The Purloined Boy is now available in Turkish from Tramvay Yayincilik under the title: Karanliklar Ulesi, which in Turkish means, “Underworld.”

http://www.ilknokta.com/kitap/127765/Karanliklar-Ulkesi.html

Some time back Mortimus entertained the thought of podcasting The Purloined Boy in its entirety.  Then he came to his senses.  But he did manage to get chapter one recorded.  Many have mentioned that Morty has the perfect voice for reading his own writing — that is very apropos, no?  Here it is for your listening pleasure.

Here’s the introduction to what was to be the podiobook (that was to play at the beginning of each episode) –

Here’s the “bumper”  for the “outroduction” each chapter of the proposed podiobook (that was to play at the end of each episode) –

The beginning of chapter one: A Hint of Blue.  (Originally posted 3-31-09)

Here is the second part of chapter one.  (Posted 4-1-09)

Here is the third part of chapter one.  (Posted 4-7-09)

The Purloined Boy has won the Silver Medal in the 2010 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards in the Young Adult Fiction category.

Morty’s foreign rights agent, Whitney Lee, of The Fielding Agency, has secured an agreement from Tramvay, the children’s book publisher based in Istambul, to publish The Purloined Boy in 2011!

Good work, Whitney!

The Purloined Boy was reviewed in the April/May 2010 edition of Gilbert Magazine, the official magazine of The American Chesterton Society.

Seeing as Mortimus and G. K. are old friends, Morty was immensely pleased by the insightful write up.  To download a copy of the review, click here: Gilbert Review

To visit the website for Gilbert Magazine, click on this icon of G. K.’s visage:

Mortimus spoke to about 150 sixth graders in Coventry, Connecticut and had a great time.  Lots of Morty fans with excellent questions.  Thanks for the great time! 

Morty

Finster Press is proud to announce that, The Purloined Boy has been awarded the Gold Medal (first place that is) for Juvenile/Young Adult Fiction.

Follow this link to learn more about the award and to see the winners in all the categories:  http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1362     

On another note — The Purloined Boy was recently called, “very competent” and a “jaunty work” by Publishers Weekly.

The Purloined Boy is in the running! 

The contest is sponsored by Amazon, Publishers Weekly, and Penguin Books.  There are two divisions: General Fiction and Young Adult and each division was open to 5,000 entries.

The first cut took place in February and 1,000 entries survived in each division.  250 Quarter-Finalists were announced March 23rd and The Purloined Boy was among them.

As part of the contest, the first chapter of the book is available for free for the Kindle and can be downloaded here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Purloined-Boy-ebook/dp/B003CV7SN6/ref=sr_1_382?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1269456725&sr=1-382

Morty

The Purloined Boy is on the shelves of all six branches of the King County Library System (Seattle, Washington).

Click here to search the library’s catalog:  www.kcls.org 

Morty

The Purloined Boy is on the shelves of 9 branches of the Dayton Metro Library.

To visit the Dayton Metro Library follow this link: http://www.daytonmetrolibrary.org/

Morty

The Purloined Boy is available at 17 branches of, The Brooklyn Public Library.  

To search the catalog of, The Brooklyn Public Library simply go to this link: http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/

There are many libraries across the United States that now carry Mortimus Clay’s, The Purloined Boy.  Each week mortimusclay.com will feature a library where you can take out Morty books!

Thanks to “Mr. C.” and “Mr. J.” and all the great kids at Nathan Hale Middle School for another fun visit!

Had a great day at South Shore Christian Academy today in Weymouth, MA.  (This is about 1/3 of the kids and teachers at the reading.)  I enjoyed the questions and really appreciate the invitation.  Thanks everyone.  I hope you enjoy the book!

Morty

One of the great things about being an author is the fan mail. 

Here’s a fun letter that arrived recently.  Here’s the text:

“Dear Mortimus Clay,

The book The Purloined Boy is a great, fun filled book.  It has superior word choice, such as imbeciles, conspiracy, hefted and apprehend.  I understood the story line perfectly.

I think my favorite part was when Zephyr allowed Trevor to escape from where the bogeys took him.  This book made me keep reading because I wanted to find out if Trevor would ever escape from his captors.  This was aninteresting book because I like reading about mysteries.  My favorite character was Trevor, because he likes to figure things out, just like me.

I am planning to recommend this book to some of my classmates; I look forward to discussing the book with them when they complete it.

I can’t wait until your next book comes out.  Can you please tell me when you publish it? 

Sincerely, K. H. – Mrs. Brennan’s 5th grader, M. Elementary School”    

Thanks K. H. — I’m looking forward to meeting you.  I believe arrangements are being made for Morty to visit your school.  I’m told there are about 150 -200 of your classmates that I’ll be with!

Morty

The Purloined Boy is on Kindle for the special Christmas price of only $1.99!

For all you happy people who got a Kindle Christmas — load up The Purloined Boy now because the price is going up after the New Year.

Follow this link to get your downloadable copy: The Purloined Boy (Kindle Edition)

The following are excerpts of an interview of Christopher Wiley (personal secretary to Mortimus Clay)  conducted by Jana Mohr Lone, Director, Northwest Center for Philosophy for Children of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Washington.  Portions of this interiview are soon to be published on the center’s blog.

Jana: “Please tell me about your professional history.  What led you from philosophy to writing young adult fantasy?”

Christopher: “Well, I’m a Presbyterian minister.  I taught philosophy to undergraduates for nearly ten years and I studied ethics at Harvard Divinity School.

For me there wasn’t a direct road from philosophy to fantasy.  Both have been part of my life since I started reading seriously as a teenager.  I didn’t begin to write young adult fantasy so that I could encode philosophy in order to slip it past the unsuspecting reader.  Instead – I’m a philosopher who loves fantasy and got an idea for a story stuck in his head and used philosophy to help get it out.”

“Do you think that fantasy novels are a particularly good way to facilitate young people’s exploration of philosophy?  And if so, why?”

“Probably not in an academic sense – didacticism is the death of fiction.  There have occasionally been great stylists in the history of philosophy: Plato, Augustine, Kierkegaard, Pascal, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Sartre (that about exhausts it).  Of those, only one was a writer of fiction.  The dialogs of Plato, the confessions of Augustine, the parables of Kierkegaard, the sundry thoughts of Pascal, the diatribes of Nietzsche, and aphorisms of Schopenhauer – these are all edifying and entertaining – but they all put the lesson first.  They’re all so tendentious; and to readers of fiction they’re tedious.  And if you’re going to write fiction people want to read and not merely assign for a class then you’ve got to let the story set the agenda.  (Jostein Gaarder’s, Sophie’s World is a partial exception to this.  Yet I wonder how many of his book sales were to Introduction to Philosophy classes.)

All that said, fantasy is a great place to explore philosophical themes.  You can even have fun with characters – basing them on philosophers or schools of philosophy.  The easiest thing to do is to work with symbolism and foreshadowing.  But I think the most fruitful use of philosophy in writing fiction is allowing philosophical problems arise for the characters to address within the context of the plot.  I’d say that philosophy, when practiced well, helps us identify the fundamental issues to respond to in any situation we find ourselves in.  Since it is helpful in that way in our lives – it certainly can work that way in a narrative.”

“Wh