Antony John's Blog
A haphazard blend of reading, writing, reviewing, and ranting, with frequent breaks for a cup of tea.
Check in for updates on all my projects, as well as anything else that has inexplicably grabbed my attention.
Yes, it’s true. DUMB has it’s very own trailer. You can see it here. It’s pretty gosh darn amazing, and I’m so chuffed the good folks at Arlington Public Library in Virginia liked the book enough to put the movie together. I am SO visiting that library when I go on my big national book tour in thirty years’ time.
As a bonus, Kepler’s Bookstore in the Bay Area has an interview with me, for those of you who aren’t bored with reading author interviews yet.
Happy weekend!
1. Next Tuesday, January 18th at 6PM, Jody Feldman, Cole Gibsen, and I will be presenting a YA books panel at the Buder Branch of the St. Louis Public Library. We’ll be talking about our own roads to publication, and how we write. But we’ll also be offering advice to emerging authors of all ages, so anyone with aspirations to be a published novelist should definitely come along. It’s free, and we’ll have a lot of information for you.
2. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a nice story on local ALA award winners. And talking of local ALA winners . . .
3. Brian Katcher, one of my favorite YA authors, won the Stonewall Award for his most recent book, ALMOST PERFECT. Everyone should read this and his other novel, PLAYING WITH MATCHES.
4. Brian and I were in good company among ALA award winners it seems, as Midwesterners racked up.
5. Finally, a big shout out to the fantastic students at Crossroads College Prep in St. Louis. I really enjoyed my visit today, and the questions were excellent. And bonus points for having MULTIPLE students who have already finished their first YA novel (yes, I’m looking at you Mia and Zoe). Amazing.
This morning, the ALA (American Library Association) announced that Five Flavors of Dumb has won this year’s Schneider Family Book Award in the Teen Book category. The Award honors a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.
To be honest, I never imagined I’d be honored with a national award. Yes, I hoped it might happen one day, but the odds are against it. The standard of children’s literature is so outstandingly high that it’s a honor simply to be able to call myself a published author. But this . . . this is something else altogether.
I’ll no doubt write more about it in the future, but for now I just have to say thanks once again to all the people who gave up their time to talk to me about deafness, how it functions and what it means, even how it feels. Without you all, Piper would not have been half so rich a character.
And this is, indeed, Piper’s award. When the 8-person committee called me from San Diego yesterday afternoon to give me the wonderful news, they all regaled me with a chorus of “We love Piper.”
And to Ted Malawer who said “challenge yourself,” and Audrey who said “why don’t you write about music from the perspective of a Deaf person,” and Liz Waniewski who said “I love your idea, let’s make it rock,” all I can say is: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m indebted to you all.
Ana and Thea, patrons of the legendary Book Smugglers blog have generously allowed me to share my Best of 2010! It’s an eclectic mix, overloaded with angst and drama (’cause I love ‘em so). It’s also evenly split between movies and books because, you know, I’m a really slow reader. Sad, but true.
Oh yeah, and there’s another DUMB giveaway for those who comment, so head on over already!
You can also read Ana’s review of DUMB here.
Free books? YES! Three books? YES! YES! YES!
Last night, I discovered that no fewer than three (yes, THREE) blogs are hosting DUMB giveaways at the moment. And since many readers have expressed an interest in obtaining a free copy of DUMB (no kidding!), I thought I’d pass along the links:
Mandy Hubbard (awesome author, hilarious blogger, and – oh yeah – a literary agent, too) says DUMB is one of her top 5 books EVER. Yikes!
Andrea Cremer (New York Times bestselling author of the breathtaking NIGHTSHADE) has posted an interview with me.
I Am a Reader Not a Writer blog has an interview, too, including a quotation from my worst review ever. It’s cringe-worthy, so you really ought to take a look, if only so you can laugh at me!
DUMB has had a slew of new reviews recently, including these three over the past 24 hours. Piper wants to share:
The Book Smugglers: “Five Flavors of Dumb is really, REALLY good, surprisingly so – even though I heard nothing but praise for the book, I still didn’t expect it to be this good.”
An Avid Reader’s Musings: “Five Flavors of Dumb is a great story.”
Fresh Fiction: “Piper … doesn’t triumph despite her disabilities. She triumph’s because she’s smart and creative. That makes this an important book for a YA reader seeking a starting place to understand deaf culture.
A big thanks to all reviewers for taking the time to read and post their thoughts. It’s much appreciated!
Well, I compiled a list of all the blog and facebook comments left over the past week, and used a Random Number Generator to unveil the winner and . . . um . . . the RNG picked a relative of mine. Now, no offense to my relatives, but if I figure that if they love me (which they do) they’ll cough up the cash and buy a copy of DUMB. So I told the RNG to think again, and it said . . .
#37 – aka Shannon. Congrats to Shannon, and a HUGE thanks to everyone for entering. Don’t despair, non-winners, there’ll be another giveaway later in the month, and believe me when I say the best prizes are yet to come!
