David Lubar's Blog, page 13

Hucksters

There's enough being said about the Bowdlerization of Huck Finn. I have nothing new to add, but I do have to say I cherish Huck Finn for a very special reason. It is the only novel I know of whose title (or, at least, the shortened version) can be Spoonerized into a nice swipe at a smarmy televangelist.

Printz of darkness

My Printz prediction -- at least one of the books (winner or honors) will be urban fiction because of committe-member fields of interest.

Today's useful library phrase

Mock Newbery n.

1. A simulation of the book award nomination and voting process, often held by librarians in advance of the Newbery Award announcement for the pleasure and education of young readers or book clubs.

2. An informal sour-grapes session inevitably held by small groups of authors (often while convening in taverns) at any point after the Newbery Award announcement.

Award of the state

Some of the 5,349 YA novelists who had their debut in 2010 might already be turning their attention, and angst, toward San Diego, where the American Library Association will soon hold their midwinter meeting. Given that the big winners (Newbery and Caldecott) will be announced, along with the list formerly known as BBYA, this can be a stressful week for new authors. This seems like a good time to remind everyone of a service business I started several years ago especially to help avoid stressful award seasons. If you've already bookmarked the YALSA blog, memorized the meeting schedule of the Quick Picks committee, and set one of your clocks to Pacific time, even though you live in the midwest, you're a good candidate for Cry-Away (tm). Check it out. You can thank me later.

For those of you who decide to forgo this service, I'll try to post some helpful tips throughout the week to help you cope with both the stress of waiting and the dismay of losing.

Dead reckoning

The whole story of Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie gets tied up tomorrow with the release of Enter the Zombie. If you haven't read the first four books, there's still time.

It's being released in paperback and hardcover, so be sure to buy both.

A new beginning

Okay -- I got up at 6:00, ran three miles, and then wrote 2,000 words. Wait. That wasn't me. It was one of you. And I don't want to hear about it.

The obligatory year-end post

If we lived on Mars, we'd have do go through this less often. But here it is, the end of another year. I have no great insights, resolutions, or thoughts. Life is good. Life goes on. All else is just footnotes.

Carpe Canum

As faithful readers of this blog might remember, the day my daughter got her first dog was a traumatic experience with a wonderful ending. Kira, who was a rescue dog, has made amazing progress. I'm officially declaring 2010 to be the Year of the Dog. (I hope any Chinese astrologers out there will cut me some slack if this doesn't line up with the stars. And I'm glad my cats don't read my blog.) One cute quirk of shiba inus is that they tend to suddenly start running in circles, or back and forth like they're in a shuttle race. This is known as the "shiba 500." I managed to capture Kira in the act, and figured it would be a fun thing to share. Here's the Kira 500.

'Tis better to give and receive

I have learned much from the gifts I've given and the gifts I've received.

From the gifts I've received, I have learned:

Mark Twain had a lot to say.
PS3 Move is what the Wii should have been.

From the gifts I've given, I've learned:

There are few things on earth that cause as much immediate happiness as a ukulele.

You big Padukah

My new Friday addiction is checking the latest Book Scan figures on the day of their release to the general author population. (For those of you who aren't familiar with this, Book Scan monitors retail sales of books. They then produce the sort of figures and graphs that feed an author's dreams and nightmares.) The information includes a breakdown of sales by region. Naturally, I wanted to collect them all. After two weeks of near misses, someone in Padukah finally bought one of my books, giving me a clean sweep of all 100 regions. That can all change next week. I could lose Padukah and Texarcana again. And my grip on Chattanooga is tenuous, at best. But it doesn't matter. Last week, I managed a clean sweep. I can now die happily.