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Check out the artwork for
Something Wicked's December issue of which my zombie tale
Six Feet Above is the cover story. This month's issue has stories from the following people on the following dates:
Domyelle Rhyse (6th of December)
Sheila Crosby (13th of December)
Tom Jolly (20th of December)
Cate Gardner (27th of December)
And you can read an interview with cover artist Pierre Smit
here.
The holiday season is now officially cancelled or I own it, one or the other. And if I own it, does that mean I get to have triple the amount of presents I'm expecting?
As most of you who visit here already know, my book
Theatre of Curious Acts (which will be available in hardcover, paperback and ebook - I've seen the awesome wraparound cover for the hardback and it's to die for) is released this December. In the next week or two. Flap, flap, panic, panic. I'm hoping to do a mini blog tour covering about six blogs in January - I figure December will be an internet wasteland -and was hoping it would be okay if I popped over to some of your blogs with one of my silly posts****. I mean, one of my awesomely brilliant posts that will bring in thousands of readers (I only lie on Tuesday's). Plus, I'd love to set up some interviews if you want to ask me any silly questions. I do answer intelligent questions too but cannot guarantee that the response will be intelligent.
So ends this plea.
****An update (otherwise known as one hour later) - the awesome Mark West, Jim McLeod and Chris Gerrib have offered to host my madness in January - I mean my highly intelligent blog posts that will make them famous throughout the world. Looking for three more awesome folk. And the fabulous Pete Tennant over at the TTA Press blog, and Ray Cluley - I can see I'm going to have to be intelligent now. And add Simon Bestwick and Anthony J Rapino to the list.
Thank you all, I've now I have a fabulous wealth of blogs on which to spread my madness.
It's time for round of my semi-regular ego-boost. It's been a while, so I've got a bit of a backlog. Here we go!
Editor Liz reports that
The Brooklyn Nine was named to the 2010 Kansas State Reading Circle Catalog with a starred rating. "The lists are distributed and promoted throughout the state of Kansas during the current year." (Thanks, Kansas!)
The Brooklyn Nine is also now for sale in Scholastic Book Fairs. Here's
a brief booktalk they put together for it. (Opens as a PDF.) And
here's the featured book page.
Media center coordinator Beth Martin writes
a lovely appreciation of The Brooklyn Nine in the
Wausau Daily Herald.
Stephanie Dethlefs, writing
the Children's Book Corner for the Neighborhood-Kids blog, calls
The Brooklyn Nine a championship-level book.
The Semicolon blog names
The Brooklyn Nine as
one of the two best sports books of the year.
Angela Craft at Bookish Blather wishes
The Brooklyn Nine had at least been a Newbery Honor book.
Doret at The Happy Nappy Bookseller had
The Brooklyn Nine picked as a Newbery sleeper candidate...
...as did
DaNae at Literate Lives...
...and the
Arapahoe Library District...
...and Sarah at
The Reading Zone. (Thanks, guys! That would have been incredible!)
O.W.L. (Outrageously Wonderful Literature from the Middle Grade) has
The Brooklyn Nine in their mailbox...
...as does Mallory at
Grammar Girl.
While Valerie at the I Should Be Writing Blog has
Something Wicked in her mailbox.
Something Wicked has been nominated for the
2010-2011 South Carolina Children's Book Awards. (Thanks, South Carolina!)
Serious about Series plugs
Something Rotten and
Something Wicked.
Someone at Books for Sale would include
Something Rotten and
Something Wicked in a YA starter library
if he/she was given $1,000 and carte blanche.
Mer at the Harris County Public Library recommends
Something Rotten as a great mystery.
A Baltimore English teacher is going to use
Time for my semi-regular Google Alerts ego-boost!
Andrea at The Little Bookworm likes the tiara tease in Something Wicked, then finds a way to work Wicked into a title meme.
The McDowell News covers my recent school visit to East McDowell Middle School in Marion, NC, and reports on how I "obtained permission from my wife to write full time"...
The Brooklyn Nine has won a Library Media Connection 2009 Editor's Choice Award. (Opens as a PDF.)
