School visit surprises in Dayton and Chattanooga, TN

On 11/16/15, I spoke at Dayton City School in Dayton, TN. This was a first for me—never been to Dayton. I did not know this till my talks were over, but it was also a first for the risk-taking librarian who invited me, Jennifer Spengler (no relation to Egon): she had not hosted an author before. Makes me feel bad that I demanded the principal’s parking space, an organic homemade lunch in the teacher’s lounge (without teachers), and an introduction accompanied by “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince blasting from the sound system. I fear it will make her fear that all authors are high maintenance.

Joking aside, Jennifer was a total pro. She (and her students) gave me the warmest of welcomes. She mentioned her principal several times before adding that the principal was also her mom.

She and her colleague Jennifer (no relation) set up a vibrant signing station.

Before I went into the school, I took photos of the digital sign announcing my visit, but for some reason, they came out garbled like this:

Or just plain blank like this:

(I swear they were legible in real life. I can’t explain it.)

I tried again on my way out, and that time, it worked:

This was also my introduction to the sweatbee.

At one point I asked what Dayton is known for and Jennifer said the Scopes “monkey trial.” So glad I asked! I love visiting less-traveled historic sites and also love a surprise; this was both. The courthouse where the now-infamous 1925 trial took place was literally three minutes from the school, so I beelined there after my talks and signing.

As with my recent visit to Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas, I did not realize how little I knew about a site of strife till I was there. I was curious to find that both the AR high school and TN courthouse are still in active use. It’s so invigorating to learn about a significant event precisely where it took place.

Another shocker: lawyer William Jennings Bryan, who opposed teaching evolution, “won” the trial (at some expense to his reputation) and died during a nap five days later. He was also a possible inspiration for the Cowardly Lion of Wizard of Oz fame. In the distance behind my right shoulder, you can see the statue of him that stands in front of the courthouse.

I’d gotten to the courthouse just before 4:30, when it closed; the small museum in the basement had closed at 4 p.m. I thought I’d have to settle for outdoor photos only. However, I went around back and came upon a smoke break; one of the guys said a trial was in progress so I couldn’t go into the courtroom but I could give myself a tour of the museum. So I did, with the place all to myself.

 original evolution bill (1925)

 “Why Dayton—of all places?” My thought indeed!

 Funny twist: a store in the small town was named Darwin’s.

 Last surviving participant of the trial: Thomas Jefferson Brewer, 

born approximately 1921, died 2003.

 I love the flowery way people of this era described things.

If produced today, this would invariably be called “Trial of the Century!”

 Monkeys both real and toy were on hand.

Before leaving, I swung by the courtroom just in case I could somehow see inside. The trial was indeed still in progress so I decided to wait a short while with the hope that it would soon wrap up. No such luck…but they did go to a recess. My chance!

The next day, I spoke to three groups at Baylor School in Chattanooga (founded 1893). The entrance to the lovely, hilly campus is grand. The road from there to the school is marked with large red paw prints—tiger tracks. Just the school mascot making his presence known. Then you reach more tracks—this time, for trains. (Appropriate for Chattanooga.)

My host was Julie King, who co-hosted me before when she was at another school.

She is one of the most laid-back, generous hosts I’ve had, and gave me a tour of the school. I can’t escape from fascinating history!

I was struck by how many subjects were on this 1893 report card—and the way that both arithmetic and geography were divided into two subcategories.

Speaking of tours, an admissions officer and the family of a prospective student stopped to listen to part of my talk. It turns out that this young man had been assigned to do a biography project...on Bill Finger. Total coincidence.

You can’t tell from this photo, but the view out the window behind me was spectacular: a sweeping view of campus and the river that runs through it.

So you will have to settle for this view (of the airport apron when I landed in Tennessee a few days earlier):

Thank you again, Julie and Jennifer!

Superman is a writer

From Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman #16, written by Jason Badower:

Wonder Woman to Superman: “You can write.” 

“Thirty Minutes Over Oregon” checks multiple boxes

I learned of Nobuo Fujita in 1997.

I finally wrote about him in 2007.

I finally sold that manuscript in 2014.

The book will finally come out in 2017—the 75th anniversary of Nobuo’s historic act.

I need a phrase more enthusiastic than “I can’t wait.”

