim down the page a bit and you'll see some specific references to the thieves' clever disguises. They involve "dark, shiny mustache(s), appearing to be false."

Fake mustaches. Can you wear a fake mustache? Then you can be a master criminal.

Most museums really can't afford all the fancy motion sensors and laser mazes from the movies. That stuff's expensive.

Sometimes all it takes is the same equipment and planning you would put into knocking over a gas station. Several prominent robberies have been just a couple of guys walking in with guns during visiting hours, taking some paintings, and walking out with them.

Are you willing to wave a gun around? Then you can be a master criminal.

Maybe you're the kind of thief who only wants to go after the biggest, most famous art pieces in the world. Maybe you'd like to steal the Mona Lisa? That's right, the Mona Freakin' Lisa, right out of the Louvre.

You could do what Vincenzo Peruggia did. Which involved hiding in a closet, noticing the gallery guard was off having a smoke or something, taking the painting off the wall, removing it from its frame and stuffing it under his smock, and slipping out unnoticed. In fact, not only did Peruggia leave the Louvre unnoticed, but the theft went unnoticed for more than a day. People did pick up on the conspicuous empty space on the wall, but everyone figured the painting was down in the basement, getting restored. Or something.

Do you have access to a smock? Then you can be a master criminal.

I am not condoning theft, mind you. I had two bicycles stolen when I was a kid. Theft is a violation. I strongly dislike thieves. The real challenge writing this book is gaming the situation such that the thief has valid reasons for pulling off his heist, to make the audience want him to get away with it. Or more crucially, to make me believe that, in a just world, he would get away with it. That's the heist I'm trying to pull off.

But if I fail and my book sucks and nobody wants to read anything by me ever again, look carefully at the guy in the weirdly shiny mustache with a suspicious bulge under his smock. Man's gotta earn a living.

Festus will self-destruct in 5 seconds

Dudes, totally check out this thing I learned yesterday that nobody ever told me before and so is new to me and it is BLOWING MY MIND.

FACT! Peter Graves and James Arness were brothers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Graves

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_arness

I'm calling my mom to see if I'm their brother too.

Tenners Library Giveaway

A note from the Tenners, a bunch of writers whose middle-grade and YA novels debuted in 2010:

To celebrate the end of our debut year, The Tenners will be holding a special giveaway just for librarians. One public or school library will be selected to receive a set of 55 books by 2010 MG and YA debut authors.

How do you enter this massive giveaway? So easy. All you have to do is capture one of our books in the wild.* Take a photo of yourself, another librarian, a patron, or even an adorable library pet posing with one of our 2010 debut novels. Send it to us at 2010debuts@gmail.com from your institutional email address. Tell us your name, your library's name and mailing address, and who's in the picture.

Again, only librarians are eligible for this giveaway. Not a librarian? Encourage your friendly neighborhood librarian to enter! The contest will be open until February 15th and the lucky winning library will be chosen and announced on February 16th. Until then, we'll be periodically posting your pictures.

The Tenners would like to thank you all SO VERY MUCH for your support this year. It's been an amazing adventure and we're looking forward to sharing more books with you in 2011 and beyond.

Books included in the giveaway are:

