Two years ago, two days ago

Two years ago today, I launched this blog.

Two days ago, I got wonderful news about one of the projects I launched this blog to discuss.

But I can't announce it in any more detail...yet.

Stay logged in for the beginning of...

"Villainopedia.com"

The 1/22/10 issue of READ (the Weekly Reader literary magazine for grades 7-12) includes a six-page story I wrote called "Villainopedia.com."

Forget black hats. The sign of true evil is purple.

High schooler Brett creates a wiki to profile everyday heroes. When his grandma (who, in her youth, dabbled successfully in burglary) hears that the site has been slow in gaining a following, she suggests he go in the opposite direction because "A story is only as good as its villain."

Thus is born Villainopedia.com.

It catches on...fast.

And the legendary Travis Pritt, who claims he's committed crimes in 49 states, is not happy that his entry credits him for only 48. After Brett undoes Travis's edit (twice), Travis shows up at Brett's house to ensure that his correction is made...and kept.


Continued...

(Motion) picture book biography

I've posted quite a bit on the art form of biography, specifically picture book biography. The gist: it's one of the most vibrant areas in modern publishing (not just children's publishing) and it's becoming more daring with each passing season.

In the 2/22/10 Newsweek, Ramin Setoodeh asks "Are Biopics History?" Online, the same article lays it out more ominously: "The Death of the Biopic." (Click through and check the top bar of your browser.)

The article doesn't mention picture books, of course, yet still calls to mind a post I did on the bold topics nonfiction picture books have covered in recent years—and by "bold" I mean "unfamiliar." This is the part to which I'm referring:

"Oddly, not all biopics are suffering—just the ones about people you have heard of."

Setoodeh cites recent flops about Amelia Earhart, Charles Darwin, and Orson Welles and hits including Erin Brockovich and The Blind Side (both about people who are not household names—or at least weren't when the films came out).

I believe there is a story to tell about everyone, and there is clear proof that there are multiple ways to tell a story about a famous person. Yet I am more drawn to telling stories that have not been told before, at least not in book form.

Less commercial? So it would seem going in, yet it doesn't always play out that way.

Even notoriously risk-averse Hollywood, on more occasions than perhaps it's given credit for, thinks the same.

"One of the best books that kids actually want to read"

Read Kiddo Read is a fairly new site designed by blockbuster author James Patterson as a tool for parents, teachers, and any other adult who wants to excite kids about reading.

There are, luckily, plenty of other sites with the same goal. They tend to be run by children’s authors and educators, particularly librarians.

What I find especially notable about Read Kiddo Read is that Patterson, of course, writes for adults. It's the only such site I’ve come across that is done in the name of someone who is best known for adult books but who is also focused on hooking them young.

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman is included in its “Great Transitional Book” category (ages 6 and up). The kind Caroline Henley interviewed me about Boys of Steel (describing it ever so kindly as quoted in the title of this post) and Vanished: True Stories of the Missing.

I liked her questions. Some enabled me to get into certain aspects of both books I haven’t commented on publicly before. The site posted both the audio file and a transcription. Thanks Caroline and thanks James!

Red, yellow, and Bluestem

Though the only place I physically traveled to within the past week has been Denver, in a sense I've been jetting from state to various state. (That's routine for Superman—and businessmen—but I'm not used to it.)

On 2/2/10, I posted a list of state book awards for which Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman has been nominated. (The day before that post, I'd learned that the book has been nominated for a biography award in Cleveland, which makes me smile a bit wider since that is where the story takes place. And only two months earlier, I'd learned about the nominations in Rhode Island and Arizona. I had no idea this was "state book awards" season. It's probably not. What do I know? I've never been good with geography.)

Then just since last week, I've learned of three more honors for Boys of Steel, all of which I've added to the 2/2/10 post:

2/6/10—I received a letter from the First Lady of Wisconsin telling me that the book has been selected for the Read On Wisconsin program.

2/9/10—My editor e-mailed that the book was nominated for the Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Awards 2010-2011.