Part of that enthusiasm is the usual sort—every book published is an honor I don’t take for granted. But part is because I already have a bit of intel as to how the book could be received. One benefit of taking this long from first draft to first printing is that it’s given me lots of opportunity to gauge reaction of the premise. Of special interest to me is reaction from teachers and librarians

I speak regularly about my superhero books in schools worldwide. Afterward, educators sometimes share with me parts of their wish list. I am happy that these four requests have come up, some frequently:

• books that will appeal to boys (i.e. books they don’t have to force boys to read)
• nonfiction picture books for middle grade
• previously untold stories
• World War II stories

Thirty Minutes Over Oregon is all four.

That does not automatically mean that educators will like the book…but they’ll like the idea of the book, and that’s a good enough start for me.

10,000 and 2,000 the same day

On 11/3/15, my Twitter account hit these figures, which is insignificant but which I am sharing because I like round numbers:

Superman “bad outfit” line in “Greatest American Hero” pilot!

In 2011, I posted an interview with actor Bo Rucker, whose one line in Superman: The Movie is what YouTube user Jason Makiaris called “the most important moment in the Superman saga.”

In 2014, I posted an interview with singer Joey Scarbury, whose song “Believe It or Not” from is, I’d argue, one of the most beloved TV theme songs of the 1980s, if not all time.

I recently heard from a fan of Bo’s who pointed out that the 1981 pilot of GAH paid tribute to Bo’s funny/memorable line from Superman (1978).

Superman:



Greatest American Hero (a little after 50 minutes into the show):



I’m sure that flew right over my 9-year-old head when I first heard it. I love when people take the time to remind me of these “lost” moments of pop culture.

American Association of School Librarians 2015 conference

My flight to Columbus for the 2015 American Association of School Librarians conference was scheduled for 10 a.m. on 11/6/15. My panel was scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

At 3:30 a.m. that day, I received an email saying my flight was canceled. However, I didn’t see that email at 3:30 a.m. I also didn’t see it at 6:45 a.m., the time for which I’d set my alarm. I saw it about an hour earlier, when I happened to temporarily wake and for some reason violated my own policy of not checking my phone in the middle of the night. When I learned of the cancellation, I immediately got up to scramble to book another flight.

I had two choices: a flight double the price or a flight that would get me in after the panel. Neither, obviously, worked.

So with regret, I told the organizer of my panel, librarian Matthew Winner, that I wouldn’t make it. I didn’t feel like this would disapppoint him or the other panelists (Matthew Cordell, Loren Long, Jonathan Auxier, Sudpita Bardhan-Quallen, and Rafael Rosada)—after all, there were five of them, each able to draw a crowd on his/her own, as could Matthew. But I was bummed. I’d really been looking forward to this, my first AASL.

Luckily, my wife often does the thinking for both of us. Around 7 a.m., she said “Why don’t you drive?”

“Drive to Ohio?” I said, in Maryland.

One of my lacking areas is geography. I would’ve said it’d take 10 hours to drive from Bethesda to Columbus. Turns out it takes six—not a quick drive, but infinitely better than 10. And if I left within the hour, I should arrive in plenty in time.

So I hopped in a car and did just that. It was a warm, overcast day; the drive was a bit monotonous but did offer a few sweeping views of unspoiled valleys. Adrenaline got me there as much as gas, and it was so worth it.

AASL scheduled our panel for a fairly large room, and I’m happy to report that it seemed pretty full. Other kidlit friends in attendance included Don Tate, Susannah Richards, Steve Light, and Margi Preus.

The topic of the panel was how authors use social media. It seemed like the room—and possibly the panel itself—was surprised at how funny the proceedings were. I’ve been on a lot of panels and found this one particularly well-run. Matthew (first-time moderator!) asked a question, then went down the row giving us all a chance to answer in order. (Most panels, a question is tossed out, then it’s a free-for-all. In this case, with a pattern set, there was less microphone jostling.)

Matthew Winner, Sudipta, Matthew Cordell, 

me, Rafael, Loren, Jonathan

When asked what our favorite social media site was, I confessed that I spend 6-8 hours a day on MySpace, and by the audience’s laughter, they thought I was kidding.

In his charming southern accent, Matthew Cordell wondered aloud if he should be using what he called (or what sounded like) “TweetDick,” and a number of others jumped in to clarify that he would probably find TweetDeck more useful.

Master of Ceremonies Matt was quick with one-liner replies to certain comments. Everyone, frankly, was a joy. All had something of substance to say.

All in all, it went by too fast.

But then the group (plus some librarian friends) decamped to a nearby restaurant to keep the conversation going, sans microphones.

