BRAIN DOODLES

My second book is knocking on my brain and the only way to deal with it is to write as much as I can in between the ridiculous jobs I have and other tasks that are pulling me in a zillion directions. (Alas - I do believe this is called "life" and I accept the challenge with a smile )

That said - this BOOK TWO is taking many forms - and one of my brains (for I have many) is drawn to drawing. I find I am making headway in my journey through little doodles that keep popping into this brain and then appearing on paper.

It's quite fun actually - and I marvel at the connection of mind/subconscious to the writing process. It's fascinating what happens when the brain store closes and all the employees go home. Ideas...snippets...sounds....and PICTURES.

Though posting is hard these days - I hope to keep sharing doodles as I write on!

REACH OUT AND READ - ROCKS!

Here's the picture of yours truly that ran in Publishers Weekly as a "Pic Of The Day", which made my parents finally admit that I really had a book published.

I donated a bunch of Pond Scum for Reach Out And Read to give to pediatricians, who then give them out to patients all over the U.S.

Here's what I think about ROR:

1) Great cause.

2) Amazing people (Hi Jackie!)

3) They gave me a great baseball cap - red! (not to be confused with a Red Sox cap)

4) They are headquartered in Boston!

Anyway - cool red hat or no hat - it's always nice to give something back and get books into hands of kids.

LOOK WHAT HAPPENED...

I wrote the book ...but a bunch of kids did the rest!

All I can say is, "It's a honor to be an Honour. Thanks you guys!"

HATS OFF TO GREGORY K!

Like cheering on that marathon runner who has just a few final steps to go - I raise my glass in a toast to the one and only GregoryK!

For those who don't know - (and whoever you are - how could that be?) GregoryK of GOTTABOOK has spent the last 30 days writing hysterical, original poems as part of National Poetry Month.

If you haven't had the pleasure of his silliness check out his site and read his month-long stream of poems (...and his Oddaptations are pretty darn funny too!)

And in my best rhyme-schemed way - I say:

Here's to Greg K -
Or GottaBook, as he's known.
Spent the last month
makin' up poems.

His rhymes made me laugh
In all sorts of ways -
I guess it's back to the prose
Starting on Tuesday.

Way to go Greg! It was really fun to read 'em and I imagine funner to write 'em.

BRAINSTORMIN', WRITIN', SCHMOOZIN'

Hey - just read that Sarah Mlynowski's new book, "Gimme A Call" was snapped up by Delacorte for a release sometime in 2009. Sarah is the YA author of the trilogy "Bras and Broomsticks", "Frogs and French Kisses", and the soon to be released "Spells and Sleeping Bags".

Now I don't know Sarah, but next Monday she is one of five authors participating in the Young Authors Workshop sponsored by the Montreal Jewish Library. The other authors who will be giving workshops for the 5th -6th grade kids are Eva Wiseman, Kathy Kacer, M.C. Millman, and moi.

The best part about the two days is I get to meet and schmooze with other authors. Any chance I'm given to leave the dungeon and actually converse with live beings is a plus - but when I get to chat with writers....it's PLUS X PLUS SQUARED!

I've given workshops - but never within this environment. It's a two day thing (different kids each day) and we'll be doing two workshops a day for an hour and a half. I'm having a blast brainstorming ideas to try out with the kids and hopefully no one will spitball me!

If anyone has some great writing exercises they want to share - I'm all ears!

HORNED TOAD TALES

This Saturday if you're in the Houston area, specifically the Cypress-Fairbanks burb - then you just have to drop in at this Barnes and Nobles.

The Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School System is celebrating their second annual Horned Toad Tales list by having their school librarians and media specialists read excerpts from the selected books every hour.

And what books are on this list of recommended reads for kids in 3rd - 5th grade?
Take a look!

And yes....(blush-blush) Pond Scum is hopping around with the toads (much better than sleeping with the fishes)!

Thanks Horned Toad Tales committee - and have a blast this weekend!

HELLO? SPRING...YOU OKAY?

On this thoroughly yucky Montreal day - a few musings:

#1: The Disco Mermaids contest rocks! The prizes are the coolest - but it's the submissions of celebrity book titles that give my procrastination props! (love reading what people have come up with so far)

#2: If it doesn't stop snowing soon I'm going to go a tad nutso. It's APRIL! Flower buds and songbirds should be outside my window - not icicles and slush. IT'S JUST WRONG!

#3: Thank you to everyone who viewed my new BOOK TRAILER and linked it or shared it or did things with it that I'd rather not know about! PR is the hardest part of this job - and without the help of friends who are strangers, and the strangers who are becoming friends - book awareness can be about as futile as the spring that hasn't yet sprung!

