The Qwikpick Adventure Society did not make the Horn Book’s list of Love Stories.

In fact, even people who tell me they liked the book almost never mention the love story.

 But to me, that’s at the heart of the book. It’s Lyle’s love for Marilla that gives the story meaning for me. (It may help that I know what happens in the sequel.)

Possibly the moment the book took fire was when I wrote the bit about: “Marilla says to put in that neither of us [Dave and Lyle] are her boyfriend. Nor will we become her boyfriend by the end of the story.”

And the Lyle goes back and secretly adds: “But don’t worry! Wheels will be set in motion!”

That sort of made the whole thing come alive. That made it, to me at least, much more than a story about a poop fountain.

And then there’s The Great Origami Pegasus Disaster, where Dave wins a major victory by not only folding the pegasus (which Lyle couldn’t do) but by giving it to Marilla who hangs it in her locker.

But Lyle does have his moment, too. Wheels are indeed set in motion! Unfortunately they are set in motion whilst he is partially covered in sewage.

Someone posted a review on GoodReads that had this nifty and nice little line about Qwikpick:

Excellent pick for reluctant readers — the How to Eat Fried Worms for the 21st century.

Yes, yes, I know I’ve tooted that horn before. But today I got a copy of my section of the book from my editor.

I’m not sure, but I think Qwikpick my be listed under “holiday” books. That’s great, because I think it makes a swell holiday story. There’s certainly no treacle in it. but it does take place on Christmas day after all. (Maybe I should have reminded everyone of this while there was still time to order a copy from Amazon.)

So there I am between Peiling and the Chicken-Fried Christmas and Reaching for the Sun, with Rickshaw Girl rounding out our category.

The summary of the book goes like this:

“An unlikely trio of friends spends Christmas in a very unlikely way.”

That rather reminds me of “Mostly Harmless.”

 I do wish there was one little intriguing detail in there. Perhaps “a very unlikely, very smelly way.” But it’s crazy to complain when I’m so delighted to have made it into this book.

Whew! Cece’s Blog Tour has been amazing fun! Check out a few of the interviews and articles if you haven’t yet at Blog Tour HQ.  If you’d like to see a Mutant Bird read the book, try the Plastic Pumpkins link. And enter the contest to win an actual illustration from the book starting Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday… I’ll be signing copies of The Qwikpick Adventure Society Saturday, that’s tomorrow, at Ram’s Head Books in Roanoke, as you can clearly see in this ad….

… okay, so I wasn’t actually mentioned. But I will be there if you want to buy a book. Or if you need me to hold your coat or get you a cup of punch while you’re getting Cece to sign Bee-Wigged.

You folks remember Sweet Daisy, right? Well, she’s struck again. With a brand new poem!

At an early Qwikpick Instant Poetry Contest she composed a funny, to the point, stinky poem. (Stinky poems are part of my book, The Qwikpick Adventure Society, and I use that section of the book to get kids to write short, fast & stinky poems. A reading, voting and prizes follow.)

Anyway, Daisy’s original poem was:

Poots

I smelled this poot

And it was very yucky.

My original post of the poem has received 1,136 hits. So when I ran into Daisy and her mom again recently, I asked her to write me a new stinky poem. As you can see. Her writing has matured since her earlier work. And while she offers a variation on the original theme, she now chooses to shed new light on the subject matter and it’s origin.

Here is Sweet Daisy’s NEW Nasty Poem:

My Bruther’s poots smell

rely bad! They smell rely BaD

rely Bad! Poot Poot! See

I told you.

Thanks, Daisy! And Daisy’s Brother .. I’m sorry.

It was quite a week! Did I mention I did 7 shows at 3 schools in 2 days? Good times!

At one of those shows I launched into my thing and this kid announces that he was the Penny Basketball Champion at a show I did last year. (In case you’re not hep to the Qwikpick scene, Penny Basketball, along with crab soccer, are the favored sports of Lyle and Dave. The book includes Dave’s illustrated instructions for playing Penny Basketball.)

Then the kid claimed to have checked Qwikpick out of the library 5 times. FIVE TIMES! After the show he and his sister practically forced their mother to buy a copy. If she had said no I probably would have given them a copy.  I got their picture, but I failed to ask for permission to put it online. But trust me, they’re a couple of real Qwikpickers!

Today was a freebie visit to a local school for some sort of reading week they were having. On my way there i realized I didn’t have my stuff and had to zoom back home and the back to town and just barely made it. Nobody there seemed to know who I was …  in fact they had a couple of books (not mine) picked out for me to read to the kids. The kids hadn’t been prepared for my visit by reading my book or even learning about it. I was basically a complete non-entity who suddenly appeared in their classroom.

Recipe for disaster? No way. It was a blast! Great kids and unusually enthusiastic teachers! (No teacher fell asleep this time!)

It was my first time reading to kids from “Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run.” I think they liked it. I focused on his being a 21st-century kid/whiner and then his sudden appearance in the middle of the real battle.

 As for Qwikpick … it turned out that these kids had taken a field trip to the VERY SAME wastewater treatment plant that Lyle, Dave and Marilla visit. (However, their visit was post-Poop Fountain.)

I’ve said it before, but I may as well repeat it. There are few rewards for being a kidlit author, in fact their are many punishments – rejections, waits, slow book signings, etc…

But a good school visit can put you on top of the world!

As I may have mentioned earlier, Qwikpick got nomination for a Cybil again this year — and this time by someone I didn’t have to pay!

While, Qwikpick won’t actually get to compete again, I was so pleased by the nomination that I wrote to the librarian in question to say thanks. She agreed to let me post her thoughts on the book:

I love the book – you did a wonderful job of using the word “poop” an unbelievable number of times while still managing to weave a clever, funny and sensitive story of friendship and adventure.  I literally snorted with laughter on more than one occasion.  I hope there will be sequels!

 

Rebecca Bartlett, MLIS
Librarian
Parrsboro Regional High/Elementary Schools

Some people have trouble understanding why the appearance of, say, a big ugly stripmall with a bunch of big and little box stores is a bad thing. (Yes, really! I know this because I write a newspaper column and people write back. Some people think stripmalls are doing us a big favor!)

To understand the horror of such places, let’s imagine for a moment that The Snarkout Boys (and Rat) were seeking adventure in a homogenized stripmalled “re-developed” town, rather than Baconburg.

First of all, they’d be the RegalCinemaBoys and they wouldn’t get to see cool old movies, they’d have to sit through the usual junk and they probably wouldn’t bother. But if they did it might go something like this*:

 It was a great night. First, The Mighty Gorilla picked us up in his Kia and took us to Applebee’s. Then we picked up Rat from her parent’s house at Baconview Pointe. Then, after sitting at some very long traffic lights, we met up with Osgood Sigerson at Northside Plaza to talk about the night’s plans.

 ”The Wal-Mart Pharmacy,” began Sigerson, smoking his stinking pipe, “is, as you may know, a noted meeting ground for the artistic and intellectual lights of the city.”

 Just then his assistant Dr. Sacker raced in: “There’s trouble at Rack Room Shoes!”

Yes, every time a fast food chain store rears its head, we lose a Bignose’s. Every Applebee’s is one less Ben Beanbender’s Beer Garden. Every Whopper sold is one less Borgelnuskie!

 If I tried to transcribe every description of every wabi-sabi place in Baconburg, then I’d end up copying half the book. So just read it.

As Pinkwater once said, perhaps on the radio, “Something there is that does not love a mall.”

* Or it might go something like this: This is the official report of the Qwikpick Adventure Society’s trip to ….