Adam Jay Epstein's Blog, page 5
September 6, 2010
The Familiars Book Tour - Schedule (9/9 - 9/15)
Thursday, September 9th - San Francisco
Grant Elementary
Liberty School
Penngrove Elementary
4:00 pm After-School Signing at Copperfield's
Friday, September 10th - San Jose
Graystone Elementary
Don Callejon School
3:30 pm Hicklebee's Reading/Presentation/Signing Event
Monday, September 13th - Chicago
Hermes Elementary
Eagle Pointe Elementary
Tuesday, September 14th - Chicago
May Watts Elementary
Beebe Elementary
7:00 pm Anderson's Bookshop Reading/Presentation/Signing Event
Wednesday, September 15th - Dayton...
Grant Elementary
Liberty School
Penngrove Elementary
4:00 pm After-School Signing at Copperfield's
Friday, September 10th - San Jose
Graystone Elementary
Don Callejon School
3:30 pm Hicklebee's Reading/Presentation/Signing Event
Monday, September 13th - Chicago
Hermes Elementary
Eagle Pointe Elementary
Tuesday, September 14th - Chicago
May Watts Elementary
Beebe Elementary
7:00 pm Anderson's Bookshop Reading/Presentation/Signing Event
Wednesday, September 15th - Dayton...
September 5, 2010
Right Under JK Rowling
As we are getting closer to the official launch day of our book, we thought we would share some photos.
In San Jose, there is a wonderful bookstore named Hicklebee's where the authors sign the walls. When Andrew and I visited, we got the opportunity to add our mark. We signed the door right below JK Rowling. It may be the closest we ever come to meeting the legendary creator of Harry Potter. Maybe, a little of her success will trickle down.
September 4, 2010
Two Guys in a Coffee Shop
GUEST POST on Good Books and Wine
Let me step into my time machine and take you back to the fall of 1998. I was taking a semester off from college, living in Los Angeles to pursue my dream of screenwriting. The Monica Lewinsky scandal was at its height, Felicity and Ally McBeal were on a first name basis with the greater public, and you couldn't turn on your radio without hearing Alanis Morisette's haunting theme song to the Nic Cage-Meg Ryan weeper, "City of Angels." It was a hopeful time, fi...
Let me step into my time machine and take you back to the fall of 1998. I was taking a semester off from college, living in Los Angeles to pursue my dream of screenwriting. The Monica Lewinsky scandal was at its height, Felicity and Ally McBeal were on a first name basis with the greater public, and you couldn't turn on your radio without hearing Alanis Morisette's haunting theme song to the Nic Cage-Meg Ryan weeper, "City of Angels." It was a hopeful time, fi...
Are You Familiar With What A Familiar Is?
GUEST POST on Alison's Book Marks
Familiars are the animal companions to a wizard or witch. They have existed in popular culture since the 1800s. The earliest and most recognizable of these magical assistants were the black cats of a witch. You've seen them on Halloween posters rubbing up against the leg of a woman dressed in black. Surely you are aware of some of the more famous familiars, like Harry Potter's owl, Hedwig, or Gandalf's horse, Shadowfax, or Merlin's owl, Archimedes. Disney's an...
Familiars are the animal companions to a wizard or witch. They have existed in popular culture since the 1800s. The earliest and most recognizable of these magical assistants were the black cats of a witch. You've seen them on Halloween posters rubbing up against the leg of a woman dressed in black. Surely you are aware of some of the more famous familiars, like Harry Potter's owl, Hedwig, or Gandalf's horse, Shadowfax, or Merlin's owl, Archimedes. Disney's an...
When I Grow Up, I Want To Be...
GUEST POST on A Few More Pages
As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer. In elementary school, my friend and I set out to write the great American novel. It was an anthology of stories (some finished, some unfinished). A brief sampling from the Table of Contents: Chapter 6 – "Butch Winthro, Detective," Chapter 9 – "The Mystery of Blane Dickson," and my personal favorite, Chapter 17 – "Hawaiian Mudballs." I recently revisited the stories, some printed out on my Apple 2C old school...
As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer. In elementary school, my friend and I set out to write the great American novel. It was an anthology of stories (some finished, some unfinished). A brief sampling from the Table of Contents: Chapter 6 – "Butch Winthro, Detective," Chapter 9 – "The Mystery of Blane Dickson," and my personal favorite, Chapter 17 – "Hawaiian Mudballs." I recently revisited the stories, some printed out on my Apple 2C old school...
