Another knockout entry for the Order of Odd-Fish art show! This time it’s the creation of the universe as depicted in the Odd-Fish tapestry: the All-Loving Mother tricked by Aznath, the Silver Kitten of Deceit into vomiting the 144,444 gods into existence.

I love this! It’s gorgeous, raucous, and strangely solemn. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: The Order of Odd-Fish may not be known to many, but it’s known by the right people.

Karen Alexander is the artist—you may remember her from the great Lily Larouche portrait she drew back in January. Great work, Karen! This is just what I imagined the tapestry to be like—wild, colorful, crammed with life, but its rambunctiousness streamlined into a flowing whole.

Even better, Karen has included many of the gods mentioned in Odd-Fish in the picture! Can you find all of them? Along with Ichthala, the All-Devouring Mother and Aznath, the Silver Kitten of Deceit, there’s also Zam-Zam, the Dancing Ant of Sadness; Fumo, the Sleeping Bee; Quafmaf, the Pigeon of the Moon; Nixilpilfi, the Gerbil Who Does Not Know Mercy; Mizbiliades, the Bleeding Butterfly; Pzarnarfalasath, the Rhinoceros Whose Laughter Destroys Worlds; Zookoofoomoot the Maggot of Dismay; Pft the Mouse; and more! Karen’s giddy profusion of gods puts me in the mind of the otherworldly bathhouse in Miyazaki’s Spirited Away—which was, after all, precisely what inspired me.

Karen’s densely populated, lovingly detailed, fantastically imagined fragment of the tapestry also puts me in mind of the panoramic bas reliefs at Angkor Wat in Cambodia and the temples around it. No picture can do these reliefs justice—they’re just too big, they demand the viewer’s entire vision field—but this might give you an idea, when the Hindu gods and demons are churning the Ocean of Milk to create an elixir of life:

Thanks again, Karen, for bringing another aspect of Odd-Fish into visual reality. Your work is exquisite!

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the kind reviews for Odd-Fish that are still coming in (a year or so after it came out!) from far-flung places all over the world. Lyndon Riggall from Tasmania (!!) wrote a great review on his blog A Quick Word. In Dublin, Ireland “Lady Schrapnell” So Many Books also wrote an enthusiastic review of the Odd-Fish audiobook. And a great thumbs-up from Miss Corene in Vancouver, Canada! Closer to home (much closer; Bolingbrook, Illinois, as a matter of fact), Mr. S’s BiblioBlog has a generous review.

Thanks, all you reviewers, for taking the time to write nice things about the book. And of course, thanks to all the artists who are rocking my world right now.

Jaw drops to floor.

Brain explodes with awe.

Eyes joyfully melt.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Hailey McLaughlin’s contribution to the Order of Odd-Fish art show: a double triptych of Lily Larouche, Colonel Korsakov, and Commissioner Olvershaw, both in their prime and in their old age. WHAT A DOOZY!

It’s accompanied by dialogue between the characters, also by Hailey:

“Oh the good old days! I remember when I took down a Segregating Cyanide Serpent with nothing but a half broken biscuit sword and a Christmas cactus!”

“Ah yes, I heard about that when I first came to the city. I had just arrived, you know. I was so fortunate to have been rescued by the eel-people, but if worse had come to worse, I knew my digestion would have gotten me through!”

“YOU TWO ARE THE MOST COCKAMAMIE CADS I’D EVER HAD THE UNFORTUNATE COMPANY TO SHARE OZONE WITH! WHEN YOU WERE STILL POOPIN’ IN YOUR HUGGIES I WAS OUT SHANKING THE FIENDS OF THE UNIVERSE WITH NOTHING BUT MY THUMB! I BET YOU THINK YOU’RE SO CLEVER TO HAVE ALL YOUR LIMBS BUT ONE DAY YOU’LL WAKE UP AND ME AND MY THUMB WILL BE THERE WITH BELLS ON! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME!?!?!!”

When this art first arrived in my email, I was so blown away I couldn’t write back at first—I had to get up and walk around the room, my heart beating in excitement, my eyes twirling.

