David Lubar's Blog, page 17

Why twitter, why now?

Saturday, I was at Rutgers for the amazing One-on-One conference and heard a panel discussion by author/illustrator Katie Davis, editor Alvina Ling, editor Caroline Abbey (@CarolineAbbey ), and publicist Deborah Sloan about social networking. It was pretty convincing. So, about 4:00 AM the next morning (long story), I decided to set up an account. It looks pretty captivating. I have a feeling it will take up so much time, I'll have to cut down on Livejournal, Facebook, or novels.

tweech me two twit

Okay, so now that I'm on twitter (as @davidlubar), am I supposed to blog my tweets? I'm asking that because my first tweet in response to something I read was sort of clever in a subtle way that would appeal to book lovers, and I'm pathetically eager to share it with others beyond my six followers (all of whom I cherish and treasure and shower with gratitude). I want to share it with the twelve of you who read my blog, too. So, anyhow, after seeing that people were using an ap that gave the value of their twitter accounts, I tweeted, "My twitter value is one dollar and eighty-seven cents. And sixty cents of it was in pennies."

Now that I've blogged about my tweet, I will, as someone suggested, post a link to the blog on Facebook.

At twit's end

Okay -- I'm on twitter. Just made my first tweet. So, tomorrow, I'll be rich and famous. Right?

One of the best blurbs ever

Reviewer Kerry Roeder has come up with one of the best single sentences I've ever seen in connection with my work. This is from a very nice review of The Big Stink in School Library Journal:

"Despite being filled with farts and vomit, ultimately it's a sweet story about the importance of friendship, family, and doing the right thing."

I love it when people see beneath the surface. (Though I'm sort of fond of the surface, too.) I think I'm going to get that sentence tattooed on the back of my neck. In Japanese, just to make it look even cooler.

Entertainment Weekly Speaks Loudly

The Oct. 15th isue of "Entertainment Weekly" devoted a half page to Speak and the massive reaction to Wesley Scroggins's attack on the book. It's great to see the incident getting intelligent coverage from national publications.

Public service message for writers over the age of 40

There is no mail today. Stop checking the box or listening for the postman.

Today's assignment

OK -- there are only two degrees of separation on the web. Could someone out there inform the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation about Risha Mullins? Please. They want to fix education. She can help. (If anyone knows President Obama or Oprah, that would be good, too.)

Contest!

Okay, since everyone else is running contests, I decided to do one, too. So, here it is: GYSN -- the Give Yourself Something Nice contest. (It's Sunday. I'm too lazy to think up an acronym, though it's tempting to warp it into something involving GYNO.) Here are the rules:

1. Between now and the end of the week, give yourself something nice.
2. Whoever gives him-her-self the nicest gift wins first place.
3. The first place prize is whatever the winner gave him-her-self.
4. There will be N-1 runners up (where N = total entries).
5. All entries will be judged by the entrants.
6. All rules are subject to change.
8. Nitpickers need not participate.

Breaking the ban

Okay, I know that this is Banned Books Week, and I've been trying my best to comply with the rules by not talking about books, but one of my favorite bloggers, April Henry, had a book release on the 28th. She is also having a contest (which might be over by now). I know I'm a couple days late mentioning this, but Tuesday is also the day when all the new video games come out, so I was probably distracted by reading stuff on metacritic. Anyhow, I'll try to go back to respecting this whole book-banning thing for the rest of the week.

But, since it isn't Banned Books Week in Germany, I guess I can mention that the German-language rights to my Nathan Abercrombie series have been sold. Several other countries have also stepped up to the plate. Or the wicket.

Warning -- explicit contents

I could be wrong about this, but it just occurred to me that when people say, "I trust you implicitly," they're creating a contradiction.