#4: Lastly - on a real and tragic note - I am filled with sorrow and confusion over yesterday's Virginia Tech shootings. It was just last Sept. that a Montreal school was rocked by a smaller, though no less tragic shooting - my heart is full and my head filled with questions. (sigh)

POND SCUM BOOK TRAILER Part Deux

If you read my previous post you know I was a tad reticent to post this on YouTube cuz it looks a little less crisp than I like. But my inner circle has convinced me that this is the way to go so....

The Author's Self-publicity plea holds: Feel free to share this Book Trailer with anyone with eyeballs! (free cookies to the one who has the most friends)

If this one seems too scrunched up and iddy-biddy and you crave to watch it in its BIG SCREEN GLORY - take a gander here!

IF YOU LIKE IT - LINK IT!

It's no news that being an author means having to "BE" so many other things. "Researcher", "Actor", even "Guy-Who-Naps-Often" are all roles that can sometimes add bolts of electricity to the creative process (well - mine anyway).

There's one role however that just saps my juice - that's the dreaded "Publicist" role. I know, until any of us achieve the pinnacle of publishing success where books just fly off shelves while we toil at our keyboards - this is a job for us. It's Author 101 that to sell our books - we have to use the ol' DIY approach to get the word out there.

Don't get me wrong - though all-consuming, I don't mind doing this stuff (tho I write a lousy press release). I'm thrilled to bits-of-chocolate that in promoting Pond Scum I've made wonderful connections with terrific people, places and bookshelves. It's just a lot of work...time that might be devoted to actually finishing a follow-up book!

All that to say I just spent the last week having a BLAST making a BOOK TRAILER to celebrate the PAPERBACK release of my book. Yeah, BIG FUN making it....way too much wasted time trying to get a decent-looking copy onto one of the sharing sites...(YouTube, GoogleVideo, et al) they convert my tiny crisp file into mud...so at the risk of spending even more time solving this one...please view the above Quicktime movie or for an even bigger image, my WEBSITE.

And remember: IF YOU LIKE IT - LINK IT!

That's my publicist pitch anyway - and thanks in advance!

NOT JUST A FLOOR WAX...

So it was in a moment of pure brain-cell-meltdown that I took a break from Book #2 and wandered to the GOOGLE button to see what's what with that thing that we shall call Book #1.

Obviously, to me - POND SCUM is a book, a fabulous book, a book now out in paperback!

But imagine my surprise to see what else is going on with the gooey stuff:

Pond Scum a possible cure for Alzheimers!

Pond Scum the next big thing in biofuel? (note to self: order that hybrid car now...)

Pond Scum as art??? (I was surprised to see this creative force comes from Montreal!)

Pond Scum and a connection to John Water's new Court TV television series. Wow - if any director could bring my book to life...it probably wouldn't be Mr. "Hairspray" Waters - but lucky for us all the script for this episode of his new show is here to peruse!

There were plenty of other uses: many "lawyers are pond scum", "boyfriends are pond scum", and apparently to the St. Louis Cardinal fans - the NY Mets are pond scum too.

With so many useful (and abusive) applications of my title I ask YOU - if "POND SCUM" has new meaning in your life?

BECAUSE SPRING IS TAKING ITS SWEET TIME TO ARRIVE!

CLICK TO WATCH

When writing comes about as slowly as the spring that, in Montreal, arrives some time about June - I turn my WADD-(writer's-attention-defecit-disorder) to playing with Flash and making little toons that soothe my savage beast - and then drive it a bit nutso.

To shift a mood o'mine that could be a tad funky - all it takes is the opening strains of Red Clay Rambler's rendition of Spike Jones' "Pal-yat-chee" and I'm a-smilin'.

ZERO AND FINK

CLICK TO WATCH!

Two high school outcasts figuring out the world one popped-zit at a time!

HEADS UP

Medusa be damned! Writing is a multi-tasking nightmare when it comes to juggling the different heads needed to make it through each creative day. Disco Mermaid Eve wrote about her own split personality disorder re. her own writing projects - a daunting mind-altering task if ever there was one.

I too need to talk myself down from the ledge as I try and stay focussed enough to keep one of the many heads in line. Writing-The-New-Book-Head wants to delve into character work. Mr.Time-to-Look-For-Work-Head needs to write some emails to clients past, present and future. The Head-Of-A-Thousand-Naps begs to doze off for just a minute or two. And my Marketing Head of Doom knows there's no time like the present to try and get attention for POND SCUM's paperback release.

Therapy has helped. Sugar hasn't. My attempts to stay focussed work for ten or fifteen minutes until the next head begs for attention. I grew up in an anxiety-riddled world filled with early loss and later neglect - so it's no wonder I've created a work life that is just as insecure and anxiety-filled (that's what the therapist says anyway!)

Still, we creative types trudge on, head(s) held high with the hope and desire that with all these disparent voices ringing always inside us - a truth shall emerge that is both satisfying to an outside world as well as a unifier inside, giving all the heads something to hold up together....for a moment or two, until it's time for a nap, a new chapter, another job, or even a blog post that gives them all something to feel good about.

