Here's a link to my tardy blog on Kidlit '07:
Not really scared of Barry--Mandabach's too-long post on Andrew Karre's FLUX Blog ;-)
Peace, Love, and Vinyl!
Brian
Friday, October 19, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
BACKTALK!!! Trailer for/scene from ALEX RICHARDS's novel, by Alex Richards!
Even though I feel that--at this moment in time--everything should rightfully be about MY book, I have to give props to my girl Alex Richards and HER book.
It's an original take on teenaged NYC, and Alex is a filmmaker as well as a writer, so this is a very original take on the Bookomercial Book Trailer.
Short and sweet!
View it!
Send it around!
It's an original take on teenaged NYC, and Alex is a filmmaker as well as a writer, so this is a very original take on the Bookomercial Book Trailer.
Short and sweet!
View it!
Send it around!
Monday, October 8, 2007
Invisible Children, Mandabach's literary debut, and you?
I'm getting excited about my book launch party. This should be a fun little gathering at an amazingly cool place: a nursery and garden with cool statuary everywhere, little copses of trees, and a gorgeous sunset-over-the-Peak-view!
There'll be music and sodypop and Cassie's favorite vegan food.
And you? Come on up the Colorado and join me! :)
Hosted By: Mandabach, author of OR NOT
When: Thursday Oct 11, 2007
at 5:00 PM
Where: Hillside Gardens
1006 S. Institute
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
United States
Description:
Mandabach, author of OR NOT
Click Here To View Event
There'll be music and sodypop and Cassie's favorite vegan food.
And you? Come on up the Colorado and join me! :)
Hosted By: Mandabach, author of OR NOT
When: Thursday Oct 11, 2007
at 5:00 PM
Where: Hillside Gardens
1006 S. Institute
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
United States
Description:
Mandabach, author of OR NOT
Click Here To View Event
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Get the book! ... or not
I've heard that my book is in stores and I know it is available via internet shopping. Local librarians tell me that it's already reserved.
Cool.
I'm off to Kidlitosphere in Chicago, hosted by Robin Brande whose Evolution, Me, & Other Freaks of Nature is an excellent read. I've been way too busy to blog about it, though I've wanted to--not just because it is well-written and right-on, but because it has some odd similarities to Or Not. And some dissimilarities as well. If I had my students read both, we'd be able to make some serious venn diagrams.
I'm also going to teach 5 creative writing classes at Barrington High School, a place I haven't set foot in since graduation in 1980.
Damn.
And spend a couple of days in the city with my beloved, with whom I haven't had a vacation alone since 1996.
Damn.
Wish me happy trails.
Peace
Cool.
I'm off to Kidlitosphere in Chicago, hosted by Robin Brande whose Evolution, Me, & Other Freaks of Nature is an excellent read. I've been way too busy to blog about it, though I've wanted to--not just because it is well-written and right-on, but because it has some odd similarities to Or Not. And some dissimilarities as well. If I had my students read both, we'd be able to make some serious venn diagrams.
I'm also going to teach 5 creative writing classes at Barrington High School, a place I haven't set foot in since graduation in 1980.
Damn.
And spend a couple of days in the city with my beloved, with whom I haven't had a vacation alone since 1996.
Damn.
Wish me happy trails.
Peace
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
It's a REAL BOOK!
Yesterday, I got a package:
My novel is now a book.
Very excited, of course. I still can't really believe there is a book with my name on it. I'm a writer, I suppose, and I should be able to describe it better. The dust jacket is glossy and covered with that girl who isn't Cassie, but whom some of the guys in my 7th period class liked the look of enough to want to read about. The cover itself is black. I like it. The pages are smooth, but not too smooth, and very white. I like the design, the set-up of the journals, and the weight of it. It's not a slim book--at 400 pages--but not too thick to seem intimidating, I think.
I'm NOT let down, but since I have been waiting so long and with such trepidation, maybe I am more relieved than ecstatic.
The thing that really energized me was how excited that 7th period class was when I told them about Or Not yesterday (just before I found out it had arrived!) Then when I passed it around today, it was simply very cool.
I warned them that it might be too mature for some of them, lol, and expressed my horror of the thought of them going home and telling their parents that their English teacher had written a book with lots of bad words in it, and they had to get it. (I told them how Robin Brande, in Evolution, Me, & Other Freaks of Nature will say something like, "he called him a male body part," while I just write what people actually say. I do think Mom and Dad, as well as some kids, won't appreciate me calling a dick a dick, so . . . I guess we'll see soon enough what sort of a reaction I get. :/ :D)
Scary and fun.
My novel is now a book.
Very excited, of course. I still can't really believe there is a book with my name on it. I'm a writer, I suppose, and I should be able to describe it better. The dust jacket is glossy and covered with that girl who isn't Cassie, but whom some of the guys in my 7th period class liked the look of enough to want to read about. The cover itself is black. I like it. The pages are smooth, but not too smooth, and very white. I like the design, the set-up of the journals, and the weight of it. It's not a slim book--at 400 pages--but not too thick to seem intimidating, I think.