How cool is this photo? Thanks to Holly at the Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle for sending me this. And thanks to Jimi Hendrix for picking up a copy of DUMB. Impressive work for a dude who kicked the bucket 40 years ago!
While I’m in thanking mode, kudos to the students of Hancock Place High School who gave me such a warm reception on Friday, and had awesome questions. And thanks to all the folks who turned up to my signing at Barnes and Noble, especially the crazy folks from Northwest Valley – y’all rock.
Reviews have continued to roll in so fast that I haven’t been able to post them all here. Still, they’re all so wonderful, and so well written, and I’m super grateful to the bloggers and readers and reviewers who have taken the time to read DUMB and share their thoughts. Like this one from the blog Slightly Bookish.
Tomorrow evening (Friday December 10th) at 7PM, I’ll be signing books at the Barnes and Noble in Fenton, MO (721 Gravois Rd). Please come along if you live within 100 miles (or 200, if you’re super keen)!
A big thanks to the Northwest Vallyet 7th and 8th Grade Center in House Springs, MO, for being such awesome hosts this morning. It’s the first time I’ve spoken to a real CROWD (I think 1200 students counts as a crowd, don’t you?).
Next up: Hancock Place High School tomorrow morning. Ah, the fun never stops.
In keeping with the awful change in weather (hey, I don’t like winter; what can I say?) here’s a winter-themed interview with yours truly.
Don’t forget, every comment on my blog or Facebook page gets you an entry into the book giveaway contest.
Finally, check out Lauren Myracle’s very insightful post about the “friends” status of her Flower Power buds. Lauren doesn’t post very often, but when she does, it’s always worth reading (and thinking about!).
First off, congrats to Ashley – my random number generator declared her winner of the inaugural book giveaway contest. As you can see, even Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn are excited. Ashley will be receiving a signed copy of FIVE FLAVORS OF DUMB, and an ARC of WHERE SHE WENT by Gayle Forman. Thanks to everyone for entering.
But if one giveaway is good, two must be better, right? So this week, I’m offering a signed copy of DUMB and a copy of MATCHED by Ally Condie. In case you haven’t noticed, MATCHED is generating uber-buzz (with multiple starred reviews), and it’s 100 percent justified. This book will have you hooked within three (yes, THREE!) pages, and never let you go. Ally Condie has an expertly crafted world she wants to share with you, and a gift for writing beautiful prose that always feels spot on. I completely [heart] this book!
The competition starts NOW and the winner will be randomly selected on Sunday, December 12th (which is, coincidentally, my birthday). As before, you get one entry for every comment left on my blog or on my Facebook page, so you might be able to get in a few entries before the week is out. New additions to my Facebook page will get a bonus entry. And once again, as an added bonus, the winner can select who s/he would like the books mailed to. So if you decide to keep MATCHED, but want the signed copy of DUMB mailed to a friend as a surprise, then I can do that for you. It’s all about sharing during the holiday season, see?
Tomorrow (Thursday, December 2nd) I have an event at the Central West End Left Bank Books in St. Louis. It starts at 6PM, but please come along any time between then and 7:30PM. The really cool thing about this signing? I’m giving all the royalties from books sold to a local fund. Oh, and President Obama’s favorite pizza will be available, FREE. And the store is donating 10 percent of ALL books sold to the same local fund. For all the full (crazy) details, just follow the link at the top.
Here’s a gratuitous photo of Pi pizza, because if DUMB doesn’t lure you along, this surely must!
Kudos to the readers who’ve taken the bold step of getting an RSS feed to my blog. To those of you who only ever get third (or lower) billing on the comments page, don’t feel bad. I’ve been trying to be the first commenter on Auntie Heather Brewer’s blog for over a year, and so far have only managed #4. Anyway, rest assured I love you all equally.
Finally, some comments have included fantastic, hard-hitting questions, so I thought I’d answer them here . . .
Nancy McClelland wrote: Where is the best place to buy DUMB? I have to presume that authors don’t earn the same royalty for each book sold … so is it better for you (or at least, more likely to get counted as “X many books sold” somewhere) if we buy it here versus there?
Me: I’m no expert here, but I think that as long as my publisher doesn’t sell a million copies to Walmart at a profit margin of 0.001 percent, I should receive the same royalties wherever you buy it. That being said, I’d appeal to EVERYONE to support your local Indie bookstore if possible. If it weren’t for Indies, books like mine (i.e. NOT “event” books with a massive marketing push) would disappear without trace.
Chelsea: What anime are those characters from?
Me: Yikes – I have no idea. I just yanked them from the web. Cool though, right?
crowther: I really really like you, and your wife and your children are splendid.
Me: That’s lovely, Greg. But you can still only win the book. My wife and children stay with me.
A final note to Savannah and Laura: If it comes down to it, a thumb-wrestling tiebreaker is fine by me.
