HERE I AM

Yikes! Has it really been a year of "No Posts"? In case you're wondering - I haven't been in a caffeine induced coma, but caffeine consumption has definitely been in play!

I left the SCWBI conference last August with a permanent grin plastered on my face (and yes, the Sid Fleischman Humor Award traveled with me in-style back home where it wryly watches over me every day.)

Upon getting home I immediately sank into the post-conference funk but promised myself I would dive back into my updates. After all, I'd made a zillion new friends and this would be the perfect time to extend that friendship via my blog. But then...life happened.

I think the reason I dropped off the blog map is I immediately dove into completing my next book and being the kind of writer who takes on big tasks with gusto - all my writing energy was consumed by...(wait for it)...

The Awesome 

Almost 100% True Adventures 

of Matt & Craz 

(try saying that 3 times fast!!!)

That's a picture of the full cover which I think Simon & Schuster should get a standing ovation for. The cover and the ARCs arrived in May and I've been doing the Snoopy dance ever since.

Like MILO, the new book is loaded with my cartoons and though it doesn't come out until next spring I thought it was high time to show everyone what I've been up to since going into the Blogger relocation program.

I hope to fill in some of the year's ups and downs and keep the blog ball rolling. Who knows? I may even post again before Christmas!

AMAZING NEWS!

Eeesh! I am embarrassed by the time lapsed since my last post - but to be fair, I have been hunkered down (with Zeus in my lap) working to finish the first draft of the "new book" which is due right about...NOW.


But even with the final chapters in sight, my train of thoughts has been derailed by the BEST NEWS EVER... MILO: STICKY NOTES & BRAIN FREEZE just won the 2011 SCBWI Sid Fleischman Award for Humor!


This is a really bid deal for me and I am still hyperventilating from the news (and it's been a few days since I heard). The list of past winners is beyond amazing and it befuddles my wee brain to think that I am in the company of Lisa Yee, Donna Gephart, David LaRochelle, Gennifer Choldenko, Sara Pennypacker, Allen Zadoff - but most humbling, is the man who received the first honor, the amazing Sid Fleischman. Wow!

What makes this extra sweet for me - not only was I able to combine my text with my cartoons, but MILO tells a very personal story. It's the story of loosing a parent when you are young and the ways a young adolescent goes about trying to remember his mom, even through the fog that has settled inside him. It's a heart-warming story, and yes, I've heard some tears have been shed reading it.

But I'd always set out to write this book with a sense of humor leading the way - and to have that side of me, and Milo recognized proves that I was able, in my own way, to highlight that a painful life event doesn't have to wipe away the funny parts. It truly can be a tandem dance between the sadness and the laughter because that was always my own experience...and now it's Milo's too.
Thank you so much SCBWI for honoring the funny and heart-felt part of me that is MILO.

IT'S OFFICIAL!

Well it's official.

Tuesday, MILO: STICKY NOTES & BRAIN FREEZE had it's real-live book birthday and I couldn't just sit on my butt at home. No siree, I had to have visual proof that the book was actually IN bookstores. Besides, I was too excited to actually stay home and write and so I drove downtown and hit the trio of book sellers there.

First up, Indigo books - a huge chain of stores in Canada. I went to their "flagship" downtown Montreal location. This was my very first stop and I was filled with excitement...anticipation... and ultimately, DISAPPOINTMENT!


Like Old Mother Hubbard, I went to my bookshelf, careful to follow the alpabetical path to the "S" names. To my horror - "Silberberg" did not exist. I quickly accessed one of their nifty search kiosks and what I found was...."zero available in this store". Oh, fortuna how low you have spun me!

Lucky for me - another chain store was just up the street. And so, hat in hands, I trudged off to visit the equally huge Chapters bookstore (owned by the same company as Indigo I might add).

I walked into the basement level kids' section with trepidation. But what did I see? The familiar BLUE COVER and white lettering! Eureka - MILO EXISTED!

Now I'm usually a shy guy - but there I was gleaming at the bookshelf, camera in hand, and it wasn't long before a helpful bookseller asked if I needed anything. I told her I needed to wish my book a Happy BookDay and she eagerly obliged!

Not only did I find wonderful sales help - but while I was there (okay, because I was there and opened my big mouth) I was witness to the very first sale of my book. Technically, it was the first sale that happened in front of my own eyes, but let's not quibble over details. SOMEONE wanted to buy my book!!!

Soline was looking for books for her daughter and 12 year old son and I offered her a quick review of MILO. As it turned out she was also a therapist and immediately thought the book sounded like something she might be able to use with families dealing with grief and so, eager to give it to her son first - she bought a copy!

my FIRST sale! Thanks Soline!

Next up - the last downtown bookstore, Paragraphe. This is the store that will be hosting my book launch next month. On October 14th, Paul Bracegirdle and I will be having a joint launch party for our new books at Paragraphe. More details to come!

