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How would you like to step inside the mind of artist Travis Millard? You might not come out the same on the other side. These are some wild illustrations he’s conjuring up. Travis waves his freak flag high and let’s his imagination run loose like a madman with the keys to the asylum. And wouldn’t you agree that’s what an artist should do? Fearless - no holds barred - let it go from the brain to the paper – that’s the pure essence of the creative spirit. Why be afraid to put down on paper or canvas what it is that you want to put down? Artists like Travis Millard are saying to hell with conventional thinking – my way is much more fun.

His work looks like it might have some Robert Crumb or a little bit of S. Clay Wilson influence to it. Heck, everyone has been influenced by someone. Still Travis Millard is definitely original in his own right. Eye gouging, hand biting with some face melding make out sessions – yeah this guy certainly isn’t having any problems creating unique pieces of art.

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Seriously. My new kid hasn't been here for over 2 weeks already. Has he? Seriously? Must be. I went back to work yesterday and I'm just stunned by how quickly the time has flown. It's frightening, actually.

If someone's got the spare time and the funding, I've got a research project idea. Let's see if there's some sort of time flux thing that happens to people with every kid they add. My theory? The more kids you have, the quicker the time flies. There's gotta be something to it.

To that end, Jake is going to be my final installment in the kid saga. We're done. Two boys is more than enough to keep us busy.

So...I thought I'd just get on here and talk about the whole 'going into labor' story and all the craziness that ensued when Big Jake made his appearance. But honestly? There really wasn't anything to it.

This is coming from the guy who didn't have to push an almost 10-pounder through his crotch...

But seriously, folks. You can ask Laura and she'll tell you, the difference between having Travis and having Jacob is like night and day. She pushed for 4 hours when she was in labor with Travis.

With Jake? 46 minutes.

We were at the hospital for the entire two days. This time around? We cut out early, after a day of sitting around and not doing much.

I can tell you that Jake was born on one of the coldest days in Minnesota history and that, like his older brother, decided to wait until the day after his due date to arrive. That's just the way the Troupe brothers roll.

Laura bounced back almost immediately after Jake was out the chute. Really. She will be the first to tell you this pregnancy was 10x harder than the first time around.


- She went to bed early, usually around 8pm when Travis did. Heck, sometimes she was asleep before TKT Part 2.
- She snored like a grizzly bear for the last 4-5 months of the pregnancy, which caused yours truly to have to sleep elsewhere. I can usually sleep through a hurricane, but Hurricane Laura proved too much even for me.
- She had heartburn and an upset stomach on an almost daily basis.
- Morning sickness? Not so much.

But things went well and it's hard to believe the little guy is here and part of the family. It's definitely strange not being able to have anyone but our kids sit in the back seats of our cars and just weird as all get-out to change diapers, mix up bottles, etc... I thought I'd be rusty when it came time to re-diaper the little guy, but I've got it down to a science. Even after 4 years!

The greastest thing? Travis is so excited about having a little brother now. Almost daily, he peeks in at Jake while he's sleeping and says:

"Look at that cute yittle (that's how he says 'little') guy."

or

"Hey brother." (which immediately reminds me of Arrested Development)


Anyway...life is good. Thanks to all for your well wishes and words of congratulations. If you're in the neighborhood, stop by.

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*tumbleweed*

November 10th already, eh? Dang...I sort of don't even know where to begin to catch you all up. So, I'm not really going to try. Here are some highlights to tide you over!

Link

Travis became Link (from Legend of Zelda) for Halloween. It was pretty much fantastic.

We went around to a handful of houses and everyone thought he was Robin Hood. I had to carefully explain that he wasn't Robin Hood and that he was the hero of Hyrule, Link! I got weird looks from my neighbors.

"Oh, just give him his candy already."

One thing that was pretty interesting was the house I like to call the McCain house. We approached the place and they had a t-shirt with 'McCain' on it, all lit up like it was something scary. Which...really, kind of would have been, you know? But when we got to the house, the lady inside was decked out in a sweatshirt and when Travis approached she asked how old he was. She then rifled through her different bins (?) inside the house and gave us a bag, all tied up. When we got home, we opened it and found a green teddy bear wearing a t-shirt that said 'Gift From God.'