Onwards and Upwards.

THE ODDBALLS

Writing my book is a blast...when I'm actually writing it! In other words, procrastination time! Who remembers High School fondly? Okay - you three people are excused from class. For everyone else (self included) I created a little toon that marches to the beat of a different accordian.

Please say hello to - THE ODDBALLS .

MY MU(SE)

Sometimes it's the little things.

In my case it's what sits at the base of my computer: three monkeys and the found object they protect. Writing is a mysterious process; one which baffles me and thwarts me at every turn. Still inside lurks this "thing" that wants out and if I listen hard enough and stop worrying voices from overtaking me, I can become quiet and remember the story I started that wants me back.

The monkeys urge me. The MU key begs me to dive without fear, trusting the words will be there to cushion the fall. It's a small step. But discovering I want to write again fills me with hope.

On your mark....get set....bye.

SHELF LIFE

Florida and I go way back. I worked there. Lived there. Vacationed there. Helped my in-laws move after the hurricanes there.

Add to that the first sighting of a certain paperback book bearing my name!

Yup. I just got back from a 10 day escape from Montreal's winter. We figure once you get past February's wicked hump - spring is only a scant 4 months away up here where it starts getting warm in June!

It was a great trip that began as a solo romp with my son - where we spent 3 exhausting days playing at my old stomping grounds of DisneyWorld (yay, Tower of Terror!) I got to have dinner with old friends (thanks again Diane for the travel mix-tape!). Then off to south Florida where my wife joined up at her folks and we gorged on fried fish and chips. While at my in-laws we took an afternoon trip to a bookstore and there I had the pleasure of discovering my PAPERBACK on the shelves of Barnes and Nobles.

I am thrilled (of course!) And after finding the book properly shelved - we immediately turned the book to show the cover, which I urge everyone to do!

"THE NEW PHONEBOOKS ARE HERE!"

Okay. Anyone who knows the Steve Martin classic "The Jerk" will recognize that enthusiastic line. And anyone who doesn't, put on your stupid hat and go rent it!

A box arrived at my door the other day - and recognizing the return address and obvious girth - I knew it was a bof o' books: namely my books. The sight of POND SCUM paperbacks filled me with that great feeling which comes to all of us insecure types, which plainly is: "I really did sell a book." I suspect that this feeling stays with us no matter how often it happens (and hopefully I'll be able to tell you that's true when next I get published).

Anyway - I'm thrilled and scared because the paperback version represents the real litmus test. Now affordable, will POND SCUM find its audience? Will stores stock it? Do new reviews even exist?

I'm truly not sure how an author writes new things when the head gets so bogged down in trying to get a book "out there". But I'm thrilled to find out!

Pond Scum (the paperback) will be in stores March 1st - so mark your calendars!

DOG WALKIN'

We have a new dog. I am the one home all day.

Put the two together and you can guess whose day gets interrupted the most around here!

In that spirit: I recently came across this 'toon I made awhile ago - way before having a dog.

I'm not sure if I'm prouder of finishing this with audio or figuring out how to embed it in blogger. What a wonderful day filled with procrastinating tasks!

WRITER RETREAT (from the cold!)

The cold has settled in, which creatively I find inspirational. Since I spend most of my time locked away inside (my house and my brain), the record-low temps appeases my guilt about never leaving the house. Add to that the constant care of our new puppy (Zeus) and I have sealed the deal on becoming house-bound forever.

This leads to creative relaxation - no pressure to roam away from my wonderful workspace (except to take Zeus out, which we've got down to a near-science). In this head space I am stumbling upon new ideas and bursts of words on new and old projects. My movie with the Disney Channel has been well-received (so far) and the new projects I am working on flow nicely.

Still, as any readers of these ramblings know, writing is a world of uncertaintity and in that I take the same kind of solice as I do with the cold weather. Trapped by choice in a career of unknowns feels oddly safe. And as I stare at the ice outside I know I am doing exactly what I am meant to do with my life: Stay nested; Stay warm; Stay creative; Walk the dog.

Not a bad life if you ask me.

NEW YEAR - OLD HABITS

Wow - are we really into a whole week of a new year and I haven't posted any sort of HUZZAH or NEW YEARS GREETING?

Yup.

My procrastination has followed me from one year's failed resolution to another and I swear I should stop trying to be the guy I'm not (that would be the one who imagines that he will post every day about the writing process with great wit and insight). Truth is: it's just ME again; the guy who wants to finish his second novel and get his movie made and make funny BOOK-TOONS and post sporadically about why he hasn't posted.

I have post traumatic stress about posting - and I'm not afraid to admit it.

On that note - I feel I've blabbed enough to constitute an actual "post".

ps: Wednesday night I'm going to the first "mixer" of Writer and Illustrator types here in Montreal that's being put together by a library person who wants to create a "network". I'll let you know how it goes after I see what kind of snacks they serve!