I love Paragraphe because it's a cramped space packed full with books and weaving my way to the kids' section was kind of like navigating a wild maze of books. And to my delight - I saw stacks of MILO. Yay! Again I needed some help and so got the fabulous book buyer to blow the streamer for Milo!
I pulled up a chair (gotta love those little kids' tables) and signed a few copies. Nothing cements that "I'm an author" feeling like inscribing books!

My search began with a big fat "zero" at the first bookstore but ended happily with one real-live book sold, a bunch of signed books, and then a hundred or so TWITTER BOOK PARTY tweeted messages.

Hey authors - are you a member of Twitter Book Parties? If not - why not? This brain child by author Mitali Perkins is genuis because it makes the usual lonely part of having your book come out turn into a joyful day of tweet "greetings" from all the members of the book party universe. Not only does it make you feel kinda sorta special - every tweet is also telling that person's followers about your new book. Social marketing and fuzzy feelings all in one click!

Later this week, I hit some of the smaller book stores in my area. Hey, I like to know MILO is in good hands!

BEST DAY EVER!

I have always marveled at the people who can point easily to the perfect days in their lives and say without pause, "That was the best day." I mean, I'm a writer. Ask me to point to a miserable day and I can deal out a dozen or so in a heartbeat.

But the game has changed because I now have that day, that PERFECT DAY, etched forever in my brain-box. It all began with a weekend trip to New York to visit with my editor, Liesa Abrams, at Aladdin. Apparently there were people in her office who had read MILO: STICKY NOTES & BRAIN FREEZE and wanted a chance to meet me. Cool, I thought. I'll just drive down from Montreal and take Milo with me on the one condition that I control the radio.

The weekend fun was kicked off by walking from our hotel through Times Square on our way to meet Liesa and her husband for a matinee of AVENUE Q. Times Square always smells like a hot summer day so it felt normal to be bombarded by the sights, sounds and smells of a 92 degree, humid summer Sunday.

After Milo and I sweated through clean shirts and baked under the July haze - we got to the theater and sat through the hysterical musical. Everyone says the puppets are "so racy" - but even Milo thought the show was kind of tame. I guess that's what watching so much SOUTH PARK will do to a kid's brain!

Had a lovely dinner with Liesa and James and as super-fantatstic as that Sunday was, it was just the precursor to the Monday that was to come. First I had to check-out of my hotel and though I had a minor freak-out that I'd lost my passport (found after a frantic search through the suitcase that then fell apart) the morning began slightly less humid and with a vente iced latte, so all was good.

Milo and I arrived outside the Simon & Schuster offices and he was immediately awed by the building.

We went inside and rode the elevator to the 4th floor. Stepping off the elevator the first thing I saw was this wall of MILO books. We both felt a surge of caffeine-adrenaline and posed for a picture taken with exquisite care by the multi-talented Liesa Abrams.

Not only is Liesa an incredibly talented editor and a great photographer - but she is the coolest person in the world because she loves all things BATMAN. This is a shot of a shelf in her office.

Now you have to realize that Liesa had tried to prepare me for what was to come by hoping that I'd be ready to "share the love" around the office. But I had no idea that Milo (the book) had so many fans already! I walked into the conference room and was met by dozens of people who had read and LOVED the book and it was probably the most overwhelmed I'd been in a long while. I had a chance to speak to the group and explain how personal Milo's story is to me.

Then I had Milo pose with everyone.

This was the first moment that my book felt like it was really out in the world and I made sure to bask in the feeling that it was a story that was touching people. Writing a book about parental loss and grief was an emotional journey for me and seeing that the emotion carries to other people touched me very much. Because the final book isn't ready yet I signed printed copies of several of the book's cartoons for people, which again just hit home how real the experience of publishing Milo felt.

The morning was made even more special because my wonderful agent, Jill Grinberg was there too. Thanks Jill!

Liesa, Me, Milo and Jill

Life is supposed to be full of great days but sometimes I've had a hard time finding them. I am so thankful to everyone at Simon & Schuster who was part of this incredibly special day for me. Of course I feel lucky just to have a new book being published - but to be able to feel the support and emotion of what my book is starting to mean to the people reading it is giving a new meaning to the BEST DAY EVER.

For me and Milo anyway.

MILO Summer

It's getting pretty real. Milo's publication date is actually something concrete to me and not some distant date that has no meaning. Still - September is just far enough away and no one wants to start thinking about that season that comes after summer. (Shhhh...pub. date is Sept. 14) But I've got the date circled on my calendar!!

Also want to give a shout out to Fuse8 over at School Library Journal, who not only gave Milo his first review - but it's a pretty GREAT one at that! (Thanks, Betsy!)

So summer is sizzling and Milo's just doing what he should be doing...hanging out!