I can’t decide what I like best: the vivacious Audrey Hepburn feel of young Lily Larouche, the dashing figure Korsakov cuts as a young KGB agent, or the terrifying decrepitude of Olvershaw as he reaches out to demolish you with his thumb (and if you zoom in close enough to the hi-res version, you can even see his crinkly nose hairs!). A visual feast!

Choice details: Korsakov’s teeny-tiny teacup, Olvershaw’s thumb fluttering on the edge of a stringlike arm, and the nonplussed cockroach assistant. I could go on and on. It makes me so happy. Well done, Hailey! I’m honored and ecstatic.

Remember, everyone’s invited to contribute to the Odd-Fish fan art show, which opens the weekend of April 17. Deadline is March 15!

The good news doesn’t stop there. Today is the release day for the paperback of The Order of Odd-Fish, with this new cover by Paul Hornschemeier!

I’ve mentioned Paul before on the blog. What I haven’t yet shared is that he designed the brilliant invitation for Heather’s and my wedding. It’s a map of our relationship, mashing together all the places Heather and I have lived and traveled into one vast Pangaea. The name of this land is a combination of our names, James Kennedy and Heather Norborg: NOREDY. Click for a closer view:

Personal favorite detail: that distance is measured in “Kenneborgs.” I’m lucky to know Paul, and I’m thrilled to have his cover for the paperback.

I’m having a paperback release event at 57th Street books in Hyde Park this Thursday (2/11). I’ll also be reading at Claire Zulkey’s Funny Ha Ha series at the Hideout tonight (Tuesday, 2/9) with stand-up comedian Cameron Esposito, author Kate Harding, writer Fred Sasaki, writer Robbie Q. Telfer, and filmmaker Steve Delahoyde. And of course, Claire Zulkey herself. If you’re in Chicago, swing on by!

It was a busy weekend. On Friday I went to see Newbery award-winning Rebecca Stead (and her editor Wendy Lamb) speak at 57th Street Books. I thought Rebecca’s book When You Reach Me was brilliant in every way; I’m shocked something this quirky and unclassifiable snagged the Newbery. 1970s lower middle class New York City coming-of-age story AND a time travel mind-blower? Playful appropriation of A Wrinkle in Time AND game show fairy tale? Laser-accurate diagnosis of junior high school friendships AND page-turning mystery? All this in about 200 pages? And she makes it all look easy? YEP.

To my startled pleasure, Rebecca knew about me—Betsy Bird of the indispensable Fuse #8 blog had recommended Rebecca read my cri de coeur against the secret bloodthirsty rituals of the American Library Association, which she enjoyed. It’s not every day your writing is complimented by a Newbery award winner. What an honor!

During the Q&A, Rebecca and Wendy mentioned the various ways Rebecca wove When You Reach Me closer together with A Wrinkle In Time—in a way When You Reach Me is a kind of sly rewriting of Madeleine L’Engle’s book. Anyway, along those lines, I mentioned how clever I thought it was when, after Sal broke off his friendship with Miranda, he started playing basketball alone, and Miranda could hear his basketball constantly bouncing. This immediately brought to my mind the creepy basketball-bouncing boys on Camazotz in Wrinkle. It was, I thought, a deft parallel.

I got halfway through saying this and then stopped. Both Rebecca and Wendy were staring at me in surprise. That detail, which I had thought was a masterstroke of subtle counterpoint, was completely unintentional—it hadn’t occurred to Rebecca or her editor until that moment! Rebecca shared other stories of unintentional parallels that were spotted by readers. It was a fascinating talk.

Saturday, fellow Brother Delacorte and author of paranormal romance spoof I Kissed a Zombie, and I Liked It Adam Selzer helped me with a Dome of Doom writing workshop at 826CHI. More about that later—this post is already too long, and Adam filmed the whole thing. Video coming soon!

The date of the Order of Odd-Fish art extravaganza has been set: April 17, 2010! That will be the night of the Dome of Doom costume dance party and the unveiling of the gallery. I can’t wait.

Want to submit art for the show? Here’s details. The deadline has been extended to March 15. Get cracking!

Word’s getting out: Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, Book Aunt, The Happy Nappy Bookseller, Charlotte’s Library, Chicagoist, BellaOnline, Literago, Booklust, Lady Schrapnell, the Oklahoma Department of Libraries CYA blog, and Gapers Block are all spreading the word. Thanks a million!