Huh. I didn't know God was down with green teddies.

But seriously...keep your politics and religion to yourself on Halloween, you know? Jeez, lady.

Movies

I've discovered the coolest thing ever last week and I'm so excited. I'm about to lose control. And you know what? I think I like it. I was once again commissioned to make a short film for work. My only problem was, I never really had anything in the way of editing software. I always had to turn to pros to work the buttons and stuff while I sort of bossed them around. My only real attempt was the pancake puff video I made and that was pretty stiff. Well, no more!!! I'm now able to completely change the way I blog/vlog/make short films. The thing is called Pinnacle Studio Move Box Ultimate...and it...is...awesome. For reals. I can pull clips from any sort of media you can think of. DVD? Check. VHS tapes from yesteryear? Chickety check. Stuff I recorded on DVR? Yes, Alice. I know I might be like 2 years behind everyone on this, but this bodes well.


Lego Indiana Jones = Crack

I've been like an addict lately with the ol' Wii. They had a deal where if you bought 2 Wii games at Target, you'd get one free. So, I bought a couple for me, one for my kid. (we got him Wii Music...shh...don't tell him). One of the games I got for myself was Lego Indiana Jones.


Friends...it's like heroin. Or a big ol' box of crack cocaine. I was sort of sick for the last week with the mother of all cold and ol' Indy took good care of me. I even stayed up until 2:30am playing the stupid game. Yeah. I know.

Bloggity Bloggity

You know...I've been sort of bored blogging lately. Sure, I like to blame GOODHALO 2, my lack of time, etc, etc...but truthfully, I'm just sort of feeling uninspired. You know? It's not like cool stuff isn't happening in life right now, but the sheer task of having to write it all down feels stale by the time I write about it. So...I'm looking to do things a little differently. I kind of want to change things up a bit. You know, maybe do more vlog-type stuff, maybe post old stories from the Golden Age of my writing life, and I don't know...have more fun with this dumb thing.

Delusions of grandeur? Probably. But really, there's so much to talk about most days I sort of get overwhelmed and end up not writing anything. I'd like to change that. We'll see how it goes.

All right...I can hear the pull of a certain John Williams score kicking in...until next time, yo.

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Hi. I'm not dead. I swear. I've just been sooo wrapped up in writing Goodhalo II that I sort of put the ol' bloggity blog on the back-burner.

You forgive me, right?

No? I'll send a refund.

Here are 10 quick...and I mean QUICK things that have happened and will likely discuss in further detail coming up. Yeah...consider this like a sneak preview of crap to come.

(in no order of importance, y'all)

1. I dropped out of the Great Mustache Growing Contest of 2008. Actually about 5 days ago. Ah....I feel like a meeee-lion dollars.

2. Bunk bed. As in, Travis (age 3.5) now has one.

3. Rage Against the Machine, Ben Folds, Tegan & Sara. As in, I get to go see those three shows (seperately) in the next month.

4. Olympics? Can end anytime, okay thanks.

5. Flight of the Conchords? Best show I've seen on DVD in a long time.

6. I get to write 3 more books that'll get published next year.

7. I won an advanced copy of the Courtney Summers book Cracked Up to Be. Remember how she totally won the haiku contest and won a copy of MY book? Crazy serendipity, yo.

8. The quest for agent-hood has begun! One full is out there, still...waiting. Can you see why I'm writing the sequel now? And the third one next summer?

9. Crazy EMT call a couple weeks back. Cra-zy. It has to do with Dairy Queen, my psychic abilities(?) and bicycles.

10. We find out what kind of kid we're having (hopefully) a week from Friday. You know...like if it's gonna be a boy or a girl?

There. So when I come back, I'll have all kinds of crap to rap at you about. It'll be like old time again. You just wait.

You. Just. Wait.

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Let’s pay the toll for my dear friend and author, Tanya Lee Stone.

