David Lubar's Blog, page 25

Wading through a sewer of spam

I got a call today from a very nice woman at the company that hosts my web site. I hadn't paid my renewal bill. It turned out the notices were getting trapped in my spam filter. That's rare. The filter does a good job. But I scrolled through the spam folder, just to make sure I hadn't missed anything else. The experience left me with the urge to take a shower. It also inspired one question: If someone buys any of the advertised male-enhancement products, does he from then on have to pu...

Seth and the Maiden!

Seth takes a holiday! Seth before dishonor! Seth be not proud...

Huh?

I'm just babbling with delight because today is the launch day for



from super duper Eric Luper. If you're a fan of Wendy Mass (and who isn't?), you'll enjoy Eric's third (but not trivial) novel. Like Wendy, Eric creates compelling, endearing characters, puts them into interesting situations, and invests his work with humor that feels intrinsic to the tale. (Anyone can tack on humor. All you need is a banana peel and a nail...

I rock.

When your favorite author mentions one of your books in a list she gives to America's favorite TV personality, there's really nothing to add. Today, I rock. Tomorrow, back to scooping cat litter and trying to lose weight. But, as for now, behold: Katherine Paterson speaks. I totally rock.

Write now

I spent this week writing. I'll spend next week writing. It always feels strange to make the transition from speaking and travel to writing. This is my first unbroken block of time since January. For most of last week, I kept finding myself wondering what time I had to get up the next morning, whether I needed to pack a suitcase, or which schools I still needed to get directions from. It's sort of like when I was a kid and a semester ended. For a while after, I kept thinking I had a pap...

Breaking news!

This just in:

Arizona passes law to ban British oil from its shores.

How do we break this to Richard Peck?

I received the following inquiry yesterday:

In the fall, my students will compete in a contest of oral reading. One of the parameters is that the author has to be born in 1960 or afterwards. Would you please tell me in what year you were born?

Egads -- I'm to old to qualify. (Though I was flattered that the teacher wanted to use my work.) I'm not sure why they'd pick 1960 as a cutoff. All the really old writers were born in the before 1950. Or 1850. Or something like that. It's interesti...

Speaking of books

June is Audiobook Month. (It's also Pitted Prune Appreciation Month, Give Your Cat an Enema Month -- potential joint promotional opportunities duly noted -- Floss Knitter Festival Month, and the third consecutive Get Lindsay to Rehab Month, but I digress.) The Audio Publisher's Association has asked people to blog, tweet, or otherwise broadcast something about the topic in celebration of this. On the theory that my three devoted readers shouldn't miss out (and that my cats would much rathe...

Cheese cow? Shiksa? Wait, it rhymes with "Fresca."

I'm pretty sure that by now everyone on the planet has seen the incredibly clever trailer that editor Jordan Brown made for the new Jon Scieszka anthology, Guys Read: Funny Business. (Serious students of humor will immediately realize that the original version of the joke didn't take place in a school cafeteria. But that's okay -- the changed venue works just as well.)

If you are really bored, here's an interview I did at Book Expo with Damon Caporaso from BSC Kids. (Scroll down past the ...

Books vs. grubs

Based on the two previous posts, it seems that maggots generate much more discussion (disgustion?) than Book Expo. I'll take that under advisement as I mull my next post.

Fly babies

[Edited to add: Don't read this if you are eating.]

So, if you had to clean out one of your garbage cans because, thanks to some sort of leftover sludge in the bottom, it had become the home of a half billion maggots, would you clean it:

A. Before lunch.
B. After lunch.
C. Instead of lunch.

(If your answer is "D. During lunch," I don't want to know.)