David Lubar's Blog, page 45

Writing secret

Writing begets writing.

It's that simple. I always forget it when I'm on the road, and rediscover it when I finally have a chance to sit down and write. The rediscovery usually takes a couple days. I'll procrastinate. I'll find excuses. But once I start writing a little, I write a lot. And, by "writing," I don't just mean the final moment where the words travel from the brain to the keyboard. I also mean those crucial instances of weaving where the basic story and the scattered ideas draw

ALA / Chicago recap

Quick and messy, since I am racing against a deadline.

THURSDAY:
Got up at 4:00 to catch a plane. Decided to take the train from O'Hare to the city. Good plan -- except not during rush hour. Ended up wedged in a corner with my suitcase on my lap, separated by several seats from my wife, and crushed by an enormous guy who felt he owned the train. Got to our hotel at 9:00, and they actually let us check in. (The Omni totally rocks.) Sleep deprived and not thinking clearly, we decided to walk

Book pitch

The evening news had a story about how difficult it is for the average person to throw out the first pitch at a ball game. Great. Guess what I'll be doing in August? More details to come as the moment of humiliation draws closer.

A third thought on BBYA

I'd posted some thoughts on BBYA this morning. I just deleted them, because I think it is such an emotional topic right now that I'd rather stand aside and let others discuss things. For what it's worth, I think BBYA could use some tweaking, but I don't think it should be eliminated.

For a pico-second, I felt awesome power

So, yesterday, I put the cover of my new book in a blog post. At that point, the book had the usual (for me) seven-digit prepub Amazon sales rank. A bit later that day, I happened to check it, and see that it had leaped down to somewhere around 50K. I was dazzled by the awesome power of my blog. Just by showing the book and listing some blurbs, I had catapulted My Rotten Life to the mid 5 digits. A little later, I got an email from my publisher, with this link to Amazon's Best of 2009 so f

Something rotten this way comes

Dead serious? Nope. Dead funny.

Staggering off shelves on August 4th.

"It's no fun having your heart ripped from your body, slammed to the floor, and stomped into a puddle of red, quivering mush. It's even less fun when it happens three times in one afternoon."

And so begins the worst, and last, day of Nathan Abercrombie's life. Happily for us, his death is much more fun than his life. But don't take my word for it. Look what three living, and totally awesome, authors have said:

"Being dead h

Best reasons to have a kid

#13684 in a series...

Someone else screens the LOLCats for you, so you only see the really good ones.

An exercise in Sarahdippity

It took Sarah Palin 18 rambling minutes to basically say, "I'm taking my ice cubes and going home." Or something like that. Which has helped me realize how great a country we live in. We have the freedom to elect morons to positions of power. We can put philanderers and thieves in state capitals. We can elect mayors with drug habits and senators who think that pork is a birthright. But, unlike the folks in Iran, we also have to power to get rid ourselves of these leaders without shedding b

Today's writing tip

You can't revise blank pages.

In other news:
Colorado Springs was literally breathtaking. (I trust that the previous sentence amused the strict grammarians in the crowd.)

Sundry Sunday

It just struck me that "various and sundry" is probably redundant. Speaking of which, I jotted down this sentence from an in-flight magazine last November, since it was such a nice example of sloppy writing. "Perhaps more than any other season, fall is the one we most associate with change." Take a moment to savor it. Can you taste the clash of "more" and "most"? (I should add that my own first drafts contain far greater horrors, and even my published works have phrases that make me shudder