2/10/10—The Illinois School Library Media Association notified me that the book is one of 20 nominated for a first annual award called the Bluestem. It's a reader's choice award, in the hands of kids in grades 3-5.

What I find especially interesting about the Bluestem is that it is not limited to books from the past year or two. Of the inaugural score of books that will be voted on in 2011, the earliest to be published came out in 1982.

If other state awards are like this, I haven't noticed. Like I said, not good with geography.

First superhero, first biography, First Lady

I'm honored that Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman (the first standalone biography about writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, the young minds behind the world's first superhero) was selected for the 2009-2010 Read On Wisconsin program.

Here is the notification letter from the office of First Lady of Wisconsin Jessica Doyle:

I came across another drop of goodness in America's Dairyland; the youth services librarian of the Matheson Memorial Library in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, kindly blogged the following about the book:

"Discuss cataloging of Boys of Steel by Nobleman. Biography—but then which person? Nonfiction—741s?"

In two earlier posts I discussed this issue and am thrilled anytime I am reminded that it's not a discussion of one! I have urged librarians to place it in Biography (and since "Siegel" and "Shuster" are so close alphabetically, it's almost as if it's being shelved under both simultaneously!).

Several posts later at that same link, the Matheson librarian lists Boys of Steel as a newly acquired title at her library, annotating it with this: "Of course, everybody else has their copy of this already..."

Everybody? Would that it were so! But a humbling supposition and one I'll take as a good omen.

Read Island

Two newspapers covered my late January author visits in Rhode Island:

East Greenwich Pendulum, 2/4/10; photo: Rebecca Stearns

The Depression-era teen geeks who still drive Hollywood

When writer Jerry Siegel (at age 19) and artist Joe Shuster (19 or 20) dreamed up Superman in the summer of 1934, they not only created the "modern" superhero but also unwittingly jump-started the comic book industry and—stay with me—built the engine that is currently powering Hollywood.

Hollywood tends to make a majority of its money in the summer and most of its summer money on movies about superheroes—even more acutely in the past decade:

Batman, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Spider-Man and its sequels, Iron Man, and the X-Men trilogy are only some of the superhero films that became among the biggest hits (in the hottest months) of their respective years.

But these movies might not have happened if not for Superman: The Movie (1978), the first big-budget theatrical release about a superhero.

(I'm not counting the campy 1966 Batman film and the various 1940s superhero serials, but not just because of their lower budgets; Superman: The Movie was the first theatrical release about a superhero done "realistically." Another qualification: although Superman: The Movie debuted in December, most superhero movies in its wake have come out in summer.)

Before Superman: The Movie, Hollywood questioned who besides 10-year-old boys would go to a movie about a comic book character—especially a comic book character done realistically. (And wouldn't that then also scare off the 10-year-old boys?)

Yet Hollywood did, of course, take the risk on Superman: The Movie, probably due in some part to the heart of the film—and it wasn't just 10-year-old boys (or comics fans of any age) who made it an epic success.

The simple summary thus far:

• There might not be big-budget superhero movies without Superman: The Movie.
• There would be no Superman: The Movie without Superman.
• There would be no Superman without Jerry and Joe.

And now, even some blockbusters not about superheroes can be traced back to Jerry and Joe.

Avatar and Sherlock Holmes don't feature superheroes as traditionally defined, and Avatar isn't based on material established in another medium, but they are nonetheless among a group described as "comic book movies." (Also, both came out not in summer but during the Christmas season, typically the province of any given year's most prestigious offerings. Maybe that influence of Superman: The Movie has come full circle.)

Other comic book movies include the Star Trek, Indiana Jones, and Transformers franchises. These properties are based, respectively, on a TV show, adventure movie serials, and a toy line (although for all I know, some of those may have been inspired by comics!).

Today, kids are more likely to discover superheroes via movies, TV shows, or games rather than comics. I can't speculate how Jerry and Joe would've felt about that, though filmed entertainment about superheroes surely does motivate some kids to seek out superhero comics. Anything that gets young people to read is a positive.

In any event, we all want a good story; the Boys of Steel helped prove that a good superhero story is not just for kids—and not just for comics.

