QNABS: Bestest Songs EVAR

Question nobody asks but should: What are the bestest songs EVAR? The problem with any kind of “bestest” list is that it’s hard to sort things out, and also, to a large degree, completely unnecessary. And yet we all love to do it, and hence everything from the Oscars to ALA Most Notable Books to [...]

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QNABS: The Last Book You "Read"

Question nobody asks but should: What’s the last book you “read”? To be fair, sometimes people do ask what the last book I read is, but they never put it in scare quotes. The last book I “read” I listened to, at work today, and is called Neil Armstrong is My Uncle (and Other Lies [...]

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Little Brother is Reading You

My buddy Jon Skovron got a favorable review from Corey Doctorow, but I did him one better… a thumbs up from Little Brother.

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QNABS: The Awesomest Animal

Question nobody asks but should: Mr. Scaletta, what is the awesomest animal there is? I’m so glad somebody finally asked this most pertinent question, it doesn’t even bother me that awesomest is not a word. And while each of us has their own favorite animal, I am going to try to suspend subjectivity and take [...]

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QNABS

Remember FAQs? Do people still do those? I feel like I should be leaning forward and speaking in trembling voice as I clutch the ball of my cane, but back in the early 90s when the World Wide Web was a whippernapper you’d find nary a website without a “FAQ” or page of “frequently asked [...]

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Do the Monster Mash-Up

You might have heard there’s a bestselling book that rewrites Pride and Prejudice and adds zombies. I think there are other classics re-told with monsters, and perhaps a few that do it the other way round (say, Frankenstein without the monster, which would be a nice existentialist fable.) But what if this trend hits children’s [...]

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The Second Time Around

Back in the early days of this blog I wrote this post about painting the deck and likening it to finishing a novel-length manuscript. Now, within the last week, I have both mailed back the final edits to my second novel, and repainted the deck (I paint it every five years, whether it needs it [...]

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The Mahar Child – Part One

Matt Miller, who appears in my forthcoming novel, Mamba Point is a big fan (like I was when I was his age, and still am) of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Unlike me, Matt has even written fan fiction — namely, a short novel set in Burroughs’ world of Pellucidar, the primitive world on the inside of [...]

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New Poll

Let me ask you what I asked the sixth graders at South View Middle School. As I work on my third book, which will hopefully come out after the snake book, and which is about a 13-year-old football player who lives in a small town in Maine, I have one very important decision to make. [...]

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Keep those snakes a-coming

Thanks to the folks who’ve drawn me snakes, which you can find in my snake gallery. Recent additions come from terrific authors like Saundra Mitchell and Laurel Snyder, and world-class agent (I’m a bit biased) Tina Wexler. Follow the link and click “Send Me Your Snakes” for instructions. Also thanks to excellent individuals who are [...]

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