Best of the blog 2023

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share posts of the previous 12 months that I feel have the best chance of interesting someone other than me.

This year's hit list:

a Georgia school district asked me not to say “gay” during assemblies and I refused

speaking while Jewish at an international school in Jordan...two days after Hamas attacked Israel

30 kidlit authors/allies tell stories of hope to raise money to combat censorship and book bans

six weeks in a row speaking at schools/conferences: London, Las Vegas, Taiwan, Malaysia, Cambodia

booking a San Antonio school visit...for the next day

visiting Survivor Island in Malaysia

pop culture sites I've visited

CBS Evening News announcing Superman creators will receive benefits, restored credit (1975)

Best of the blog 2022

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share posts of the previous 12 months that I feel have the best chance of interesting someone other than me.

This year's lineup:

planning a virtual children's author benefit for kids of Ukraine

author benefit for kids of Ukraine raises $15,000

introducing Songbook, a web series starring kids I created, wrote, and directed for the Kennedy Center

RIP, Kevin Conroy, voice of animated Batman since 1992

a book about Bill Finger, me...and me

antisemitic graffiti at my kids' high school

Best of the blog 2021

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share the posts of the previous 12 months that I feel are most worth a look.

This year's contenders:

a year under COVID-19

supporting people who lost out when a children’s books festival was canceled due to anti-LGBTQ+ policy

a short film I storyboarded in college...but filmed 28 years later

asking a Tennessee school board to reverse its ban on the Holocaust graphic memoir Maus

changing a cartoon depicting an Indigenous ceremony

the first picture book on the creation of Wonder Woman

a non-Jewish German baker bakes us his first hamantaschen

visiting Beatles sites in London

formative moments from my time in the Jewish youth group BBYO

school visits 2019 vs. during COVID-19

Best of the blog 2020

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share the posts of the previous 12 months that I feel are most worth a look.

This year's roll call:

Finger family mysteries: Bill's mothers and "sisters"
first time lapse of the 9.5-block route Jerry Siegel ran to show Joe Shuster his idea for Superman (Cleveland, 1933)
a stranger willing to hear me out on the Black Lives Matter movement
first official credit for various DC superheroes
quirky daily activities for families during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders (or anytime)
RIP Henry Grimes (jazz pioneer and one of the people profiled in my book Vanished: True Stories of the Missing)
oral history of 1990s drama My So-Called Life
interview with the actress who co-starred in director Steven Spielberg's first commercial release, the short film Amblin' (1968)
RIP Emily Manasch (Bill Finger's half-sister, who died in 2018)

Zoomathon week

(Professor) Zoom was another name for the Reverse-Flash, an enemy of the superhero the Flash; he debuted in 1963.

In the 1970s, Zoom was widely known as a children’s TV show. 

In 1985, Aretha Franklin verbed it in a song (“Who’s Zoomin’ Who?”). 

Circa 2000, Mazda sloganized it (“Zoom-Zoom.”)

Since 2020, Zoom has been part of the weekly, daily, or multi-daily routine for so many of us. 

In the early days of February, I bottlezoomed. Ran a Zoomathon. Had lots of Zooms in a short period. The rundown:

• talk for members of a synagogue
• meeting with a film producer
• unrelated meeting with another film producer
• creative writing session with a young writer
• meeting with a site I may be working with 
• meeting with creative partners on projects we’re pitching a performing arts institution
• meeting with those partners and that institution
• talk to kids on behalf of Wonders Learning (I did one last month as well) 
• talk for kids at a London school  
• call with a lawyer (wait, a call, not a Zoom!)

Not counting the creative writing sessions I run for kids, this may be a personal record. 

All of the meetings are early stages, so nothing to announce yet. But if something does develop from any of it, I can look back and say it started during the Week That Was Zoom.

New "Lieography" book series by Alan Katz...and how his author friends react

Alan Katz is one of the nicest authors who will ever show up at your door unannounced. But he caught some fellow authors at a bad time... 

Despite my behavior captured on video, I had a blast being a part of this. That's no lie.

Speaking of which, best of luck with the Lieography series, Alan!

Best of the blog 2019

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share the posts of the previous 12 months that I feel have the widest appeal.

This year's hit parade:

an eighth grader's exceptional project on Bill Finger
revisiting Bill Finger sites in New York (and interrupting a tour of historic sites)
how mentioning sexual orientation during assemblies can lead to both lows and highs
a paperweight that carries significant weight
how to make a stellar elementary graduation slideshow
is the Flash really the fastest DC superhero?
young writers with big twists
Batman & Bill makes a timeline of Batman milestones
sensitivity adjustment in my school visit presentations
other Bill Finger-esque stories to be told
visiting Beatles sites in Liverpool, England (in 1993)
speaking on the Queen Mary 2 cruise ship (while seasick)

Take Your Child to Work Day at the U.S. State Department

I don’t work at the State Department in Washington DC, but I took one of my kids—and my wife—there on Take Your Child to Work Day 2019. Technically, I did work there that day; they kindly asked me to give a presentation at the Ralph Bunche Library. 