Birthplace of Bill Finger

From 2/1 to 2/5, I was in Denver—first time in almost 14 years and first time as an author.

I had the honor of speaking at two branches of the Denver Public Library (to some of the most invested kids I've met recently), a lively school, and the well-run Colorado Council International Reading Association annual conference.

Most biographical sources on Bill Finger, uncredited co-creator and original writer of Batman, state he was born in New York, but it was Denver. I imagine it still felt like the Wild West when Bill entered the world there in 1914 because parts of it still felt like the Wild West last week.

Though this is unlike me, I got no photos at my speaking events; however, I did snap one of this sign in my hotel, finding it clever:

Miscellaneous mile-high observations:

• For the first time, I saw a school gym that was carpeted.
• I forgot how thirsty you wake up when high up.
• Though not good with directions, I found navigating the Denver airport easy and quick. Then again, it was 5 a.m.
• No Dunkin' Donuts or Chase Bank, which I suppose is a fair balance since in parts of the Northeast you encounter one of each on every other block.
• In Colorado, it's illegal to warm up a car without staying in it. However, I didn't learn this the hard way.
  

Bill Finger Appreciation Group on Facebook

I'm long overdue in this announcement: Facebook has a Bill Finger Appreciation Group, with well over 100 members. And also a newer group called, simply, Bill Finger, with, curiously, even more members.

I say "curiously" because the first group offers a regularly updated stream of well-researched content; the second group is a place where fans have proclaimed their respect for Finger but have not, as of yet anyway, displayed anything archival.

Still, two Finger appreciation groups! This for a man who died without comment from the press. I'm a member of both.

The BFAG is run by a class act named Derek Wolfford, who kindly (a word I overuse, I know, but will continue to) interviewed me in Nashville. He is steadily and capably compiling a time capsule about/memorial to/compendium on Finger, pulling material on him from various hard-to-find sources and presenting it all in one place. In a short while, I hope to be able to add to that with posts here.

Boys of States

Kind readers in Utah, Rhode Island, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Arizona have nominated Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman for state book awards, and Wisconsin has been kind to it, too:

• Beehive Award 2010 (Children's Literature Association of Utah)
• Rhode Island Children's Book Award 2010
• Norman A. Sugarman Biography Award 2010 (Cleveland Public Library)
• Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Awards 2010-2011
• Bluestem Award 2011 (Illinois)
  
• Grand Canyon (Arizona) Reader Award 2011 (nominees apparently not yet on site itself but are on Word document you can download from site by clicking "2011 Grand Canyon Reader Award List")

Also, the book was selected for the Read On Wisconsin program, which is run through the office of the First Lady of Wisconsin (currently Jessica Doyle). Each year, this program designates a book for every month of the upcoming school year and for the summer in one of five categories (ages 0-4, grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12). Boys of Steel is the summer 2010 pick for grades 3-5.

Note: I am adding to this post if I learn about other state awards that have nominated the book.

Reactions to "Boys of Steel" -- post-presentation

If writing a book on any particular subject is a test of passion, the final exam requires you to be able to give a presentation about that subject for at least an hour...many, many times.

I've now been spreading the gospel about Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman for about a year and a half. I can easily see myself continuing to do it until, well, people stop wanting to hear about Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. That is, hopefully, a point that will not come in my lifetime.

Once you speak on a subject a certain number of times, you start to hear certain comments and questions repeat. Here are some of the ones I find most compelling:

• People in their seventies or older telling me that they remember having a copy of Action Comics #1, but their moms (always the moms) threw it out. Had they kept that debut appearance of Superman, it would have been worth at least half a million dollars today, and several of the 100 copies known to still exist have sold for more than a million. Don't fault the moms. Moms know a lot, but how could they have predicted this?
• People who haven't read a comic book in decades, if ever, telling me that they find the story of Superman's creators fascinating. (I don't mean my telling of it—just the story in factual terms.) This makes sense. I'm not a "fan" of, say, spelling bees, but upon hearing rave reviews for a documentary called Spellbound, I saw it—and loved it. The point is we should not be drawn only to subjects but also to stories.
• People seeing the story through different lenses. To some Jewish people, it's about overcoming prejudice. To some businesspeople, it's about moral obligations of companies. To some children, it's about the love of storytelling. To Clevelandites, it's about hometown pride. To all kinds of people, it's about the importance of persistence.

