I’m happy to announce that my third book, WAKE, ME, will be published in Fall 2011 by Knopf. This will be my third book with Knopf, and my third book with my terrific editor over there. Knopf has been awesome, sticking by me even though I have faithless to genre. Sports, snakes, and now…
Fungi.
Yep, fungi.
My librarian friend Brandy asked me not to use that word because it’s icky. Just say mushrooms, she said. Mycological menace, perhaps. But not fungi. But I love the word. Maybe it’s because I’m such a… wait for it, wait for it… FUNGI myself. (Get it?)
WAKE, ME (pronounced: Wake, Maine) is about a small New England Town where bioluminescent mushrooms run amock. For Eric Parrish, the arrival of the mushrooms is when his world starts coming apart at the seams. He can’t sleep, his football team hates him, and his best friend is a pig. He meets a girl runaway who nearly got his mom fired, and she convinces him that the mushrooms portend doom for their town. :cue up the spooky music:
I thought I’d stop by the mothership and congratulate you officially. I see you have kept the site warm and moist and mushrooms have sprouted right at the top—mysterious, glowing mushrooms that I am eager to read about! I like the fact that there’s a pig, also. (They are very smart animals and not to be truffled with.)
Congrats, again!
Indeed not. And in any case, bothering pigs would be a-morel.
Hey Kurtis,
Huge congrats on the book sale. That’s about the coolest premise ever! Yowza! Great title, too!
Lisa
Hey Kurtis – it’s Julia from Verla’s, popping over here to add more congrats! Woot! Sounds like a fun book from a – ta-dum – fungi! (I love puns!) Julia
This is one of the most interesting book descriptions I have ever read. Seriously, mushrooms? Can’t wait to get the book.
Congrats!
Kurtis – I appreciate your genre-hopping. A kid who read Mudville because it’s about baseball will be more willing to read your next book and expand his/her literary world. Who knows if that kid would have ever picked up a book about snakes or fungi? So, my pen cap’s off to you