The audience: State Department employees and their children. 

They requested that I speak about Thirty Minutes Over Oregon; an employee had seen the New York Times review and suggested reaching out to me. The State Department invites authors and others to speak, but this was the first time they’ve done it for TYCTWD.

An unexpected opportunity. A lovely turnout. An honor indeed. Thank you again!

Best of the blog 2018

This blog launched on 2/19/08.

Every February 19, I share what I feel have been the strongest posts of the previous 12 months.

This year's hit list:

interviews

child actors from classic episodes of The Twilight Zone 
Superman II actress Leueen Willoughby ("The big one's just as strong as Superman!")
Superman II actress Robin Pappas
FairyTale: A True Story actress Florence Hoath
cast of the Budweiser "Whassup!" commercials

speaking

an unforeseen problem when mentioning sexual orientation during an elementary assembly 
brave and heartening responses from kids after an insensitive incident at their school
brave and uplifting public appearance by a same-sex family who were hurt by students during elementary assembly
advocating for diversity at kidlit conferences
inaugural speaker for Pat Scales lecture series at University of Montevallo

miscellaneous

Lyn Simmons (Bill Finger's second wife), 1922-2018
visiting my third of the New Seven Wonders of the World: Machu Picchu
visiting the Beatles sites of Hamburg, Germany
visiting a Mayan ruin in Guatemala that became a Star Wars Rebel base
visiting the real-life Hall of Justice, in Ohio

Featured Speaker at 2019 Texas Library Association Conference

Among authors of books for young readers, the Texas Library Association Conference holds an almost mythic status. Some say it's the second best library conference (after the American Library Association's) and some say it's the most fun of all literary conferences.

I'm about to find out firsthand.

In April, I'll be participating in my first TLA, and as a Featured Speaker. I am always grateful and humbled to be asked to speak but did not realize the extent of this honor till I saw the conference program. Though the conference is huge, there are only two pages of Featured Speakers; I would have guessed many more.

In any case, I look forward, Texas-style (i.e. in a big way)!

Museum, synagogue, schools, women's club

In one week, I spoke and/or signed at four diverse venues, three in the Washington DC area:

• 12/8/18 two museums in the Smithsonian system, the National Museum of American History and the National Air and Space Museum
• 12/9/18 Temple Emanuel, Kensington, MD
• 12/11/18 two schools in Milwaukee as part of the Scholastic program My Very Own Library (MVOL)
• 12/13/18 Washington-Tokyo Women's Club, Bethesda, MD

At the museums, I gave no talk; I simply sat and signed. Thirty Minutes Over Oregon: A Japanese Pilot's World War II Story tied in nicely with the focus of both sites.

This was my third time participating in MVOL; the first time was also Milwaukee (2/17), second was Newark (6/17). In 2/19, I'll be doing it again, in Kansas City, MO. 

In this program, Scholastic (specifically the Book Fair division) generously arranges a group of authors (in my experience, four at a time) to visit two schools in one day. These are schools that serve a low-income population. Scholastic not only covers all expenses (including a nice dinner) for the authors but also donates one copy of one of each visiting author's books and three other books to every student who hears him/her speak! 

The population of the two schools I visited is nearly 100% black. (I'd visited one of the schools on my previous trip to Milwaukee.) The kids asked thoughtful questions and exhibited delicious manners. At both schools, they dressed in red and black (reminiscent of Bob Kane's original Batman design). As usual, I wish we had more time together. 

The authors with whom I had the pleasure of MVOLing were Jo Watson Hackl (first time meeting), Angela Cervantes, and Jess Keating:

also pictured: Clifford; photo via Jo's Twitter feed

En route to one of the schools, my kind escort, Katy Wick, and I had to stop to take a photo because I found myself...

(It's a barber shop. See the scissors in the starburst/fireworks design?)

At Temple Emanuel, as I've done many times before, I emphasized the Jewish aspects of the stories behind Superman and Batman. (Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Bill Finger, and Bob Kane were all Members of the Tribe.)

The talk for the WTWC was the first of its kind for me. The audience was over 100 club members, nearly evenly split between Japanese and American women (all of whom have lived in Japan), many of whom were or are military or diplomatic spouses.

This included Yoko Sugiyama, the wife of Shinsuke Sugiyama, the current Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Of course she wasn't there for me, but I was honored just the same.

with Mrs. Sugiyama and Alex Johnston, 

the member who kindly invited me to speak

A highlight of the event came during the Q&A when we heard from a woman who lived through and remembers the Doolittle Raid of 1942 (which was part of the impetus for the events that take place in Thirty Minutes Over Oregon). She was, of course, a young girl at the time. She said the planes were flying so low over Tokyo that they almost grazed rooftops (similar to how Nobuo's plane flew low enough to buzz treetops). She and other kids waved to the planes until they noticed that those planes did not have the red rising sun symbol of Japan but rather a star...meaning they were Americans.

