Noggin starts with Travis Coates waking up. Not from something as simple as a nap, nor as extensive as a coma; Travis has been cryogenically frozen for 5 years. More specifically, his head has been on ice all that time, waiting for a donor body (and medical advances) to facilitate his revival.
Now youknow that I need to know how that old-mouth-to-new-digestive-tract connection works. Well, we don’t get to see Travis ingest anything until his father brings him home. That first night back, Dad makes him eggs – which go down just fine – and no follow-up statements or inquiries are made to suggest any meal since the wake-up have gone otherwise. There’s no mention of any food or drink in the hospital at all, and though I know it’s possible for Travis to have subsisted there on IV fluid, they surely wouldn’t have discharged him without testing that new fused esophagus!
So I have to pause in my reading to flesh out the stages in my own mind: transitioning from an IV to water and juice, maybe moving on to Jell-O, then applesauce, brothy soups for lunch, mushy oatmeal for breakfast, etc. I imagine Travis graduating from one level to a denser, chewier one each day until presumably summiting at some clinical version of beef and potatoes. And all quite unremarkably, or we’d have been told otherwise, right?
Okay, now I can return to the story already in progress. And I find that, unfortunately, Travis’s social assimilation back into the world doesn’t go as smoothly as the digestive part did. Reconnecting with his parents is easy, sure, but his old best friends don’t even come to visit him in the hospital. Of course, they’re now 21 while he’s still only 16, so their lifestyles have certainly diverged. Travis hasn’t changed at all (except that he’s no longer battling the terminal cancer that forced him to opt for the radical surgery); he feels like he’s merely been asleep for a few days.
In stark contrast, his (ex?) girlfriend has moved on so far that she’s now engaged to another guy. Okay, I can see her reluctance to rush to Travis’s bedside, but what excuse could the male best friend have for staying away? Luckily (for us, not him, obviously) Travis is as confused as we are, so this progression is graciously served up bite by bite, making this Noggin’s bizarre premise quite easy for readers to swallow. ;)
Thanks to
Ontario Teen Book Fest bloggers
What a Nerd Girl Says and
Fangirl Feeels for inviting us on the
OTBF Blog Tour!
Today we're shining the spotlight on
John Corey Whaley, author of YA novels
Where Things Come Back and
Noggin. Check out his Q&A, enter the giveaway, and plan to see him in person at the Fest!
Details
This is a
FREE and
UNTICKETED event!
When: Saturday May 17th, 9 am to 5 pm
Where: Colony High School 3850 E. Riverside Drive, Ontario, CA 91761
The Ontario Teen Book Fest Website: http://www.ontariotbf.comThe event is sponsored by Mrs. Nelson’s Book Fair Company. They will have books available for purchase at the event. There will also be t-shirts and posters available for purchase as well.
Their website:
http://www.mrsnelsons.com/Confirmed authors
Katie Alender
Elana Arnold
Robin Benway
Livia Blackburne
Jessica Brody
Ava Dellaria
Katherine Ewell
Lauren Kate
Jessi Kirby
Catherine Linka
Lauren Miller
Mary Pearson
Lissa Price
Sarah Skilton
John Corey Whaley
About John Corey Whaley
John ‘Corey’ Whaley grew up in the small town of Springhill, Louisiana, where he learned to be sarcastic and to tell stories. He has a B.A. in English from Louisiana Tech University, as well as an M.A in Secondary English Education. He started writing stories about aliens and underwater civilizations when he was around ten or eleven, but now writes realistic YA fiction (which sometimes includes zombies…).
Q & A
RNSL: Noggin is your second novel. How was it more challenging to write than
Where Things Come Back? How was it easier?
JCW: It was a lot more challenging in the sense that, as my editor says, I had been planning and "writing" WTCB in my head my whole life and, with
Noggin, I had to start form scratch. Unlike WTCB, it took a lot more trial and error and a whole lot of patience. Rewrites and revisions were my best friend.
RNSL: If you could pick another author to be your writing mentor, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
JCW: I'd probably pick Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., or Stephen King. Vonnegut for tips on story and King for tips of productivity.
RNSL: What are you working on next?
JCW: No comment. ha.
RNSL: Is there one person or book who inspired you to write as a younger person?
JCW: As cliche as it sounds,
The Catcher in the Rye was a huge inspiration for me from the time I was a teenager and up until I started writing. I wanted to be able to speak to readers the way Salinger spoke to me when I was a kid, through Holden's story. It was so personal, even though I was nothing like a private school kid from the East Coast.