The Absolute Value of -1 by Steve Brezenoff

All Unquiet Things by Anna Jarzab

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

The Body Finder and Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting

Change of Heart by Shari Maurer

The Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy

The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk

The Dark Divine and The Lost Saint by Bree Despain

The Deathday Letter by Shaun David Hutchinson

Dirty Little Secrets by Cynthia Jaynes Omololu

Eighth-Grade Superzero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

Everlasting by Angie Frazier

Forget-Her-Nots by Amy Brecount-White

The Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston

Freefall by Mindi Scott

The Ghost & The Goth by Stacey Kade

Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey

Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly

Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler

Hush, Hush and Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

Inconvenient by Margaret Gelbwasser

Iron King and Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

Kids vs. Squid by Greg van Eekhout

Leaving Gee's Bend by Irene Latham

The Life and Opinions of Amy Finawitz by Laura Toffler-Corrie

The Line by Teri Hall

Losing Faith by Denise Jaden

Magic Under Glass by Jackie Dolamore

The Mark by Jen Nadol

Mistwood by Leah Cypess

Nice & Mean by Jessica Leader

Other by Karen Kincy

Palace Beautiful by Sarah DeFord Williams

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

Princess for Hire by Lindsey Leavitt

Prisoners in the Palace by Michaela MacColl

Prophecy of Days by Christy Raedeke

The Red Umbrella by Christina Gonzalez

The Reinvention of Edison Thomas by Jacqueline Houtman

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea Campbell

Sea by Heidi Kling

The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard

Scones and Sensibility by Lindsay Eland

Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai

The Snowball Effect by Holly Nicole Hoxter

Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards

Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes

Wildfire Run by Dee Garretson

*No purchase necessary, so posing with a photo or artistic interpretation of a book's cover is just fine too.

Mirrored from Greg van Eekhout. You can comment there or here.

ALA

The American Library Association held their midwinter 2011 meeting in San Diego this year. San Diego just happens to be the city in which I currently reside, so it would have been pretty STUPID of me if I hadn't gone. So, I went!

The awesome editor of my kid's books, Margaret Miller, scored me a floor badge, which meant I got to stalk the exhibition hall without paying a red cent. Ha! Who's stupid now?! Even though we've done two books together, I hadn't yet met Margaret in person. As you can see from the photo below, she's a very serious person and our meeting could be best described in terms of very seriousness. That's the Bloomsbury gang sign we're making. It's a doggy.

Mere moments after I started touring the exhibitions (populated by publishers offering ARCs — advanced reader copies — of their upcoming books, vendors selling everything from library book return bins to elaborate book-scanning robots utilizing vacuum technology to turn pages, and librarian foot-relief products) I ran into super agent Barry Goldblatt. Barry's not my super agent, but his agency represents several of my friends, and his love of books and writers is always infectious. I asked him which of his clients' ARCs I should seek, but since they were in such high demand at the conference I managed to collect none of them. NONE! Who's stupid now? (Me. I should have showed up on Saturday instead of Sunday.)

After I'd seen the entire floor, Editor Margaret and I repaired to an Irish pub for a pleasant chat. I like working with smart, personable, dedicated professionals. Have I mentioned I like working with Margaret? Then, that evening, she very kindly took me and my girlfriend out to a delicious dinner at a place with tiki torches out in front. Greg likes flames. Also present were Bloomsbury's head of library marketing, Beth Eller, Walker editor Emily Easton, and picture book author Candace Ryan. Really great conversation about books and publishing and writers and writing and suchlike. A lot of fun.

So, that was my first ALA. I hope to go to more of them, even if they're not conveniently located a mere fifteen minutes from my front door.

Mirrored from Greg van Eekhout. You can comment there or here.

Boy at the End of the World ARCs

Got Boy at the End of the World page proofs in the mail yesterday. Frankly, I hate reading my proofs. I am not so infatuated with my own writing that I consider it fun to go over a novel that I've already read umpteen times.

However, the package also contained three ARCs (that's advanced reader copy, for those not in the biz). I love getting ARCs. It's the first time I get to hold the book in my hands as a book-like form.

From Boy at the End of the World

Snapshots of 2010: Self-promotion

I did some school visits and signings for Kid vs. Squid. Some were successful and well attended.

From Kid vs. Squid in the Wild


From Mysterious Galaxy Kids Summer Reading Gala

From Comic-Con 2010

Others, less so.

From Conjecture signing

Snapshots of 2010

In 2010: I failed to acquire power over your governments and organizations and gain access to your nuclear launch codes. I'm still not sure what I did wrong.

From Washington DC 2010

Interview on Cynsations

New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith kindly features Kid vs. Squid on her blog. I talk about discovering characters, influential fantasy, book promotion, and suchlike. Over here.

Mirrored from Greg van Eekhout. You can comment there or here.