The Brooklyn Nine is one of many terrific middle grade novels nominated for the 2009 Cybil Awards...
And Musings of a Book Addict muses on the connections between the first inning and the ninth inning in a Brooklyn Nine review for the Cybils.
Thanks everyone for the mentions!
It's time for my semi-monthly ego check!
country_gal from Decatur, Georgia, was prepared to be bored by Something Rotten, but was won over by Horatio's sarcasm.
Something Rotten also makes the Bookworms Carnival of delights at A Bibliophile's Bookshelf, thanks to this glowing review at Barney's Book Blog.
The North Carolina Literary Festival (of which I am a part) is getting some press.
KL Knight at Knight Reader thinks Something Wicked has a great hook to get kids interested in Macbeth.
And Sarah over at The Reading Zone has a really terrific post about perfect games, The Brooklyn Nine, and building schema.
Thanks everyone! Your affiliate checks will be mailed when you reach $100.
It's time for my regular vanity check from the internets:
Something Wicked is a SIBA award nominee.
Professor Nana's been reading more books based on Hamlet.
LJ at 75 o'clock is looking forward to the next Horatio Wilkes mystery.
Mr. Muldowney's class can choose to read Something Rotten for their 9th grade book project, but they have to discuss symbolism and irony in the book by April 21st.
School Library Journal featured Samurai Shortstop in a recent article on books for kids set in the days of the samurai.
Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine, thinks The Brooklyn Nine would make a great classroom book.
Susan Harkins at BookPleasures.com thinks Something Wicked is a treasure.
And Linda Sue Park, author of the Newbery Award-winning A Single Shard, writes about both The Brooklyn Nine and Something Rotten on her Amazon blog!
Just a quick note to let my East Tennesee peeps know that I'm going to be in town tomorrow for the Knoxville Public Library's "ShakesFest," a celebration of Shakespeare, YA lit, and prancing about with swords.
The event is from 1-4 p.m. at the East Tennessee History Center downtown on Gay Street, and admission is free.
Members of the Tennessee Stage Company's Shakespeare on the Square troupe will be performing scenes from Hamlet, and I'll be reading my take on the same scenes from Something Rotten before selling and signing books. Then, there will be fencing.
Hope to see you there!
Editor Liz sends me this report from a field rep: Something Rotten and Something Wicked are in good company on the staff recommended shelf at Book People Bookstore in Austin, Texas! (I love the plaid on the shelf talker, by the way...)
Thanks, Book People! Give me a holler--I'd love to come visit.
If young adult literature is the new Rock ’n’ Roll, as some suggest, then author Alan Gratz is Frank Zappa, and his smart, droll remakes of Shakespeare’s tragic hits – Hamlet and Macbeth – should win new converts to the old bard’s gems.
Thus begins perhaps
the best, most flattering review I've ever gotten in print for one of my books. And this from the
Christian Science Monitor, no less--a big-time daily! The comparison to Zappa is funny--particularly because I wore a similar imperial mustache back in the Seventies:
(That isn't photoshopped. I swear.)
I'm tempted to quote the whole review here, as it's pretty terrific, but I'll just highlight a few lines and let you click through if you're interested:
Gratz’s new novel intended for older teens, Something Wicked, based on Macbeth, comes on the heels of his first remake, Something Rotten, based on Hamlet.
In that first book, teen sleuth Horatio Wilkes finds something rotten in Denmark, Tennessee: His best friend’s father has just been murdered.
Though the tale follows most of Shakespeare’s original – with a dash of evil environmental pollution thrown in – Gratz succeeds in remaking Horatio into one funny, fresh dude.
Horatio is even better in “Something Wicked.”
He’s a witty, snarky, self-deprecating king of one-liners and inside jokes who never met a metaphor he couldn’t make amusing:
“[A]s awkward as Michael Vick at a PETA rally,” “as white as a suburb,” “as black as a telemarketer’s soul,” “deader than the Confederacy,” a nerdy father and son are “two peas in a pocket protector.”