If a mere forty pages generates this diversity of reaction, no wonder I look forward to each new speaking engagement.

Reactions to "Vanished" -- from people in it

Excerpts (quoted with permission) from a nephew, a friend, a former wife, and a father:

Brian Ruess ("I Leave No Trace: Nature Lover Everett Ruess"):

“It is excellent. Frankly, it is one of the best tellings of the Everett story I have read, and my 12 and 14 year old children enjoyed it as well.”

Marshall Marrotte ("Play That Song Again: Musician Henry Grimes"):

“I loved the book and all of the stories were interesting. The Henry Grimes info was spot-on and well written.”

Margaret Hadwin ("The Golden Tree Killer: Woodsman Grant Hadwin"):

“What a great book for kids…”

Mike Klamecki ("Very Harder Than I Thought: Kindergartner Hannah Klamecki"):

“Hannah read it first. She said reading her story made her feel 'wiggly' but she thought that it was very accurate. I found her story in your book to be very well researched. As one who has shared this story numerous times in private and in public I liked the way you laid it out. I liked the intro to the characters that went right into the situation. From there on there is a good balance of staying with the developments of the story and going back to talk about my dad and Hannah's relationship. I want to thank you for mentioning my church and the prayer vigil they had which was of huge importance to us. I also want to thank you for mentioning the fire chief and the deputy by name.”

I must publicly thank all of the above for being so generous about this project. Interestingly, I don't mean with respect to research as I first connected with each of them only after the book was finished. But they have all taken the time to read it and respond, and surely for some, revisiting the experience was difficult on some level.

Never stop looking for whatever it is you want.

Ocean's Four

Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman was nominated for a Rhode Island Children's Book Award.

Whether or not it wins, this has already been good fortune for me. The nomination led to Hanaford Elementary in East Greenwich, Rhode Island inviting me to speak for two days (six student sessions, one teacher session).

They sold a lot of books:

They also held a contest related to my background:

The winner received a signed copy of one of my books. This was especially sweet because she happened to be one of the students who had not already bought a book.

I was then further honored to be invited to three other schools in the Ocean State (Wheeler in Providence; Elmhurst and Hathaway in Portsmouth). Each visit was wonderful in its own way. Elmhurst even had balloons:

Six degrees of super-ation

My public posting of some of my research on the stories behind Superman (Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster) and Batman (Bill Finger) has resulted in a fun variety of people contacting me.

Here’s a list off the side of my head, which is a spot reserved for information that may be of interest only to me:

• various people (often college students) interested in writing a book, play, or screenplay on these subjects
• a lawyer who represented the Siegel family (I didn't get in trouble)
  
• a producer for Warner Home Video (seeking info on Finger for a short documentary to be included on the DVD of a Batman animated film)
  
• the son of a longtime editor of Superman comics
• a producer for the PBS show History Detectives (regarding a claim that a man other than Finger or Bob Kane created Batman)
  
• a talent I can mention by name—fellow Shusterite Craig Yoe, author of Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster (just to introduce himself, good chap)
  
• an executive producer for a late night talk show
• a co-producer of a PBS documentary series on superheroes
  

Speaking of information of interest only to me, I’ve already used the title of this post on this blog, but within an earlier post. It has since called out to me for marquee treatment.

How you found me: part 5

This is the fifth totally true installment of some of the wackier search terms that have led people to this blog and I’m grateful to (if not sometimes perplexed by) every one of them:

• Marc's blog look what my son did
• peppy things to say during a text
• what is called if a person is born with 5 and half finger
• nonfiction book for young readers with a subject of shoes
• writing a non boring autobiography
• writing a fun semi biography book
• picture books for old people
• permission to keep rabbits in apartments New York City
• what would a 17 year old son of a nobleman wear
• why did Nickelodeon Magazine get so small
• Bigfoot activities for primary grades
• Aquaman graphics for a Honda 150F
• cartoon of a metal boy
• things you don't wanna hear

If I taught creative writing, and I was twisted a different way, I might challenge students to use all these phrases in a single story, organically.