 

 

We can’t do anything until we talk about the title of your novel:  A Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl.  There has got to be a story behind that title!

 

There is, actually! The truth is, the thought of writing a novel had never entered my mind until that title came to me. I was listening to Michael Cart talk about the now-defunct journal Rush Hour. One theme was good girls. Another was bad boys. I took out my notebook and wrote: A bad boy can be good for a girl! Apologies to Mr. Cart, but I didn't hear the rest of the lecture. I was consumed by what the words I had just written meant to me, and Josie--the first girl in the book--was already tapping on my brain.

 

Juno has made consensual sex among young adults mainstream, but in fiction, it’s been in the news for years.  In Bad Boy, sex is more than part of the story.  Sex is really a character.  It’s the core of the novel.  Why is sex novel worthy? 

 

You're dead-on. Sex is a character in this book. I didn't want to mention it in passing or include a scene or two--I wanted the whole book to be about the choices girls make when it comes to sex. The boy represents sex; it's all he's about, really. He's not a monster or a rapist, though, he's simply an oversexed jerk with one thing on his mind. He stays the same so we can see how three totally different kinds of girls play off of him, so to speak.

 

 

Your novel is also told from the points of view of three different young women.  I loved seeing the Bad Boy with each of these girls.  It really illuminated the different emotional responses to sex.  Talk to me about these girls.  Do they represent different kinds of girls in our society? 

 

I love how the flow of one question leads to the next! I wouldn't say they represent particular types of girls, because I didn't create them that way, and there are infinite types of us out there, but I did want to look at how girls people might not view as particularly vulnerable to this type of guy still can be. That's the particular genius of the bad boy at that age--he's targeting girls who are not yet women, who do not yet know themselves well enough not to be taken in by his wiley ways. But yeah, let's talk about these girls! Although Josie is the youngest, she's the most level-headed. Nicolette doesn't know she's a bit confused about her sexual power, and Aviva is my hippie chick. I think if I were to put myself in the shoes of any of their mothers, I would be most obviously concerned about Nicolette. And of course Nicolette is the one who is the most sure she can't be hurt. I worry most about the Nicolette's out there and wish I could protect them all.

 

What have your readers said? 

 

Well, a lot of different things, depending upon who they most identify with, and what they've already been through. I was not prepared for the reader feedback, but it's overwhelming. Girls write to me in all kinds of different situations. They say the book helped them avoid a crisis, or they wish they had read it before they were blindsided, or they gave it to a best friend who needs to wake up. That kind of thing. I think when readers feel as though someone has been straight up with them and said, hey, listen up, this is what can happen if you're not paying attention, it's appreciated. Of course, there are others who wish I hadn't written it at all.

 

Have you received any challenges?  How have you dealt with them?

 

The most recent challenge was in Missouri and I must say that the system handled it beautifully. A committee was formed, everyone READ the book (how many challenges have you heard of where the challengee does not even bother to read the book?), they discussed it and decided that there was "too much good discussion to be gained" and that they were unwilling to take it off the shelves. Huzzah!! They also told me they would be discussing making it part of the 9th grade Health class. I personally think that's a fantastic idea, and would like to think my feeling on the matter would be the same even if it were someone else's book. 

 

It's so important to open the lines of communication. Talking is everything. I love one of my amazon customer comments from a Mom who said she has boys and she's planning on leaving it out on the coffee table to get the discussion started! 

 

Let’s also talk about finding the right book at the right time.  What do you say to people who fear this topic will find its way into the hands of girls not ready to read about sex?  How can parents use this book to discuss sex with their sons and daughters?

 

I think many of us in this field believe that kids are the best self censors. They don't generally read books they're not ready for. They open them and put them back on the shelves if it's not up their alley. Also, I was extremely careful about my language. There are scenes in which a girl who has not experienced what I'm talking about might miss some of the action, so to speak. That's intentional. The girl who needs to get it, will. And in terms of parents, or any adults trying to broach this subject--the great thing about fiction is that you can hand a book to a reader (or leave it lying around) and let them safely put themselves in someone else's shoes sans risk. They can play things out in their mind without actually having to do anything. Or, if they have already experienced the issue in question, they can reflect on it in a new way, through someone else's eyes.