It’s impossible not to laugh – or at least smile – your way through Horatio’s take on the world. Author Gratz challenges readers, keeps them turning pages, and makes every word count.
Many thanks to reviewer Elizabeth A. Brown. May your car never get a flat in the rain and your children never need orthodontics!
I've been very fortunate to have each of my first three novels selected by the Junior Library Guild as books they promote to librarians all around the country. Here's their review for my latest, Something Wicked:
To some readers, the language and settings of Shakespeare's plays can seem distant and boring; conversely, some contemporary retellings that aim to make Shakespeare trendy or accessible end up stripping the emotional depth from the plays. Something Wicked, however, is an exceptional adaptation.
Horatio's friend Mac, and Mac's girlfriend, Beth, are the Macbeth and Lady Macbeth of this story. Beth's constant challenges to Mac's manhood and their mutually destructive relationship echo the play's themes of manipulation and ambition in a context that teens will easily recognize. Likewise, Horatio and Mac's rapidly souring friendship may remind teens of their own social difficulties.
The captivating murder mystery will keep readers (even those familiar with the play) guessing who the real culprit is. Alan Gratz's detailed setting, a Scottish Highland fair, is inspired, and his prose and dialogue are consistently funny and well crafted: "'You're just going to get him madder," Lucy told me. 'I'm good at that,' I told her. 'I have mad skills.'" And Gratz seamlessly incorporates a wide array of pop culture references, including the Ramones, Jackson Pollock, Magnum, P.I., and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, in humorous, intelligent ways.
Thanks, JLG!
From Editor Liz: what do you get when you cross Samurai Shortstop with Something Wicked?
Click here for the answer.
Today I want to tell you a little bit about Alan Gratz, the author of Something Wicked:
Alan Gratz is the author of the historical young adult novel Samurai Shortstop (Dial 2006), which was named one of the American Library Association's 2007 Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults. His second book, a young adult murder mystery based on "Hamlet" called Something Rotten (Dial 2007), was named an ALA 2008 Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers, and a sequel based on "Macbeth, " Something Wicked (Dial 2008), is on sale now. He is also the author of the forthcoming novels The Brooklyn Nine (Dial 2009), and Nemo (Knopf TBA). A former bookseller, librarian, eighth grade English teacher, and TV and radio scriptwriter, Alan is now a full time novelist for young readers. He lives with his wife and daughter in Penland, North Carolina.
If you would like to read one of Alan's books you can of course go to a bookshop or the library to get a copy. You can also go to his website where there is a complete copy of his book Something Rotten for you to read. There are also reader's guides for both Something Rotten and Something Wicked. These guides will really enhance your reading experience of both books.
Please visit the other blogs that are participating in this tour:
the 160acrewoods, A Christian Worldview of Fiction, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Book Review Maniac, Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Hyperbole, KidzBookBuzz.com, Looking Glass Reviews, Maggie Reads, Never Jam Today, Reading is My
This month I have had a splendid time reading Alan Gratz's books. He has found a very compelling way to retell two of Shakespeare's stories. Using a punchy and contemporary style of writing Alan has his teenage hero solve two murders, that of Duncan in Macbeth in Something Wicked, and that of the King in Hamlet in Something Rotten.
For the next three days I will be highlighting Alan's newest book, Something Wicked. Here is my review of the book:
Something Wicked
Alan Gratz
Fiction (Series)
Ages 14 and up
Penguin, 2008, 978-0-8037-3666-5
Horatio Wilkes is going to a Scottish Highland Games on Mount Birman with his friends Mac and Banks. Both Mac and Banks are pretty serious about the games, donning kilts and participating in events at the games. Mac is pretty firmly under his girlfriend’s thumb and he does almost everything she asks of him. So when Beth announces that she wants to go to Madame Hecate’s to have her fortune told, Mac readily agrees – much to Horatio’s disgust.
Madame Hecate tells Mac that he will become “king of the mountain.” Mac is thrilled, believing everything that the fortune teller tells him. He is not best pleased therefore when he hears that Banks – his cousin – will not become king of the mountain, instead his will “own” it.