How do you gift wrap an author visit?

A friend from college who works in administration at a school recently hired me to speak there.

He also suggested that we do something no other school in my six years of author visits has: donate one of my presentations to a nearby underfunded school.

In other words, my friend’s school would pay for a certain number of presentations but give one to another school, where I would present the same day.

Especially right now in this period of extreme crisis for Haiti (among too many other areas in the world), we can thankfully say it’s not hard to find examples of generosity. But it’s always nice to encounter a new form of it.

I’ll surely mention this again in the post I’ll inevitably do after the visits, but that’s repetition I don’t mind. This idea deserves all the exposure it can get.

Manners (or not) of speaking

Fairly often, I go hunting. Not for quail or the remote but rather for people connected to a subject I’m writing about—and sometimes the person himself.

At times, this requires cold calling. That can be unpleasant—no matter which end of it you’re on. Otherwise it would be called warm calling.

But it really shouldn’t be unpleasant for the one answering, especially if the caller is not selling something.

It seems obvious to me but experience shows that it bears repeating: if you don’t want to be interrupted during whatever it is that you’re doing, simply don’t answer. The phone is for your convenience, not mine. I’d rather try again (and again) than be spoken to as if I’m annoying you over a matter of 20 seconds.

Either way, I’m just asking if you are the person I’m looking for, or if you know that person. And before that I’m asking if it’s a bad time and I’m identifying myself quickly and clearly. I’m easily verifiable, courtesy of Google. I am not the IRS or your ex’s lawyer.

So why are you often gruff, evasive, or downright rude? What has made you instantly suspicious of anyone you don’t know who calls? You’re an adult. By now you should have learned that even strangers can have good intentions.

I realize it may not matter to you if I find a certain person. But you should know that the person I’m looking for will almost certainly be perfectly fine being found. In fact, some even benefit from it. If you can help with that, why wouldn’t you?

The comments that I find the most antagonistic:

“Who’s this?” – Making this more frustrating, it’s usually asked after I introduce myself by first and last name and profession.

“What do you want?” – I am getting to that. It is, of course, why I’m calling. But please either wait till my second sentence or at least ask this in a more polite way (“Sorry to be quick, but I have only a moment. May I ask what this is regarding?”).

“I’m not going to tell you anything” – The Internet has forced us all to be more vigilant in protecting our privacy. But don’t pull up the drawbridge until you know who is approaching. You and I are just talking. I’m not sucking intimate details out of your head through the phone. I’m also not asking for social security numbers or locations of tattoos.

Me, when I’m answering a call from a number I don’t recognize, I’m (mostly) patient and polite. Even with the weekly calls I get for an office at Pace University, whose number is one digit different from my cell. And even with the few telemarketers who apparently disregard that I’m a charter member of the “do not call” list.

I imagine most people never get a call from a writer doing research. And those that do, unless you’re trying to keep the lid on a scandal, remember your manners. If you’ve ever read a nonfiction book, you should appreciate what it takes to get the story as accurate as possible.

Bill Finger's yahrzeit

Thirty-six years ago today, Bill Finger, the uncredited co-creator of Batman, died at age 59.

Though Batman is by reliable accounts the most lucrative superhero in history, not to mention one of the most iconic fictional characters of the 20th century, it seemed that almost no one in pop culture noticed the passing of his prime architect.

DC Comics did run two tributes, one in an oversized reprint and the other in something akin to a fan magazine, Amazing World of DC Comics #1:

But it is safe to infer that neither of these was widely seen.

And neither answers questions that still rage at comic conventions, online, and in the minds of Batmaniacs everywhere.

Where did Bill die? How did he die? Where is he buried?

Those questions and more (Bill's real name? Bill's family? Bill's handwriting?) will soon be answered.

