THE GRAVEYARD BOOK leads off the ABA Fall 2008 Children's Indie Next List. Looking at the rest of the list, it appears that if you want to target ages 4-8 then you're best bet is to have a naughty protagonist, especially if its an animal, whereas if you are writing for ages 9-12 then you should have "dragon" or "magician" in the title. Look for my new children's book, The Very Naughty Dragon Magician, this spring.
Mr. G emailed me this picture of himself on the plane late last night. I assume he intended it to be posted, since he's never sent me pictures of himself before. Maybe he heard that the commenters on the LJ feed doubted that he needs a haircut and is offering evidence to back his claim? His plane didn't take off until the wee hours of the morning; hopefully he was able to get some sleep.
A few people have written to ask how we are going to keep the RoboPanda a surprise. I thought I'd put it to a vote. Click on the option below that you wish to vote for; voting ends Monday at 11:59 PM.
- Option 1: Sanitize the blog. I can go back and delete all mentions of the RoboPanda from the blog before Mr. G gets home.
- Option 2: Use subterfuge. Mr. G will be expecting me to show up with a RoboPanda at the National Book Festival, so instead I'll show up at a different tour stop in a clever disguise.
- Option 3: Forget the element of surprise. It's too late. He's going to know. Just accept it.
- Option 4: Swap the RoboPanda with a real panda. The D.C. Zoo has a baby panda. I head out early with the RoboPanda, infiltrate the zoo, swap the RoboPanda for a real one, and then bring the camcorder to capture Mr. G's reaction when I present him with a real, live baby panda.
- Option 5: Ticky Box! Well, it's not, actually, due to concerns of possible feed conflict, but its heart is in the right place.
Many thanks to all who contributed: Andrew G., Claire W., Eden of ComicsGirl, Shield of NeilGaimanBibliography.com, Gina T., Sandra S., Andrea McW., Jenna P., Crystal H., Shannon A., Catherine B., and Maria H.
Anyone who is disappointed over missing out on the chance to contribute is encouraged to donate to the CBLDF.
Labels: Coraline movie, it's not a proof-of-life picture if he's not holding today's paper, MySpace angle, rocking the vest, their eyes helpfully glow red when they turn evil