"Hilarious . . . Readers with a finely tuned sense of the absurd are going to adore the Technicolor ride." —Booklist
"Fantasy done to a clever, grotesque, nonsensical turn." —Chicago Sun-Times
"A work of mischievous imagination and outrageous invention." —Time Out Chicago
"One of the more singular young adult fantasies—or fantasies, period—I've run across . . . Funny, bizarre, action-packed, and even thoughtful, and stocked with a gallery of larger-than-life characters." —Green Man Review
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Reading the first two chapters of work-in-progress The Magnificent Moots at the Beauty Bar (1444 West Chicago Ave, Chicago) for Curbside Splendor's Two With Water reading series. With Brandon Will, JW Basilo, Maggie Ritchie, Mason Johnson. 7 pm.
February 15-17, 2012
Appearing at the Downers Grove Book Festival in Downers Grove, IL. Further details TBA.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Doing a presentation about "Real Japan for Anime Fans" at the Capitol Hill Library (10723 S.W. Capitol Highway Portland, OR). 2-3 pm.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Doing a presentation about "Real Japan for Anime Fans" at the Northwest Library (2300 N.W. Thurman Street, Portland, OR). 5-6 pm.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Doing a presentation about "Real Japan for Anime Fans" at the Kenton Library (8226 N. Denver Ave., Portland, OR). 7-8 pm.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Doing a presentation about "Real Japan for Anime Fans" at the Troutdale Library (2451 S.W. Cherry Park Rd., Troutdale, OR). 4-5 pm.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Doing a presentation about "Real Japan for Anime Fans" at the Fairview-Columbia Library (1520 N.E. Village Street, Fairview, OR). 4-5 pm.
Friday, June 8th, 2012
Leading a "Dome of Doom" at the Cliff Cave Branch Library (5430 Telegraph Rd., St. Louis, MO 63129-3556). 2 pm.
Friday, June 8th, 2012
Speaking about "Real Japan for Anime Fans" at the Florissant Valley Branch Library. (195 South New Florissant Road, St. Louis MO 63031). 6:30 pm.
I am interviewed by the lovely Senfaye on A Maze Of Books. Read it if you’re curious as to why I chose to end the interview by saying “I hate you”—and why when Senfaye asked “What’s your favorite food?” I replied “Your skull.” It’s scandalous!
I am interviewed by Amy Alessio for the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Read about my experiences as a junior high school science teacher—in particular, of how the entire faculty was mysteriously menaced by a obscene note-writing student known only as “The Foggy Wiener.” I also talk about my participation in Japan’s violent “Naked Man” Festival, and how I discovered the President of the ALA is a whimsical hobo.
Order of Odd-Fish Week on Murphblog. Check out Paul Michael Murphy's monster five-part interview with me! Part One, the road to publication; Part Two, on writing; Part Three, I reveal the thing I will always find funny; Part Four, the "lightning round"; Part Five, a Create-Your-Own-Odd-Fish-Specialty contest (entries are in the comments section); and I judge the winner of the contest.
It's a mixtape for The Order of Odd-Fish. Listen to a stream of the songs I chose for an imaginary "movie soundtrack" for Odd-Fish, and read why I chose them. Lots of different stuff: French ye-ye, Kinshasa street bands, pseudo-classical, puzzling blippity-bloopity music, and more.
The Brothers Delacorte. I team up with fellow charming and mysterious Delacorte authors Daniel Kraus and Adam Selzer to solve baffling international crimes and taste sophisticated titillatations.
“The Brothers Delacorte?” you howl. “What are you giving me now, Kennedy? This is sheer japery.”
Be still, butterfly. The story is this.
The Order of Odd-Fish is published by Random House’s Delacorte Press. Last year I discovered that two other Chicago YA authors, Daniel Kraus and Adam Selzer, are also on Delacorte. This coincidence was too good to pass up.
We decided to band together.
If you go to the Brothers Delacorte website you can read our manifesto, which has to do with encouraging boys’ literacy. But here I’d like to boast of my fellow brothers’ formidable talents.
Daniel Kraus is not only an author of the tense, harrowing The Monster Variations (for which our appearance at the Book Cellar is a release party), but also a filmmaker. Each film in his celebrated WORK documentary series chronicles the everyday life of someone in a particular job. So far he’s done a documentary for a Sherriff, a Musician, a Preacher, and a Professor. This is a project of—dare I invoke this sacred Chicago name?—Studs Turkel-ian proportions.
But there’s more to Daniel Kraus than a sober documentarian. In high school, he was a giddily inventive amateur filmmaker in the Ed Wood mold. At his blog Francis Ford Iowa you can see the films he made in high school, all of them gloriously bad, unintentionally hilarious, and occasionally genius. As Daniel himself describes it: “When I was growing up in Iowa, I made movies with my friends. Many of them were remakes of movies I liked, like MISERY or THE GODFATHER. Others were originals. All of them were awful . . . Now I’m blogging my old movies chronologically for your enjoyment. Let’s feel the pain together.”
Here’s a hilarious trailer that compiles the highlights, to give you a taste:
In any case, if you’re in Chicago, please come out to the Book Cellar in Lincoln Square at 7 pm for the very first Brothers Delacorte event. I’m proud to be sharing the stage with them.