Mac’s father has long wanted to own the mountain so that he can turn it into a money making resort, but the man who owns the land, Duncan MacRae – who is Mac’s maternal grandfather - has always refused to sell it. That very evening Horatio finds Duncan MacRae brutally murdered. Evidence at the scene of the crime suggests that Duncan’s son Malcolm was responsible but Horatio is not convinced. Why would mild mannered Malcolm do such a terrible thing? It just doesn’t make sense. Furthermore there are other people around who had a much bigger motive than Malcolm. Mac’s father, Beth’s father, and Mac himself would all benefit if Duncan MacRae died.
In this second Horatio Wilkes mystery, readers will be taken into the American Scottish clans community, a community that has its own traditions, rules, and culture. Readers who are familiar with Shakespeare will quickly realize that this story is based on the tale of Macbeth, the ambitious Scot who could not let go of a dangerous dream. Alan Gratz’s gritty story shows how a simple ambition can become a corrupted passion. His characters are incredibly lifelike, and true to the feelings and thoughts that teenagers experience.
In his first book about Horatio Wilkes, Something Rotten, Alan Gratz gives a unique interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which is also set in modern day America.
Tomorrow look for an interview with Alan right here.
Please visit the other blogs that are participating in this tour:
the 160acrewoods, A Christian Worldview of Fiction, All About Children’s Books, Becky’s Book Reviews, Book Review Maniac, Cafe of Dreams, Dolce Bellezza, Hyperbole, KidzBookBuzz.com, Looking Glass Reviews, Maggie Reads, Never Jam Today, Reading is My Superpower
Editor Liz sends this good review of Something Wicked from Kliatt Magazine:
In this new take on Macbeth, clever, sardonic teenage detective Horatio, who we first met in Something Rotten, attends a Scottish Highland Festival on Birnam Mountain in Tennessee and finds the mountain's owner, Duncan MacRae, murdered in his tent. Duncan's son Mal looks like the obvious suspect, but Horatio has his doubts. For one thing, Horatio's ambitious friend Mac and Mac's controlling girlfriend, Beth, have fathers who want to turn the mountain into a country club and ski resort. There's also a fetching girl Horatio has his eyes on, and a gang of punks who call themselves Hell's Pipers. There's even a dog--named Spot. Replete with cell phones and up-to-date references (Dance Dance Revolution, Michael Vick), this suspenseful mystery will work even for those unfamiliar with the Shakespeare play, and humor abounds as well. Fans of Horatio will be pleased to learn he has six sisters, with names like Viola and Juliet, so look out for more witty Shakespearean take-offs to come.
Paula Rohrlick, Kliatt Magazine
Thanks, Paula, and thanks Kliatt!
I wouldn't be so vain as to have my name set up as a Google Alert, now would I? Of course not. I just--ahem--happened to stumble across these blogs while I was surfing the web for educational content. Yes. That's it...
My Horatio Wilkes novels are one of three mystery series recommended by BookKids.
Have Books Will Travel is enjoying Something Rotten.
Merry Genre Go Round Reviews agrees with my mother that Something Wicked is fun, but doesn't need all those bad words in it.
And On Books and Birds says Something Rotten is one of fifteen books nominated this year for the Missouri Association of School Librarians' Gateway Readers Award.
Thanks everyone!
I wake up and pretend
it's between my shoulder
blades. I get out of bed:
Shook foil
I walk the dog and plot
how it gets stamped
on my ankle bone:
Crushed
I reach for a high-heeled
shoe and it flares
across the small
of my back:
Bleared
I want to flaunt it,
roll up my sleeves
in winter. Oh my
god! There,
on her bicep!
Smell
If you shaved off my hair,
it would be on my skull,
curved like cornrows:
Deep down things
I run after what’s
blown from my hand.
The poem lifts
with my hamstrings:
Brown brink eastward springs
It splays on my chest
like Eve's claws:
Broods
A microdot of information,
it could be mistaken
for a mole:
Ah!
Did it hurt?
Nah, I lie.