 

I noticed that Tami Brown asked me some questions on your blog yesterday, so I thought I'd answer them right off the bat. If anyone else has other questions, fire away!

 

Tami said: As you wrote BAD BOY (as opposed to revising with your editor) did you consider your audience and their sensibilities or did you just write what you felt and deal with issues of "appropriateness" later?

 

That second thing you said. I did not think about audience at all when I was writing. For the record, I DO think it mattered that I had never done this before. I was a novel virgin. ;-p  Seriously, though, it might have been harder for me if I wasn't in that ignorance-is-bliss state.

Tami said: Do you believe these days there are any sexual boundaries that can't or shouldn't be crossed in books aimed at teen readers? Is it different for light "pop fiction" as opposed to more serious literary work? When does sex serve the plot and when does it become gratuitous?

 

Hey girl, I think that's more than one question! I'm not a big fan of literary boundaries, but I suppose there might be some. I guess it depends on how alternative one's imagination might be! I think my own basic rule of thumb is that if it is something that reflects the reality of teenage life, it's appropriate. And in terms of being gratuitous, my hunch is that every writer knows when they're being gratuitous. I personally don't put anything in for shock value. It all serves the plot. I cut a few things that, for me, crossed my own comfort line in terms of audience. In those cases, it wasn't because they were gratuitous, it was more because I forced myself to be a 14 year old and wondered: if I already know this, does it serve the plot/character AND do I not know this and would I like to keep it that way!

How much did writing about sex force you to become a free speech and/or sex ed advocate as opposed to just a YA writer?

 

Interesting question. Again, this was not something I set out to do. I didn't wake up one day and decide to write about sex. It snuck up on me and evolved very organically. Once I had done it, though, I felt very strongly about having the right to do so, and about defending other people's rights as well. Especially after the continual feedback from readers who crave honest input from sources they can relate to.

 

Like many writers, Tanya Lee Stone has been making up stories since she was a kid. Her writing improved as she studied English at Oberlin College. After graduation she moved to New York to be an editor and earned a Masters Degree in Education.

After 13 years as an editor, Tanya moved to Vermont and returned to writing. This award-winning author has written more than 80 books for young readers. Her most recent titles are a young adult novel, A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl (Wendy Lamb/Random House, 2006) and Amelia Earhart (DK, 2007). Forthcoming titles include Up Close: Ella Fitzgerald, picture books Elizabeth Leads the Way and Sandy's Circus, and Almost Astronauts: The True Story of the Mercury 13.

Got more questions for Tanya??????

Send them in.  We will post more answers on THURSDAY!

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Nerdery Week - It's been decided, so mark your calendars. Nerdery Week shall take place on February 17th - 23rd. Seven days of complete nerdiness interconnected through this world we like to call the internet. You'll meet new people! You'll see where they sit! You'll see all the garbage they keep in their respective workspaces!

But TKT, I'm still confused and a bit scared and there's that thing with the paste. How do I get involved in NW?

Simple, friend:

1. Take a picture or two (or eighteen).
2. Post it on your blog.
3. Write about your workspace.
4. Slap 'Nerdery Week' somewhere in the post's title.
5. Link back to other people engaged in complete Nerdery nerdism.

On paper this may sound boring as all get-out, but I really don't think it'll disappoint. I'm endlessly fascinated when I see the places where people do their thing (writing, blogging, playing video games, losing auctions, etc). It's an extension of a person's character and I think it'll be fun to celebrate that which makes us all nerdy.

Yes. Even you over there folding your arms and pretending that you're not a nerd. You are. Deal.

Power Up - I know there's nothing people love to read more than what game I'm playing on Xbox 360 these days, so I think I'll just come right out and say it. I'm completely taken by Call of Duty 4. In a word: WOW. After completely dominating The Simpsons Game it's a crazy change of pace. One week I'm trying to get the Krusty Koupon off of a billboard high above Springfield, the next week I'm carrying a wounded soldier across a radiation soaked amusement park. Sweet mother of invention, this is the stuff dreams are made of.

