Mudville Launch Party

Just a reminder that I will be at The Red Balloon at 891 Grand Avenue in St. Paul tomorrow at 2 PM. There will be cake! Please drop by for my very first reading and signing ever. I will practicing both all day today in preparation for tomorrow. Find more information at http://tinyurl.com/mudville-party.

Read Full Post »

In Memory of Bill Holm

I really don’t mean to turn this into an obituary of authors, but we lost another good one today in Bill Holm, a Minnesotan who thought and wrote like an American Romantic transplanted to the wrong era. Here is a paragraph from his essay, “Horizontal Grandeur,” that I think of often. There are two eyes [...]

Read Full Post »

Philip Jose Farmer, 1918-2009

The last two days have been sweet, but here comes the bitter. One of my favorite writers from young adulthood, Philip Jose Farmer, passed away today. Besides writing two of the best-loved fantasy series of all time (and personal favorites from my teen years), Riverworld and The World of Tiers, Farmer was an innovator in [...]

Read Full Post »

Media Roundup

This morning was a miniature media blitz of sorts, with three interviews in various venues. First, I appeared on Showcase Minnesota and talked to Rob Hudson about Mudville and the Twins. I also joined Mick Cochrane for a chat about books and baseball for Buffalo.com. Now, Mick lives in Buffalo, so I how got attached [...]

Read Full Post »

Blogging Roundup

Today was the big day, and my aggregator shows it. Thanks to everyone who posted Mudville-related announcements and reminders. The 9 Spot with Saundra Mitchell (Shadowed Summer, Delacorte 2009) (aka The Mudville Nine?) Three Questions with Jennifer R. Hubbard (The Secret Year, Viking 2010), who, like Mr. Berk before her, likes to remind me that [...]

Read Full Post »

Media Roundup

There are a half dozen bloggy things I’ll have to collect and link to, but a preliminary thanks to everyone who put up launch-day reminders, announcements, interviews, etc. I’ll post links to those later today or tomorrow. I do want to post two quick announcements/reminders about Wednesday, though. The first is my appearance on Kare [...]

Read Full Post »

Books and Ducklings

“Go, little book!” – Robert Louis Stevenson The day I closed the book deal with Knopf nearly two years ago, my wife and I went to a baseball game. I don’t remember who the Twins played or who won that night. I do remember standing outside, waiting for the doors to open. I was excited [...]

Read Full Post »

One more day…

Read Full Post »

As seen in the novels… chili dog pie!

You read the novel… Now eat the dinner…

Read Full Post »

Uh oh…

I’m in big trouble. See, my wife has a week of special dinners planned in celebration of launch week. It’s very thoughtful of her, but she drew her inspiration for the entire weekly menu from Roy’s dad’s kitchen catastrophes described in Mudville (some of his favorite recipes are here). I got wise to her plan [...]

Read Full Post »