HANGING OUT WITH JILL MURRAY

I may not win the award for most frequent blog posts - but I do hope to snag a blue ribbon when it comes to having great guests drop by for a little one-on-one chat. Jill Murray is not only a friend and fellow Montreal author she is also the voice and code behind the wonderful kid-lit writer site Y-Eh!

Jill's first YA book, BREAK ON THROUGH was followed by the recently released RHYTHM AND BLUES, a "thoughtful and glittery young adult novel about a teenage girl's quest for - fame, love and self-identity". I loved this book and think Jill has this amazing sixth sense for capturing the voice of her main character, Alya.

I was lucky to get some time with Jill, who not only is rumored to make her own ice cream - but is busy getting ready for a big trip to do research for her next book.

And now - without further ado - give it up for Jill!

Jill: Wow. The applause is deafening.

Me: I know. If a blog article was posted in the woods would it make any sound?

Let me jump in with my first question. When I started writing MILO; STICKY NOTES & BRAIN FREEZE, the book was going to just be a silly story about a kid in junior high. As the pages added up, I realized that I was writing something deeper. I was telling my own story - a story of parental loss at a young age and the writing experience became a different journey for me.

How important do you think it is to "write what you know"? Or are your own works of fiction totally made up?

Jill: I adore hands-on research. Before I started writing Break On Through, I’d been very amateurishly trying out breakdancing for a few years, so I had a good sense of what it was like to try to break dance, and what the atmosphere is like at a battle, and how b-boys behave around each other, and a lot of little details like that. All the stuff about being confident and knowing you’re going to win— that was totally made up, ‘cause I am not like that at all, especially not about dancing, especially not in front of people.

For Rhythm and Blues, I had some past experience working with indie music, and I’ve played a bunch of instruments throughout my life, but voice wasn’t one of them. So I took singing lessons with pop-jazzy Montreal chanteuse Amanda Mabro, because I wanted to be able to get across what it feels like to learn to sing.

Finally, you may also note that my protagonists, Nadine and Alya, are black and hispanic, but if you check out my headshot, I, the author, am clearly descended from the blog-dwelling peoples of northern someplace-English. This was a case of wanting to represent the people in my neighborhoods and my life, and give some airtime to interesting voices.

What can we conclude from all this? Writing is an exercise in empathy, and “what you know” may be an emotion or a truth or a value. It’s not necessarily as constricting and literal as it may at first appear. You may know more than you give yourself credit for!

ME: In my book, not only does Milo struggle with the fog that settles in whenever he feels uncomfortable – he is in love with Summer Goodman, the prettiest girl he’s ever seen. Of course it’s a one-way crush and she’s never even spoken to him. I remember my own unattainable crush from Junior High (Janet Grenier why didn’t you like my poems?). Did you have a one-way crush back then – and how did you deal with it?

JILL: Wait. Hang on. Are you telling me there are also two-way crushes?

In the junior high years I dealt with crushes in the same way that I dealt with everything else: I hid in my room and waited to be 20. I have to say, it didn’t really work, and I’d recommend that kids today try something else.

ME: Good advice! Here's a question about your own writing process.

Because MILO borrows moments from my life, I relied on balancing the fiction of the story with things I remembered. The awful smell of hospital visits. The kindness of neighbors who wanted to help me. Waking up and then remembering how different everything then was. The memories became an important part of my palette. What role does memory play in your own writing experience?

JILL: I know I just told you that I make a lot of stuff up, and that I study new things to give life to my writing, but also, I think it’s worth pointing out that memories tell you what’s important enough to bother writing about. If a memory is still with you, chances are there’s something about it that needs further exploration or that if you share it, other people might relate to it too. Bottom line, it’s going to get its job done much better on the page than in your head.

ME: As awkward as Milo feels at his new school he is thankful he finds Marshall, an equally odd kid who likes the same movies that Milo likes and shares a passion for freezies. Friends are so important at that age. Milo would be even more lost without Marshall. Who was your junior high best friend and what was the one food thing that you both loved?

JILL: Friends are important at any age. Like right now, I have friends who share my love of onion rings, olives, summer drinks on balconies, indian food, coffee, vegan ice cream sandwiches, avocados and oatmeal. But maybe this is more about how much I love to eat. When I was Milo’s age, my best friend had moved away, and it took me a really, really, REALLY, long time to find another one. There was an incident in high school where a friend and I spent an hour daring each other to go ask the elderly couple at the next table if we could borrow a french fry “just for a minute.” But we were too polite to actually follow through.

ME: Sitting in the right cafe….curled up with the dog on my lap….tucked away at a book store with people reading all around me. Those are some of my favorite places to write. Where do you like to write?

JILL: As you well know, I like to write at Cafe Shaika, in Montreal, across the room from either you or P.J. Bracegirdle, so I can peer over the top of my laptop at you and wonder if you’re being more productive than I am, and then interrupt you if it looks like that might just be true. I also like to write on trains, and on my front balcony when it’s warm but shady.