On 12/10/09, I received an e-mail from a Canadian student. Here is part of it (posted with permission):

Bill Finger's story is one of the great untouched tragedies with strong narrative potential.

It's remarkable that Jerry Robinson, Sheldon Moldoff, Charles Sinclair and others who worked with Bill are still living well into their 80s. It's like all the stars are aligning to tell Bill Finger's story.

Like Batman, Bill Finger was a creature of the night, so that is a fitting (not to mention touching) way to look at it. Most stars are visible only at night.

Until soon, the same could be said about Bill Finger.

Superman was on the warm horizon

This following articlette is from the 12/7/33 issue of the Torch, the student newspaper of Glenville High, the high school of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, the world's first traditional superhero. How tingly is that second-to-last line? In hindsight, it should have been the last:

Glenville High School, sometime between 1933 and 1935; 

courtesy Western Reserve Historical Society

Glenville High stairwell and strangely abandoned bag, 1934 

(the year Siegel and Shuster graduated); 

courtesy Cleveland State University archives

the school's original sign, now on the floor in a room at its current location

"365 Things to Do Before You Grow Up"

Imagine a book for young people as different as you can from the one that's been the subject of several of my last few posts:

Did you come up with something like this?


ages: 7 to adult
gist: Go sled bowling. Race elevators. Plant pennies. And 362 other funconventional activities for families.
cost: $6.95 (some sandwiches cost more!)
good for: anyone who ever gets bored
not good for: people looking for instructions on how to build a terrarium

This is the first (and still only) book I wrote that I resold to another publisher after it went out of print. The timeline:

2000 wrote the original (titled 365 Adventures) for Dutton (Penguin) in conjunction with Discovery Kids
2004 resold it to Sterling
2010 book out (odd delay for a book that was already written; it's okay—I didn't push)

Here is the original cover. Which do you like better?

Gone but not exploited

One of my goals in writing Vanished: True Stories of the Missing was to include a diverse range of experiences.

Here are the capsule summaries of the seven tales in the book:

• 2002: a resourceful second grader was kidnapped in her poor Philadelphia neighborhood
  
• 1925: a British explorer vanished while searching for a fabled city in the Brazilian jungle
  
• 1997: an outdoorsman in British Columbia never arrived at his trial for cutting done a rare golden spruce
  
• 1969: an accomplished jazz musician went missing after selling his beloved, damaged double bass
  
• 1934: a 20-year-old free spirit, seasoned hiker, and avid correspondent lost contact with his family and friends while exploring the Utah desert
  
• 2007: a 5-year-old survived a river boat accident only to find herself stranded alone in the woods
• 1944: an internationally renowned children's book author went down over the ocean in his self-piloted military plane
  

This group struck a good balance of gender, ages, races, settings, time periods, and circumstances.

And since it was to be a book for all ages, but marketed primarily to kids ages 8 and up, another of my goals was really more of a responsibility.

Any story about a person who vanishes is going to have a certain level of creepiness. But in this case, none could progress to the worst-case scenarios of sexual abuse, torture, or murder. And that was more than fine by me.

Here are some (often unpleasant) things I learned, confirmed, or inferred in trying to choose which stories to include:

• Few women and children who disappear (and are then found) escape unmolested. (Note: This and the next bullet are based only on the stories I came across; I didn't do any actual statistical analysis.) In Vanished, two of the seven stories focus on females and two focus on children. Curiously, they are the same two. (No other stories of vanished children that I came across were usable, most for reasons already stated—either they involved molestation or the children didn't survive.) The only case I found in which (a) a woman disappeared, (b) the woman was not victim of abuse, and (c) the story was otherwise appropriate for my audience was Amelia Earhart, and I didn't want to include her since she is already widely known.
• Few children who are missing for more than a couple of days are found alive. Both of the children with stories in Vanished (the girl survivors mentioned in the previous bullet) were gone for under two days.
• Few adults who are missing for more than a couple of days are found alive. However, this does not mean they are dead. It means only that they haven't been found. Unlike most children, adults sometimes disappear on purpose—they want to start new lives. Generally speaking, the longer someone is missing, the more captivating the story about his rediscovery. But in the time I had to research, I found almost no stories of people missing more than a week and then found alive. Only one story in Vanished fits this description. Most missing persons stories fall under one of the other categories: people who are missing for 1-3 days and are found alive, people who are missing for 1-3 days and are found dead, people who are missing for longer than 3 days and are eventually found dead.
• Stories of people lost in the woods or going down in planes, while all deserving of individual respect, do start to seem the same. These seem to be two of the more common ways to vanish, but in terms of narrative, they often follow similar courses. If every story in Vanished involved one or the other, the book would likely become monotonous.
• Stories of people disappearing in the wild seem more common than stories of people disappearing in cities or towns. Somehow, they also seem more nerve-racking. Perhaps this is because it seems as though it's harder to find someone in the wild. Only two stories in Vanished took place in urban areas, though I would've liked to have found more.
  
