David Lubar's Blog, page 29

Am I soup yet?

I've been hopping between two pressure cookers -- killer book deadline, killer travel schedule. I think I survived the book part (more on that soon). Now, I'm heading into three days of long trips. But it's good stuff. I'll be with elementary kids. That's always fun. Last year, I inscribed a pentagram on NJ, crossing it in both direction in a marathon week of visits. This time, I'm just carving a monster triangle across the state, with two of the three tips in other states. Wow -- geo...

The division of Solomon

Yesterday, I wrote, "Oh great -- I just lost half my readers by talking about math."

I hope I don't have an odd number of readers.

(Though I know I have a number of odd readers.)

How do I write thee? Let me count the words.

So, I did a word count earlier today and saw the ms. was at 31,444. Not hugely improbable. The odds of hitting three of the same digits once are 1 in 100. On the next count, it was at 32,555. Cool. The odds of hitting triple digits twice (any two sets of triples) are 1 in 10,000. (Though the odds of hitting triple digits a second time, after already hitting them once, is still only 1 in 100. Oh great -- I just lost half my readers by talking about math.) On my last pass, by which poin...

My Peeps

Okay -- this blog entry is for Lisa Yee. I was doing a Cops and Kids thing on Saturday, and they gave away some books that had been bought by one of their corporate sponsors. The cool thing is that the sponsor was Just Born Candy, makers of the ever-popular Peeps. Now, as many of you are aware, Lisa has been known to place Peeps in the microwave and take pictures as they sublty change shape. I'm too lazy to put in a link to one of those photos or blog entries, but I'm hoping Lisa will pro...

DS, I Love You

Perhaps. I'll find out soon. I was at the game store yesterday, figuring I'd buy myself a game or two as a birthday treat. (My wife took care of bourbon, hot sauce, and books, but she is reluctant to guess about my current gaming passions.) I innocently asked when the DSi XL (aka the handheld game for people who squint) was coming out. It turned out the release date was the end of this month, and they were taking preorders. Given how hardware like this is susceptible to shortages, I mad...

On Wisconsin

I was sure the gods of flight and misery would trap me halfway home last night, but everything was on time. I got to sleep in my own bed. On the down side, when I woke up, I was 56. I don't mind being that age, but it causes a problem for me. When I was 54, I could answer the question, "How old are you," by saying my age was the same as the last two digits of the year of my birth. (I love giving large groupsd of kids something to think about.) The next year, I could say my age was the N...

More things rotten this way come

When I'm signing books at a school, I'll usually check the printing information to see if a book has moved to a higher reprint number. (That information is found in a top-secret super-complex nearly unbreakable code that looks like "0 9 8 7 6 5" or, for some publishers, "5 7 9 10 8 6." In both examples, this would show a 5th printing.) Earlier this week, I was surprised to see that the hardcover copy of My Rotten Life I was signing was a second printing. I checked with me editor, since I...

Gilmourning

Back around January 10th, my wife and I watched episode 1, season 1 of The Gilmore Girls. This week, we finished up season 7. That's 154 episodes. It's an interesting way to absorb a program. I can imagine it was tough for regular viewers to wait a whole week (or a whole rerun season) for the next fix. I think any good writing -- be it in the form of a novel, a play, a poem, or a script -- inspires my own writing. This was definitely good writing (despite the well documented problems to...

I dropped dball for DLAW

Faithful readers of this blog know that for the last 55 years, one week in March has been set aside for DLAW (David Lubar Appreciation Week). Typical activities include buying copies of my books for deserving youngins and convincing your local library to cancel their subscription to Kirkus Reviews. (Dang, we almost had huge cause to celebrate that project this year.) Somehow, between traveling all over the place and trying to finish a book that is just a wee tad late, I totally forgot to se...

Four score!

I just got the 4th Nathan Abercrombie cover. Adam McCauley is a genius.




As for the story, it really rots. But in a good way.