And the art keeps rolling in! This fantastic ostrich is courtesy of Libby. Longtime friends of the blog will remember her intense two-voice poem about Jo and the Ichthala and her goofy, fourth-wall-breaking ending to The Strange Ship II (a book I had written when I was eight . . . it’s a long story).

I knew Libby was a good cartoonist from her illustrations for The Strange Ship II ending, but this is a huge level-up. The elaborate, jewelry-like feel to the ostrich armor is perfect, especially the feathers on top—putting me in the mind of a simpler Aubrey Beardsley—but the best part for me is the imperious, cocky expression on the ostrich’s face.

And those mysterious runes! I just spent the last couple minutes on Wikipedia’s entry on runes, trying to figure out what they mean. Leftmost = “t” or the god Tiwaz, and the middle and rightmost seems like a reversals or deliberate distortions of the rune for “n” which means “need” (reverse of need? hidden need? “Unnecessary”?) WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME, LIBBY!

UPDATE: Libby writes in to explain the runes: “From left to right: Tyr, god of war. I figured it would aid in battle. Kaen (reversed), in order to ward off chaos/bad luck. Naudr (reversed), to ward off death. You did have it right with need, but it’s associated with the needs of life (which is necessary, but it led you in the wrong direction).” Thanks, Libby! I didn’t know you could reverse runes to get the opposite meanings. Cool!

Meeting up with my protegees Freya and Theo over the holidays, I got some dandy art from them as well. Freya and her friend Georgia made shirts depicting different scenes from Odd-Fish; here, Freya’s wearing one with the ruby palace. (I want one!) And she’s holding a small idol of the All-Devouring Mother made of a red plastic cup. The genius is in the simplicity: what better way to convey the idea of “emptiness” than an empty cup? Conceptual! Festooned with eyes, bristling with tentacles, gaping with toothy mouths, this looks like the kind of idol an aspiring Silent Sister might have secretly made herself and is keeping under her bed.

Freya and Theo, along with Georgia and August, also made a gingerbread house of the Odd-Fish lodge! Last year they made a gingerbread house of Aunt Lily’s ruby palace. This is the kind of Christmas tradition I can get behind. The reason the lodge is slathered with frosting and marshmallows here, Theo explained, is because it had just suffered one of the Belgian Prankster’s pranks. I particularly like the “ostrich take-off” sign on top, and off to the right . . . the all-devouring . . . brother?

Thanks for it all! Freya and Theo are my test audience for The Magnificent Moots—nowadays whenever I see them I usually have another chapter or so finished, and so they’re the ones who must endure listening to me read aloud from my clunky first drafts. I did a reading of Odd-Fish at Freya’s school a couple weeks ago, and this Friday we’re all going to see the newly minted Newbery winner Rebecca Stead at 57th Street books. We all adore her When You Reach Me, so this will be exciting. Don’t worry; no Newbery shenanigans planned this year.

Back on January 14, I participated in Opium magazine’s Literary Death Match. It was tons of fun. The idea is that four local writers read a short piece, and are judged American Idol-style by three judges on literary merit, performance, and “intangibles.” Two semifinalists go on to the final round, a contest which has nothing to do with literature—in the past it’s been stuff like laser-tag, musical chairs, or long division.

My worthy opponents were Davis Schneiderman, Rebekah Silverman, and Andy Farkas. The judges were Shawn Smith (whom I’m pictured with above, the mastermind behind Shawnimals plush toy empire), author Kathleen Rooney (who just got bumped to the top of my to-read list), and one of my favorite people in Chicago, music critic and author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking Jessica Hopper.

An account of the whole evening is here. I faced off against Davis Schneiderman in the semifinals, in which we had to execute sketches of the judges in 20 seconds. For example here’s my sketch of the lovely Kathleen Rooney, side by side with the real thing:

Long story short—somehow, I won! (Hence, the crown and medal above.) This puts me in the illustrious company of previous Literary Death Match victors such as Daniel Handler, Cintra Wilson, and Amelia Gray. I’m honored! (Wilson’s hilarious, poisonous A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Reexamined as a Grotesque, Crippling Disease is a longtime favorite of mine.)

Thanks, everyone! This year has started off promisingly.