• The topic allowed for drama more easily than I expected. Yes, "missing people" is a grabber—upon first hearing it. However, when trying to execute it, I anticipated that it would be hard to build suspense because the focus of the story is, well, missing. If that person was never found, I would not be able to set any scenes from his point of view once he vanished. And I anticipated that the grief patterns back home would start to read the same. Yet I realized that it was natural to create tension in the buildup to a disappearance and I was (from an authorial perspective) happy to find how many forms the grieving took.

Finding the "Vanished"

Vanished: True Stories of the Missing is newly out from Scholastic Book Club. That means it's available exclusively from Scholastic, in one of two ways: by ordering from those wispy catalogs they send home with elementary school students or by calling 800-724-6527, then prompt 3, then prompt 1.

In other words, unlike most of my other books and most new books in general, this book has virtually no ongoing exposure in the physical world or online.

Yet this week I began to get a notable number of blog hits from people who've searched "vanished marc tyler nobleman." Aside from me telling them, the only way they could know the book exists is if they saw it in that book club catalog. I'm sure it's already obvious to you, but it took me a moment to figure out what was going on.

The first catalogs featuring Vanished shipped recently, so these hits must be parents and/or students looking for more info on the book than a single line of copy and a cover thumbnail (actually closer to a pinkienail).

And if not for this blog, finding info on Vanished could've been like looking for some of the people profiled in it—a longshot. And such a lack of info could discourage a sale. But thanks to the searchiness of a blog, the book has been given a wider lease on shelf life.

The week in school visits and surprise vomiting

On 1/5/10, approximately 12 hours after returning from a trip overseas, I had my first author visit of the new decade, conveniently located in my current hometown.

photos © Elaine Ubiña and courtesy Elaine and Greenwich Country Day School
too-baggy jeans courtesy Levi's

Two days later, I was the guest author at another nearby school's literacy event kickoff.

Both went well despite the mild pull of jet lag at the first—and the lack of a barf bag at the second.

Toward the end of that presentation, a boy in the front row stood up...and threw up. Multiple times. Though this was a first for me at a school visit, it was far from the first time I've been in the vicinity of elementary vomiting. We all remember the sawdust patches covering up the smell.

It was an evening talk so his grandfather and mom were there. Of course they took good care of him.

I hadn't considered the possibility of this circumstance before and it proved to be one where I couldn't say much of anything.

I was on a microphone before a room of people. If I called attention to this poor boy's predicament, it could embarrass him further. Yet if I ignored it and kept on going as if it wasn't happening, it would be insensitive. I clumsily strode the line between the two.

I suspect his classmates will remember what happened to him far longer than they'll remember anything I said or did. And even so, I suspect that he'll be fine. But perhaps, right now, he's wishing they made sawdust patches for memories, too.

"Vanished" in "Great Moments in History"

Vanished: True Stories of the Missing appeared in its first Scholastic Book Club catalog.

First page!

Top row!

Okay, listed second, but still:

First page! Top row!

(And for the accuracy-conscious: three of the seven people profiled in the book actually were found.)

Those of you not in elementary school can order the $4.95 book by calling Scholastic at 800-724-6527, pushing prompt 3, then prompt 1.