 Rafael, Don Tate, me

 Jonathan, librarian Deva Walker

librarian Mindy Nichols, Loren, Deva, 

Sudipta, librarian Jennifer Kelley Reed

The following morning, I did my 30-minute signing and my 360-minute drive home, tired but still content that I’d gone with Plan C (car to Columbus).

After the “Marc” photo was nixed, I crashed the “Matt” photo.

Oh, and while talking with Matt Cordell and Loren Long, I made a prediction that I put into writing.

Upon opening it in five years, if I’m right, I’ll share it here. If not, it’ll become another unsolved mystery…

This is one conference I want to ask to the dance again.

Full disclosure: All but the grainy restaurant photos came from social media.

Bill Finger credited in Batman-related comics, week 4

Week 1 of the corrected credit—three titles.

Week 2—six titles (not counting weekly print series where the credit had already appeared; I am noting only the first appearance of the credit in a series).

Week 3—two titles (one is the big ticket item).

Week 4—four titles (one is the other big ticket item):

Batman #46

Catwoman #46

Batman/Superman #26

Batman Beyond #6

Rejections for my cartoons

From 1998-2003 and then in spurts since, I split my time between writing books and writing (plus drawing) single panel cartoons. 

Here are four of my favorite responses to submissions—two rejections, one acceptance, and one something else. This was back when things were done on paper, via postal mail.

 Punch was an influential, long-running humor 

magazine in the United Kingdom. In fact, it helped 

define “cartoon” to mean a humorous illustration.

This part of the last line of the letter is what sells it:
“To be honest, I don’t think you stand much chance.”

(I went on to license cartoons to Punch 

fairly regularly till it folded in 2002. I also

befriended this editor, Steve Way.)

 Not all Playboy cartoons have adult themes.

I tried unsuccessfully to sell to the magazine

for a while, then sent a note with samples to 

Playboy CEO Christie Hefner because she

and I both went to Brandeis University

(separated by 20 years). Again, the last

line is what made this a keeper.

A bit more than six months later...

(Different editor. First of several cartoons I licensed to HBR. The moral: as long as no one will get hurt, try whatever you want as many times as you want to.)

“Brave Like My Brother” uncorrected proof

My next book out is a WWII novel told in letters, Brave Like My Brother. Love that title—and I can say that, because I didn’t come up with it! (Thank you, Scholastic!) 

My copies of the uncorrected proof recently arrived (the only correction I found is a rogue comma that must be terminated) and look precisely like this:

As you can see (even before they see it), I have my own band of brothers.

The book will release in hardcover in the summer of 2016.

Bill Finger in print as Batman co-creator…in 1966!

My friend Steven Thompson made a startling discovery…the earliest known instance of Bill Finger being listed in print as equal partner to Bob Kane in creating Batman. In fact, Bill’s name appears first.

Zooming in:

To quote Steve:

There’s no writer listed and I thought it was a wire service report but there are local theater references. Of course, they could have been edited in locally TO a wire service report. I used to work for a newspaper and I know that was done fairly often. BUT...I couldn’t find it in any other papers available through Newspapers.com which means it MAY have actually been local in Kansas.

Hurricanes and fire alarms vs. SCBWI conference

On 10/24/15, I had the privilege of speaking and mentoring fellow writers at the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic 2015 conference in Virginia. I spoke once to the general assembly and met with ten aspiring writers for 15 minutes each to discuss their picture book manuscripts.

I had it easy.

The only thing that went wrong for me was that the PowerPoint was glitchy due to a temperamental connection. It got to the point that an event organizer and a hotel rep had take turns manually holding a cable in place or else the screen would go blue or go bust.

Meanwhile, keynote author Kathi Appelt had valiantly tried to get out of Texas only to be thwarted by the historic Hurricane Patricia. So she turned around from the airport, went home, and delivered her charming keynote by Skype...

...during which the hotel fire alarm went off. And stayed on for longer than any fire alarm I recall—must have been five minutes and felt even longer due to the piercing sound. (This was the second time I’d been at an author event dramatically interrupted by a fire alarm…)

Kathi weathered that snafu like she’d weathered the weather, and the audience loved her more.

During my talk, I show a photo of Bob Kane’s grave, and an eagle-eyed attendee noticed that it happened to be his 100th birthday. I asked that we not sing “Happy Birthday” to him. Everyone understood.

Thank you to Erin Teagan, Val Patterson, and everyone else who enabled me to be there and who overcame these stressful surprises with grace. Good show!

Some reaction from the attendees: