The House on Weeble Hill

Notice anything terrifying about this Weeble Haunted House? That’s right … the Weebles are gone! Or are they?

 

 

All and Sundry

For you Qwikpickers out there: Derek Kirk Kim, who did such spot-on portraits of my characters for the cover, has a new graphic novel out. I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s reviewed on Guys Lit Wire: http://guyslitwire.blogspot.com/2009/10/dont-miss-these-graphic-novels.html

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An interesting sidenote. This graphic novel and Qwikpick may be the yellowest two books in the world…

 

Speaking of GLW, I’ve got a post up there encouraging folks to try the librivox version of Wilkie Collins’ “Woman in White,” which I’m currently listening to. This’ll be my third and a half Wilkie Collins novel — Fallen Leaves, Moonstone and No Thru Traffic (or whatever that rather limp story he wrote with Dickens was called).

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I recently finished Ayala’s Angel by Anthony Trollope. Truthfully, I dozed through the end. The book really started off with great promise but went on for far too long. And the ending felt like Trollope was filling in a template. Worst of all — no politics! Apparently it was one of his last books and he couldn’t at first even get it published in England. I guess folks were tired of his formula. But man, when he had that formula cooking it was awesome! (See … The Way We Live Now.)

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Another note for Qwikpickers, I bought my pumpkins from Farmer Don again this year. (Real name Dan Brann.) Yes, he really did get run out of town by development, just like in my book. Now he grows the pumpkins out of town and trucks them in to, of all places, Wal-Mart.

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And now back to Halloween…

What with all the Origami Yoda work here lately, I’ve really let Halloween slip. But the 129 doodles made their way to my editor New York yesterday — with an assist from a helpful guy in the Abrams mail room — and now I have a bit of time to think Halloween.

To help us get in the mood, here’s an olden day analog photo of a very legendary Halloween event from my past:

Boxing Hot Dog (me) is attacked by Homecoming Queens!

My Star Wars powered Origami Yoda workspace

I do most of my work at the kitchen counter, but the recent work for Origami Yoda has required more space and solitude than that spot can offer.

So I moved upstairs to my “office:”

A few Star Wars highlights:

Clockwise from top: Slave1, Star Wars Micromachines, Millenium Falcon, X-Wing, TIE Fighter*, Star Wars collectible card game, Star Wars Stickers box, Gamorrean Guard action figure, several Origami Yodas and the Yoda-folding instructions that will be in the book.

The Falcon, TIE Fighter and X-wing are in this undignified position on the shelf because of the tragic collapse of the Star Wars mobile… which was immortalized in verse in this blog post.

My interview with the Peep-zapping Lisa Yee…

If you’re not aware of how Lisa Yee’s coolness extends beyond her books — all the way to the microwave — read my interview with her on GeekDad.

She tells you all you need to know to get started in the fun and profitable hobby of cooking marshmallow Peeps in the microwave…

Here’s a sample from my own experiments under her tutelage… A before and after shot. Wow, look at those terrible yellow eyes on the right. Hey, what if Where the Wild Things Are was inspired by … PEEPS?

More notes from Crazyland

Tom:

Hopefully, I’ve left Crazyland behind. Today I sent off the illustrations for Origami Yoda. 129 or so “doodles” in the margins as drawn by one of the characters. Man, I’ve never worked so hard on “doodles” in my life.

When you have to be sure that a doodle is going to end up looking right and being the right size, etc… it ceases to be doodling. A lot of lightbox work has been going on.

One of the biggest jobs was a big manga-style doodle. I don’t know how to draw manga, but I figure the character probably does. So I got a how-to book and learned enough to make one drawing.

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It’s Square Dance Calling time again. (Oct. 24. ) This meant I had to find the long-missing Square Dance Calls Notebook which meant I had to clear my desk off. Some bloggers put up pictures of their shelves or their too-be-read pile. This is my On-My-Desk pile:

 

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Tom: I did find time to microwave those Peeps and write up a post for Geekdad featuring the incredible Lisa Yee! I’ll have a link for that soon.

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Sam:

We’re getting tons of hits here from those old Wild Things posts about the name switcheroo from Moishe to Carol and so on. Sadly, I can hardly get anyone to look at that Japanese Folklore post I did about the possible inspiration of Wild Things. Oh well.

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Sam:

Was signing books yesterday at a school book fair where it was not at all clear to people that Michael and I were authors. Because of the set up, it really looked like we were the cashiers for the whole book fair. To make things worse there was a stack of Wimpy Kid tattoos in front of us. Somehow we still managed to sell a few books and sign a few bookmarks.

Notes from Crazyland

Yes, it is Crazyland around here. I’m racing to finish work on Origami Yoda in time to ship it Sunday. The number of drawings in the book has multiplied!

But I’m not working on it right this second because I’m about to leave to meet Michael for a Stonewall presentation this afternoon at Crystal Spring Elem. in Roanoke, Va.

Here’s a couple items of note until I return to my senses:

I’ve been experimenting with microwaving Peeps! to prepare for my GeekDad post about Lisa Yee — and featuring an interview by that very same awesome author!

here’s a link with that special combination: Yee, liqufied Peeps and a sock monkey.

I met the guy who draws “One-Horned Unicorn.” I’m not sure if all the strips are safe for work, but this one is and it’s brilliant!

Getting into The Spirit of Halloween humor

Take a look at this book….

…then take a look at who edited it. Will Eisner?! Yep, with Barry C. and Keith D. — the same team that brought you Star Jaws. Now, you’re probaby dying for a sample, right? here you go…

Tiny Terrors #11, 12 and 13 — Monster/Statesman Attack!!!

Stonewall Hinkleman recommended by Library Media Connection

The August/September issue of Library Media Connection hada review of  “Stonewall Hinkleman” by Bonnie Raasch, a middle school media specialist from Iowa. Not only did the book get a recommended designation, by Raasch had some nice things to say:

“Combining imaginary and real people and places is succesful and gives readers detailed insight.”