Eels - I know I don't need to plug the world's greatest band, but they just recently released two albums that are perfect for those of you wanting to see what they're all about. For the uninitiated, might I suggest: Meet the Eels? It's a collection of their best stuff from their first 10 years and it's like a primer into their fantastic world. There is some potty-mouth on there, but hey...that's what those parental advisory stickers are for. As a bonus, you get a DVD with a bunch of their music videos. Now that's value!

Their other release is called Useless Trinkets and it's two discs (2!) of b-sides and songs they've done for soundtracks. As if that weren't enough, there's also a DVD with their 2006(?) Lollapalooza performance on there. What more can you ask for?

Answer: Nothing. There is nothing else to ask for.

Goodhalo - Well, it's getting there. I'm hoping to have this monster edited and in enough of a fighting shape to begin submitting to my Top 5 agent-types sometime next month. Ambitious? Yes. Necessary? Most definitely. Plus, I'm itching (itching!) to get working on the second book in the series. It's going to be like 85 pounds of awesome in a 3 pound bag with handles.

Travis: Celebrating 3 Years of Quality - It's going to be my little guy's 3 year mark on Monday, so we're having a party for him on Saturday. Therein lies the problem... Family from out of town are crazy sick. We're talking antibiotics sick. Also, there's supposed to be a major snowstorm hitting us...oh, say Saturday or so. Even though we're not doing a full-scale dinner/activities/all day event, we're worried that people won't be able to make it. Regardless, we've decided that no matter what, this kid is going to have a party that will tear the socks right off of his little Fred Flintstone feet (like I have) and make him explode with happiness. Thy will be done, lil' TKT. Thy will be done.

Dave Attell - I get to go see stand-up comedian Dave Attell tonight at the Pantages in Minneapolis. Holler!

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I have in the past few moments finally finished, completely and in its entirety, the first draft of my thesis. There are no more holes, areas of dropped logic, or gaps -- at least not that I know of. I may find some when I go to revise tomorrow and my advisor will certainly find them, but for now I feel triumphant in that the lion's share of the work is now done.

And my thesis is doubly exciting to me because it is also the first novel I have ever created. Weighing in at a lofty 34000 words, it's a little shorter than most YA novels on the market these days, but really there was nothing more in that story to tell. And like all good first novels, after this one serves its purpose as thesis, it will go live on a shelf never again to see the light of day. However, the important thing is that I can finish a novel. I can really do it.

And trust me, if someone with as little writing discipline as me (I spent 4.5 hours today getting those last 3000 words done. I hadn't worked on it for months up until this point.) can do it, than you can write a novel too.

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He's not feeling good. It's cold out. What better way to spend the night than sitting downstairs watching Dora the Explorer on DVD?

Side note: I'm starting to sense some recurring themes on this show.

• They always have to get from Point A to Point B.
• They always use that goofy Super Map guy to get the job done.
• There's some really um...grating songs on there.
• That one Swiper guy always tries to steal Dora's crap and whenever he's foiled (which is all the time) he say's "Awww...man!"

Anyway. It was a good night.

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This week’s edition of Book Bites for Kids features an interview with author Ellen S. Jaffe.

Ellen describes how she wrote her young adult novel, Feast of Lights.

Listen to the interview here:

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Listen to this new edition of Book Bites for Kids as author Tanya Lee Stone talks to host, Suzanne Lieurance, about her latest YA novel, A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl.

The book is available in hardcover.

And was recently released in paperback, too.

To learn more about these books and others from Tanya Lee Stone, visit her WEBSITE.

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Deborah Lynn Jacobs is the author of two new intriguing books for young adults - Choices, and Powers.

Listen as Book Bites for Kids host, Suzanne Lieurance, talks to Jacobs about her two new books and what it’s like to write YA novels.

Learn more about Deborah Lynn Jacobs and her books at her website.

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