Lance Rubin's Blog, page 3

Hi.

I haven’t really written on here since my book came out in April, so I feel like I need to write something really awesome on here now.

But whenever I feel like I need to write something awesome, it freezes me, and I write nothing. Which is what’s been happening for weeks.

So instead I’m going to say that all the Denton events of the past two months have been wonderful, and I truly appreciate all the lovely people I’ve met: librarians, booksellers, authors, festival volunteers, and, of course, readers. So many awesome readers. Thanks to all of you. For buying the book, for reading the book, for taking the time to email or tweet at me. I can’t tell you how much all of that means. (I seriously can’t tell you. I’m not allowed. It’s in my contract.) 

More things on here soon that are more fun than this sincere thank you. In the spirit of that future fun, I leave you with this photo I took of a real place.

Here’s a song I wrote.

Here’s a song I wrote.

A must-listen Denton interview.

I’ve been making a podcast with best buddy Ray Muñoz for a couple of years now, and here’s OUR 50TH EPISODE. We ditch our usual format in favor of 18 minutes of Ray asking me hard-hitting questions about my book. You will learn lots of fun things if you listen to this. 

After a brief hiatus, Ray and I are back! We talk with the...

After a brief hiatus, Ray and I are back! We talk with the wonderful Temmy Maldonado about Dawson’s Creek and bad jokes. Also, Ray and I talk about phenomenons. 

On April 15th, 2011, I wrote the first words of Denton Little’s...

On April 15th, 2011, I wrote the first words of Denton Little’s Deathdate. Nervous and excited, I sent those words to my wife Katie. Above is a screenshot of the email in which I pasted what I had. As you can see, it was in the third-person at first. That changed the next week.

Now, almost exactly four years later, Denton Little’s Deathdate is coming out in stores, and I have no words.

Thank you to everyone who’s been so supportive during this journey. You know who you are, and it’s meant everything to me. And thank you to the booksellers, librarians, and bloggers who have already been championing this book; your support takes my breath away.

And to everyone out there buying the book today and talking it up on the internet and generally being awesome: thank you. You’re great.

DENTON comes out in Germany on May 11th from Piper Verlag. This...

DENTON comes out in Germany on May 11th from Piper Verlag. This cover, with its celebratory coffin, is amazing.

If you live in the UK, Denton comes out today from Simon &...

If you live in the UK, Denton comes out today from Simon & Schuster!

Some March things

Oh boy! I had a good streak going of posting on here every Tuesday, but then life got busier and my streak passed out in a field somewhere. Please forgive me.

In any case, here are some March things:

This week, thanks to the amazing Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Annie Golden: Bounty Hunter, Yo!—the musical that I’ve been writing the past few years with Joe Iconis and Jason SweetTooth Williams—is having its first-ever workshop. With real actors and everything! Watching this thing come to life has been really magical. The cast, led by the wonderful Annie Golden, is terrific, as is director Leah Gardiner and the rest of the creative team. It’s culminating in a private reading Saturday, and hopefully the show will move onto some more public venues in the not-so-distant future. 

My wife Katie Schorr started a funny, self-deprecating blog about being a mother. I’m obviously biased, but I highly recommend it. Even if you’re not a mom.

I read one of my favorite chapters of DENTON on The Catapult this week. This podcast is hosted by Jaime Green, who is an awesome person and writer.  She was my first theater friend in college, and we took Sarah Ruhl’s playwriting class together freshman year (I think that’s true, right, Jaime? Did I just make that up?), and then later she was in a musical I co-wrote and directed. So it was very fun to reconnect to do this.

DENTON comes out in the UK on Thursday from Simon and Schuster! Very exciting. I had a good time doing a Quick Fire Q and A with them last week. If you’ve been dying to know which I prefer, DVD or Cinema, then you gotta read this RIGHT AWAY. 

I think that’s it for the moment. Hope you’re all having a wonderful March day. Soon the weather will be warm and everything will be even wonderful-er. Any day now. Really.

One month until DENTON.

One month until DENTON.

February stuff

Hi hi hi! I’ve been in the midst of busyness, but I wanted to pop on to say a few things. 

1. I was the keynote speaker last week at Random House Children’s Summer 2015 Preview. Beforehand, I was really nervous. Afterward, I was like 

(I realize this photo of me in front of two other me’s is kind of intense, but I’m posting it anyway. I apologize.)

I talked about loving books so much as a kid that I slept with them, starting to write Denton because my acting career was making me miserable, the power of laughter, and
using books to build empathy and battle our phone-cultivated short
attention spans.

Random House awesomely supplied me
with candy to throw into the audience at the end of my speech, much like
Denton does at the end of his self-eulogy. But I forgot about it in the
moment. My b, Random House. Thanks for the cool thought.

I met lots of lovely librarians and teachers and bloggers. And also some
lovely RH folk I hadn’t met yet. Thanks for being so kind, everybody!
Looking forward to crossing paths again soon.

Here’s a photo from that day of Denton’s fantastic editor Nancy Siscoe and me.

 2. Denton is on the Indie Next List. Such a nice honor to be a recommendation of independent bookstores, which are wonderful, magical
places. 

3. I think the NPH Oscars backlash was a little over-the-top. Obviously NPH is gonna be just fine, but the internet has become an overwhelming
and critical beast. I know choosing to infuse the internet
with love instead of snark is probably less fun, but it’d be great to live in
a world where that was happening more.   

That’s all for today. I now return to the anxiety-provoking world of rewriting my second book in time for a very-soon deadline. Happy Thursday!