ME: Selfishly I always like to hear how other writers deal with the dreaded “writer’s block”. I have days that seem impenetrable when it comes to being creative. When I’m stuck I like to doodle or read a book…or do laundry. What do you do when the muse just won’t show up?

JILL: That slackerly muse! It’s so hard to find good help these days.

Actually, I don’t have a muse. It’s all “writer’s block” to me. Uphill, everyday, dragging the heavy burden of unwritten manuscripts.

I took a creative writing workshop with writer Kent Nussey once in the early ‘00s (I like typing it that way because it makes me sound like I’m 130 years old.) and he’d spent a lot of time worrying about writers block, and ultimately decided that it’s really just “failure of the ego.” By that, I think he meant that it’s not that you can’t write, it’s just that you think you ought to be having better ideas than you actually are, and that embarrasses and disappoints you, and so you don’t write.

That’s how I decided to take it. And I simply can’t have anyone thinking my ego is defective, so I just imagine I’m some kind of donkey or workhorse, and I put on my yoke and drag the till endlessly across the field, feeling sorry for myself as I write embarrassing, disappointing things. Eventually, in revisions, everything starts looking up again, and I remember that no, actually, I am awesome.

ME: In revisions, thankfully - we're all awesome! Thanks for taking time out from your crazy schedule. One last question: So we can all be jealous - what flavor ice cream did you recently make?

JILL: Mint chocolate cookie dough.

ME: Yum!! You truly are awesome!

MILO on FACEBOOK

I recently wrote about being a Facebook newbie, and to be honest I'm still pretty green when it comes to poking, friending and deciding whether I want to comment on someone else's decision to like "Big Bang Theory" or "100 things I never want to eat".

Still as all my writer friends continually urge me - Facebook is just one of many places we need to put our best word forward and shout about our books, school visits, favorite book stores and what we had for lunch (tuna sandwich, very tasty). I know everyone is hungering to know what is happening in my oh-so-exciting life, which really boils down to doing a lot of laundry and asking the dog if he needs to pee.

But with a new book about to be published I have to face the reality that we writer-types have to do whatever we can to tell anyone with ears that we have a new book coming out. So here I go: MILO: STICKY NOTES & BRAINFREEZE is being published by Aladdin on September 14th. For all you BEA attendees, drop by the booth and pick up an ARC. Tell them, Alan sent ya!

For everyone else - be forewarned: I am on a Milo mission and even though I am usually a pretty reserved guy, I will stop at nothing to mention him. Heck, Milo's even got his own Facebook profile. So if you need a new friend who is 13 years old and has a passion for Freezies - check him out there! You'll not only get to know him - but you'll also meet some of his friends.

FACING FACEBOOK

I used to be an early adopter of all things tech but have to admit I was resistant to joining Facebook mainly because the last thing this attention deficicient writer needs is something else that I can check up on and obsess over.

But alas, I didst succumb to the siren's song. (Okay, the siren was my editor and marketing exec at Aladdin - and their song was more of a pleasant chat). So here I am on FACEBOOK. Yay. And yes, I am wasting all sorts of time, thankfully avoiding building farms or becoming a hit man - but still I am now watching my wall grow and staring at the stream of comments from people I know, or sort of know, or know someone I know or once knew. Phew...

I know we writers are supposed to be the leaders of our own PR parades and that's why I jumped in. With MILO just a mere 4 months away from pub date I know that I need to be doing everything I can to be visible. And as much as I kicked and screamed about social media - I am having lots of fun posting and linking and commenting and counting "friends" like a growing number of jellybeans in a jar (which is always within reach of my wandering desktop mind).

So if you're reading this and want to know what I'm thinking and linking to - come on over. But if you expect me to link to a Twitter account I'm still resisting that one...this week.

Milo's New Cover

I can't believe the amount of time that has elapsed since my last post. Can I write it off to the slumping economy? Global warming? Canada beating USA in the gold medal hockey game? (and with that sentence I think I just admitted that yes, I am finally adjusting to life in Canada!)

Many new things to write about but for now I just want to SHOW OFF the brand new cover for Milo. Oh, and the title now officially is: Milo: Sticky Notes & Brain Freeze. (My giddy ego loves that the book is already up for pre-order on Amazon - reminding me it's really getting published.)

I love the simplicity of the letters and how the solid color background makes my characters pop. And we worked long and hrad to get Milo's expression just right. Karin Paprocki, Art Impressario of Team Milo, really worked overtime to get the cover perfect and I can only boast (yet again) of the wonderful collaboration going on between me and my editors at Aladdin. Thanks Liesa and Karin!

So, what do you guys think of the cover? I'd love to hear some unbiased feedback....as long as it's all glowing!!!!