I'm NOT let down, but since I have been waiting so long and with such trepidation, maybe I am more relieved than ecstatic.
The thing that really energized me was how excited that 7th period class was when I told them about Or Not yesterday (just before I found out it had arrived!) Then when I passed it around today, it was simply very cool.
I warned them that it might be too mature for some of them, lol, and expressed my horror of the thought of them going home and telling their parents that their English teacher had written a book with lots of bad words in it, and they had to get it. (I told them how Robin Brande, in Evolution, Me, & Other Freaks of Nature will say something like, "he called him a male body part," while I just write what people actually say. I do think Mom and Dad, as well as some kids, won't appreciate me calling a dick a dick, so . . . I guess we'll see soon enough what sort of a reaction I get. :/ :D)
Scary and fun.
Friday, September 14, 2007
". . . the story is great and the writing superb!"
Can't argue with a quote like that, especially when the rest of the review is also really nice!
Check it out: review of OR NOT!
And my first interview.
Excerpt:
TR2: What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
MANDABACH: I had a student who was told by a holier-than-thou classmate that she was going to hell. How can a person who professes to be inspired by a god of love be so mean? Not that the particulars of that incident are important—I see so much meanness, from girls being called fat to boys being called gay. But I see a lot of love, too. So, my students inspired me a lot in the writing of Or Not.
:)
Check it out: review of OR NOT!
And my first interview.
Excerpt:
TR2: What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
MANDABACH: I had a student who was told by a holier-than-thou classmate that she was going to hell. How can a person who professes to be inspired by a god of love be so mean? Not that the particulars of that incident are important—I see so much meanness, from girls being called fat to boys being called gay. But I see a lot of love, too. So, my students inspired me a lot in the writing of Or Not.
:)
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
John Nichols on Or Not
Dear Journal Friends--
WRITING is a magic journey, but waiting for the book to come out is a nerve-wracking time. Like other writers I know, I'm pretty good at convincing myself that my work sucks and that it won't find its way into more than a few stores let alone anyone's backback, bedside table, or desk.
But sometimes, it just feels good to have a book on the way, and sometimes even my limitless need for reassurance abates.
When I sent OR NOT to a big hero of mine, John Nichols, who is an amazing novelist and a champion of beauty and truth in both the human and natural worlds, I didn't really expect him to read it. Not only is he a busy man with a lot of demands on his time, but he almost never blurbs. He'd much rather be hiking down into the Rio Grande Gorge, with or without a fly rod, than reading some hack's first novel.
So I was pretty much floored to get a note from him only two weeks later--filled with good wishes and praise about my book. Including this:
"Cassie Sullivan is a lovely kid, aware of the earth and how to save it, but nobody's listening. Cassie's voice is funny, angry, sad, sarcastic, and perplexed as she struggles to find her own identity. And to find hope for the future despite all the yahoos surrounding her. You will laugh, you will weep, and you'll really enjoy this delightful and poignant novel about a kooky idealist who refuses to give up as she grows up."
My editor doesn't think Cass would like being called "a lovely kid," but take it from me: though Cassie hasn't read Nichols yet, she'd glow in his words. Nichols' uncompromising integrity shines as a light of inspiration to me. Without him, OR NOT would not exist. That he read it, and approved of it, is not only a personal thrill, but it helps reassure me that I'm on the right road.
Peace,
B
WRITING is a magic journey, but waiting for the book to come out is a nerve-wracking time. Like other writers I know, I'm pretty good at convincing myself that my work sucks and that it won't find its way into more than a few stores let alone anyone's backback, bedside table, or desk.
But sometimes, it just feels good to have a book on the way, and sometimes even my limitless need for reassurance abates.
When I sent OR NOT to a big hero of mine, John Nichols, who is an amazing novelist and a champion of beauty and truth in both the human and natural worlds, I didn't really expect him to read it. Not only is he a busy man with a lot of demands on his time, but he almost never blurbs. He'd much rather be hiking down into the Rio Grande Gorge, with or without a fly rod, than reading some hack's first novel.
So I was pretty much floored to get a note from him only two weeks later--filled with good wishes and praise about my book. Including this:
"Cassie Sullivan is a lovely kid, aware of the earth and how to save it, but nobody's listening. Cassie's voice is funny, angry, sad, sarcastic, and perplexed as she struggles to find her own identity. And to find hope for the future despite all the yahoos surrounding her. You will laugh, you will weep, and you'll really enjoy this delightful and poignant novel about a kooky idealist who refuses to give up as she grows up."
My editor doesn't think Cass would like being called "a lovely kid," but take it from me: though Cassie hasn't read Nichols yet, she'd glow in his words. Nichols' uncompromising integrity shines as a light of inspiration to me. Without him, OR NOT would not exist. That he read it, and approved of it, is not only a personal thrill, but it helps reassure me that I'm on the right road.
Peace,
B
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)