Thank you again to all my hosts this week. I have been enriched by each experience.

Maryland Association of School Librarians (MASL) 2018 Conference keynote

On 10/19/18, I did two things: silently celebrate the 30th anniversary of getting my driver's license and loudly deliver a keynote at the Maryland Association of School Librarians (MASL) 2018 Conference. The former was a solo effort, the latter involved a banquet hall's worth of people.

 Thanks to Bookworm Central for offering so many copies

of my books for sale...yet still not enough!

(You never can predict...)

 I had the pleasure of sitting on the second panel in as many weeks
(and states) with the illustrator of Thirty Minutes Over Oregon, 

Melissa Iwai, along with Minh Lê, Robbi Behr and Matthew Swanson, 

Paula Chase-Hyman, and Liz Reed, moderated by the always

quick-witted Matthew Winner. Pictured above: Minh, Matthew,

Melissa, Marc (me). The Four Ms!

 Then there was a draw-off.

 Featuring those who can actually draw.

 That crowd in the distance is the keynote audience.

A highlight among highlights

(and a first for me):

signing a copy of 

one of my books 

(The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra, 

which co-stars three goats)

to two goats.

Thank you again to Matthew Winner, April Wathen, and all else who made my participation possible.

And thank you to all who tweeted such kindness, such as these two:

Nonfiction books of wonder

On 10/7/18, at the year-old Upper West Side outpost of Books of Wonder, I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel alongside Thirty Minutes Over Oregon illustrator Melissa Iwai and other creators of nonfiction Wendell Minor, Hudson Talbott, and Rachel Ignotofsky (the last two of whom I'd not met before).

I participate in events like this in part to hear from my peers. If I sell a few books in the process, I consider that a bonus.

 photo courtesy Meg Parsont

photo courtesy Florence Minor

The last time I was on a panel at Books of Wonder was 10 years ago (almost to the day), which was also the last time I appeared on a panel with one of my illustrators (Ross MacDonald), which was also the first time I appeared on a panel with one of my illustrators.

The only photo I have from that event:

The boy of drool with Boys of Steel is the son

of two of my best friends.

Books of Wonder ringleader Peter Glassman was, alas, home recuperating from surgery; I haven't seen him in years. A few months before that first panel, Peter and I had a sidewalk adventure during a sales experiment for Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman.

The adventure led to a confrontation.

Back in the present, Peter's Books of Wonder staff was the picture of warmth and professionalism. Friends and strangers alike turned up that warm early fall afternoon, including illustrator Justin LaRocca Hansen, which was so meaningful. 

Justin was one of the first to believe in Thirty Minutes Over Oregon and therefore one of its first illustrators:

Wait, what? 

This. (Speaking of experiments.)

We writers are lucky to get to work with any talented illustrator; I've gotten to work with many—even on the same book (though vastly different stages). 

Melissa pumped so much heart and thought into this book, even overcoming a hand injury to stay on schedule. I feel privileged to have worked with her and I am so enamored with how the book looks—you can feel the emotions throughout. Here's her flight path for this project.

Melissa is holding a model of Nobuo's plane

(bought off ebay; thanks Brian Floca).

While the panel was paneling, Justin was in the audience taking notes. Or so I thought till after, when I saw what he was really doing in that notebook.

artwork copyright Justin LaRocca Hansen

Another highlight: posing for a photo with both Justin and Melissa, who hadn't met before. Even though they're in the same industry, I felt like I was introducing a school friend and a camp friend.

Nobuo helped unite a town and now, years after his passing, he is uniting still.

Family Day at Smiley Library, Redlands, CA

Family Day is a free annual event open to the public held at the Smiley Public Library in Redlands, CA. It offers a selection of stations based on the books of a single author, and this year (10/6/18), that author was me.

It was quite a privilege. 

Seeing an entire community come out to enjoy various activities based on one's work is humbling.

Allow me to give you a tour:

Kids got a checklist to keep track of what activities

they did. 

 Every young attendee received a free book,

courtesy of generous sponsors.

 A new fairy garden to let.

 Brave Like My Brother is told in letters between brothers,

one in the UK during WWII, the other back home.

I loved this Family Day idea.

 This gentleman found and restored a vehicle used during 

the war and drove it to the event for people to experience.

Look closely. Can you spot the copy of Brave Like My Brother?

Zoom!

 Don't worry. They didn't serve fried fairies.

 A group of young people performed a 30-minute

play based in part on my work but more generally

on the concept of superheroes and heroes.

They were so polished and I got to chat with 

them afterward.

 I signed all those books. 

Lovely crowd.

Thank you again to my host Pamela Martinez, Marjorie Arnett, and the fleet of others, including many volunteers, who made my participation possible...and memorable.