I turn my forearm up.
A word has appeared:
Cantilever
I don't even know what that is.
I look again.
The word
has changed. I bend
my wrist in the light:
wings
I want a tattoo of wings.
Are you sure?
Yes.
Here at the base of my throat:
Bright wings
----Sara Lewis Holmes (all rights reserved)
See here for a copy of the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem and my first post about memorizing it.
Process Notes: If you'd like to see a rough draft and notes on how I constructed Inked, or hear me read it in either an MP3 or Quicktime format, go here: A Cast of One.
Poetry Friday is hosted by Big A, little a
I made a vow to memorize a poem this month.
Adrienne inspired me.But memorization doesn't come as easily to me as it did when I was a teenager. I once memorized an entire scene in a couple of hours when an actress had to drop out of a theater showcase we were performing that night. And I can still recite, from 9th grade English class,
Cassius's speech from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar:
"Why, man he doth bestride the narrow world
like a Colossus and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.
Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
But now? Tell me a simple thing, like your name, and I'll forget it in two seconds.
So to help my old brain, I made an audio recording of me reading the poem I want to memorize:
God's Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Hear me read it at my new site, A Cast of One. (I really get into it.)***
Yowza! That was amazing fun. Anybody else want to join me and Adrienne in our quest to know more poems by heart?
Here's a list of great tips to help you memorize poetry. And from the same source,
a list of "starter" poems to try. There is also a whole site devoted to a national recitation contest,
Poetry Out Loud, and one that
podcasts classic poetry in a deep, rich voice with an English accent. (Don't know who it is, because the "About Me" section says: "Who I am is not important. The point is the poetry."
Also, since cloudscome is launching
her brilliant idea to leave poetry where people might find it, I'm going to post this one inside that
gazebo I blogged about several Poetry Fridays ago. I wonder what my poetry graffiti friends will think of it?
God's Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
---Gerard Manley Hopkins
***For another reading of this poem, go to the Favorite Poem Project and click on the Stanley Kunitz video link. He blew me away talking about how he encountered this poem for the first time and what it meant to him.
Poetry Friday is hosted by a wrung sponge.
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Cate, your always welcome over at Ginger Nuts
You're always welcome at my place.
Wow, thank you Jim and Chris
That would be fabulous, Pete. But don't I have to be intelligent over there... Wait... That would be fabulous.
I'm happy to put my feet up for a night and let you blog on the TTA site should you wish.
Pete's pipped me - you're more than welcome at probablymonsters but my traffic tends to come from TTA anyway.
Thanks, Ray (and we must fix that - your awesomeness should be widely known throughout the universe)
You're more than welcome to come blather on my blog. no one will notice the difference, I'm sure. :-)
You're always welcome over at mine, Cate.
Wow, that makes seven which is more than I even hoped for. Thank you all.
And I can't resist saying this...
I know, Simon, but we're talking about blogs here. Muahaha.
I know. More's the pity. ;-)
I am evil.
No, you've just been at the chocolates again...
Hey!!!!!
All I'm saying is, there's a lot of sugar, caffeine and theobromine in a bar of Bournville Dark- enough to make anyone go a bit loopy...
You're always welcome at my place, too!
Thanks, Barry
I am so looking forward to... all of this. Oh my god. THEATRE -- so soon, I can hardly wait! And a blog tour of interesting guest posts and that cover for Something Wicked and --
Argh! So much yay! You definitely own Christmas.
Interesting guest posts - gosh, I hope I didn't promise that ;)
Cate - You KNOW you are welcome any time in my neck of the web. You have my email addy. I have strange and wonderful questions.
Thank you, your Polsonness ;)
I'm late to the party - pretty much my default position - but I would love to have you drop round chez Spellmaking. Or, if your tour is now full, maybe next time ...
Thank you, Simon :D That'd be fabulous.
Wonderousful! I shall think of some inciteful and life-changing questions. How about "Where do you get your ideas from?"
I kid.
That could take some time to answer ;)
You're welcome at my place any time, Cate.
You're welcome at my place any time, Cate.