August 31, 2010
The Big Book Hook
Blog Post on Project Middle Grade Mayhem
Published authors love to give advice to aspiring writers. Whether they have one book to their name or a store shelf filled with best-sellers, they share their wisdom on everything that led them to their success. Write from the soul. Be determined. Read, read, read! Write, write, write! More generalizations flow like write from the heart, have great execution, and never giving up. These bon mots are more like self-help mantras than secrets to getting yo...
Published authors love to give advice to aspiring writers. Whether they have one book to their name or a store shelf filled with best-sellers, they share their wisdom on everything that led them to their success. Write from the soul. Be determined. Read, read, read! Write, write, write! More generalizations flow like write from the heart, have great execution, and never giving up. These bon mots are more like self-help mantras than secrets to getting yo...
Butt Plus Chair
GUEST POST on Literaturely Speaking
Oliver Stone has three words of advice for any aspiring writer: butt plus chair. We take that a step further and add one extra word: butt plus comfy chair. What you sit on can't be understated. Sure, we absolutely agree that much of writing is just sitting down to do it. But if you're going to put in 9 to 5 days behind a desk it helps to sit on something plush and preferably ergonomic. Andrew prefers a swivel chair with a high back, arm rests for his elbows,...
Oliver Stone has three words of advice for any aspiring writer: butt plus chair. We take that a step further and add one extra word: butt plus comfy chair. What you sit on can't be understated. Sure, we absolutely agree that much of writing is just sitting down to do it. But if you're going to put in 9 to 5 days behind a desk it helps to sit on something plush and preferably ergonomic. Andrew prefers a swivel chair with a high back, arm rests for his elbows,...
Telephone
GUEST POST on Market My Words
There was an old game we would play on the bus back in my summer camp days called "Telephone." I'm sure you're familiar with it. You would start by whispering a sentence into someone's ear, and then they would whisper it to the person sitting behind them, and so on throughout the bus. When the message reached the person in the last seat, they would repeat what they heard out loud. So, if you started by whispering, "I took my girlfriend to the zoo today and saw pig...
There was an old game we would play on the bus back in my summer camp days called "Telephone." I'm sure you're familiar with it. You would start by whispering a sentence into someone's ear, and then they would whisper it to the person sitting behind them, and so on throughout the bus. When the message reached the person in the last seat, they would repeat what they heard out loud. So, if you started by whispering, "I took my girlfriend to the zoo today and saw pig...
The Books That Got Us Started
GUEST POST on There's A Book
Adam
"The Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual" by Gary Gygax
Before I ever started reading novels, in third grade this was my introduction to fantasy. A friend's older brother turned me onto it and after I purchased it and brought it home, I read it cover to cover. There's no story, just a list of magical monsters in alphabetical order, but each one was like a story to me. And an excellent primer on mythology, both Greek, Norse, and Babylonian.
"Spell for Chameleon" b...
Adam
"The Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual" by Gary Gygax
Before I ever started reading novels, in third grade this was my introduction to fantasy. A friend's older brother turned me onto it and after I purchased it and brought it home, I read it cover to cover. There's no story, just a list of magical monsters in alphabetical order, but each one was like a story to me. And an excellent primer on mythology, both Greek, Norse, and Babylonian.
"Spell for Chameleon" b...
August 30, 2010
Why We Know Who Egged Rick Riordan's Car in High School
GUEST POST on Kidlit Frenzy
Distractions. Every writer knows that their biggest enemy to putting words on the page each day is their own mind wandering. It's so easy to find yourself staring down at your iPhone or Googling that it's a miracle you get anything written at all. Take a sample morning for the two of us. First, we discuss if either of us saw any good movies this past weekend. Oh, you saw Inception? Who was that guy playing Eames? I'm not sure, let me IMDB it. Tom Hardy. Ooo, h...
Distractions. Every writer knows that their biggest enemy to putting words on the page each day is their own mind wandering. It's so easy to find yourself staring down at your iPhone or Googling that it's a miracle you get anything written at all. Take a sample morning for the two of us. First, we discuss if either of us saw any good movies this past weekend. Oh, you saw Inception? Who was that guy playing Eames? I'm not sure, let me IMDB it. Tom Hardy. Ooo, h...
