Chris Barton's Blog: Bartography, page 48

Presentations come, and presentations go

The presentation that yielded these notes went over well. I think I’ll keep it.

I’ve updated the list of presentations I offer when I visit professional conferences, schools and libraries, writing workshops, book festivals, etc.

So, if you’ve seen me in action before and now wonder “Does he still offer that one?” or “Does he have anything new?” or “Good heavens, is he STILL talking about that?” — well, now you’ve got your answer.

Bartography Express for January 2015, featuring Trent Reedy’s Burning Nation

This month, one subscriber to my Bartography Express newsletter will win a copy of Burning Nation (Scholastic), the second book in Trent Reedy’s Divided We Fall YA trilogy

If you’re not already receiving Bartography Express, click the image below for a look. If you like what you see, click “Join” in the bottom right corner, and you’ll be in the running for the giveaway at the end of this week.

Five answers about The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch

Eerdlings, the nifty new blog from Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, asked me to answer a few questions about my upcoming book with Don Tate, The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch.

So, if you want to know the two reasons why January 16, 2007 was a momentous day for this project, have a look!

Q&A with Trent Reedy, author of Burning Nation

This month’s edition of Bartography Express features a Q&A with Trent Reedy, author of the second book in the Divided We Fall trilogy, Burning Nation (Scholastic). It also includes a giveaway of a copy of Burning Nation — please see the newsletter for details.

The formatting of my newsletter made it unwieldy to include Trent’s complete answers to my questions, so I made a few edits for space. As I promised my subscribers, though, I’m including the full text here.

CB: What drew you toward the st...

And then sometimes books happen very (relatively) quickly

So, I was talking about how long these books can take, right? Of course, then, this past Thursday’s edition of PW Children’s Bookshelf contained this announcement:

The way that 88 Instruments has come together is far different from how my John Roy Lynch or Nutcracker books developed.

In March of last year, editor Julia Maguire let it be known that she’d be interested in a picture book about a child picking which instrument to learn. I had not yet written any such picture book, and it wasn’t un...

Keep keepin’ at it, folks

You know how I mentioned the other day that it had been eight years since I started working on my John Roy Lynch book? By the publication date, it will be more like eight years and three months, which tops the eight years it took from my first efforts on The Day-Glo Brothers until the publication date. During school visits, it blows kids’ minds when I tell them that — especially, I suspect, the minds of those eight and younger.

But wait. Yesterday, while admiring Cathy Gendron’s gorgeous new c...

What a way to end one year and start another

I don’t remember how I spent Christmas of 2006, but according to the files on my computer I spent at least part of the day doing my very first bit of documented work on what would become The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch.

Eight years later, look what arrived as a late Christmas/early New Year’s gift! It’s my very first finished copy of that book, and it’s gorgeous. Illustrator Don Tate and the folks at Eerdmans Books for Young Readers have done a marvelous job, and I’ve so enjoyed getting to s...

Podcast interview: Life. Leadership. Video Games. And me.

I really enjoyed my conversation this fall with Jon Harrison, author the upcoming book Mastering The Game: What Video Games Can Teach Us About Success In Life, who interviewed me for his ClassicallyTrained podcast (“Life. Leadership. Videogames”).

We got to talk about video games (of course), fatherhood, Joey Spiotto’s art, the diversity of characters represented in Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! A Gamer’s Alphabet, the trickiest letter in the book (not Q, X, or Z), my Games & Books & Q&A interview...

Not a bad 24 hours for Attack! Boss! Cheat Code!

The past day has brought this review from game developer and enthusiast Eduardo Baraf:

And this appreciation (and giveaway!) of Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! A Gamer’s Alphabet from librarian Margie Myers-Culver:

Games, video games, can foster creativity, problem solving skills, desire to increase knowledge about a specific subject, healthy competition, and connections with like-minded people. Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! A Gamer’s Alphabet (POW!, October 14, 2014) written by Chris Barton with illustr...

In case you’re wondering where to shelve Attack! Boss! Cheat Code!…

…I think this Barnes & Noble has the right idea:

Attack! Boss! Cheat Code! + LEGO + Minecraft? Sure — I’m OK with that.

Oh, and + Frozen? That looks pretty good, too.