RNSL: You didn't originally set out to write for young people--do you think you would switch to writing for a different audience some day (adults, small children)? Why or why not?
JCW: Even though it was never my full intention, it was one of the best accidents of my life. Honestly, I have little to no desire to write for any other audience at this point. If an idea comes to me that involves a story NOT about young adults, then maybe I'll see what I can do.
Quick-fire questions!RNSL: It's the middle of the night. You can't sleep! What do you do instead?
JCW: Eat. Watch TV. Surf the internet. All of the above.
RNSL: You find a secret door in the back of a closet--what do you hope is behind it?
JCW: Hmm...a refrigerator with an endless supply of leftover fried rice and iced coffee. Please and thank you.
RNSL: You're in a buffet that claims to serve everything you could ever want to eat. What's on your plate?
JCW: Pancakes. Tiramisu. Fried rice. Ice cream. Pizza.
RNSL: Describe your ideal writing cave in 10 words or less.
JCW: THERE ARE NO PEOPLE AND IT IS COLD.
RNSL: Is there a book out there that you read and then thought to yourself, "I wish I'd written that!"
JCW: GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE by
ANDREW SMITH About Noggin
Listen—Travis Coates was alive once and then he wasn’t.
Now he's alive again.
Simple as that.
The in between part is still a little fuzzy, but he can tell you that, at some point or another, his head got chopped off and shoved into a freezer in Denver, Colorado. Five years later, it was reattached to some other guy’s body, and well, here he is. Despite all logic, he's still 16 and everything and everyone around him has changed. That includes his bedroom, his parents, his best friend, and his girlfriend. Or maybe she's not his girlfriend anymore? That's a bit fuzzy too.
Looks like if the new Travis and the old Travis are ever going to find a way to exist together, then there are going to be a few more scars.
Oh well, you only live twice.
Find out more about Corey here:
Blog Tour Schedule
May 2nd: Spotlight on Jessica Brody --
What A Nerd Girl SaysMay 3rd: Spotlight on Elana K. Arnold --
Nite Lite Book ReviewsMay 4th: Spotlight on Catherine Linka –
Fangirl FeeelsMay 5th: Spotlight on Livia Blackburne --
The Thousand LivesMay 6th: Spotlight on Lauren Kate --
She Reads She BlogsMay 7th: Spotlight on Katie Alender --
Movies, Shows and BooksMay 8th: Spotlight on Lauren Miller --
A Bookish EscapeMay 9th: Spotlight on Sarah Skilton --
Read Now Sleep LaterMay 10th: Spotlight on Lissa Price --
Recently Acquired ObsessionsMay 11th: Spotlight on Jessi Kirby --
What A Nerd Girl SaysMay 12th: Spotlight on Katherine Ewell --
iFandoms CollideMay 13th: Spotlight on Mary Pearson --
The Windy PagesMay 14th: Spotlight on John Corey Whaley --
Read Now Sleep LaterMay 15th: Spotlight on Robin Benway --
Adventures of a Book JunkieMay 16th: Spotlight on Ava Dellaira --
Fangirl FeeelsGiveaway
ends May 20, US only
Today is an April Fool of an Easter Monday, when the sun should be shining and daffodils dancing and all should look right with the world.
Once the days might have been perfect. Once the cheery sunny days returned after they'd gone, recaptured in pictures projected on machines that had to be balanced on handy bits of furniture.
The projectors had plastic holders where the slides/pictures had to be packed, by hand, in the right order and the right way up. (Or was it the wrong way up?)
The images of happy childhood - and more - appeared as if lit from within, as if their world was the bright truth.
There's a dim echo of that prestigious device in the “ show slideshow” button of every computer image system, but I do feel the showing lacks the drama of the past. People rarely huddle round in well-fed but slightly bored darkness to await the click and the next over-bright image. Or are in danger of a good slap for commenting on Aunty Aggie's visible bloomer line.
Now back when slide projectors were in use, a wonderful and eccentric man was making stories in a large shed. The shed was large because he told his stories with drawings and with puppets.
His name was Oliver Postgate and - working with the technology of the time - he became the master storyteller of children’s television.
At least twice a week I give thanks to the Blessed Mr Postgate, because time after time, while struggling through a piece of writing – whether the construction of the whole thing, or the order and arrangement of scenes or even the phrasing of a sentence so the image in my head becomes clear to the young reader - I remember the words found in his not-entirely cheery autobiography “Seeing Things”.
Although he was talking about film making, his explanation of how writing works seems incredibly apt and true.
WRITING A STORY IS NOT SIMPLY
A MATTER OF WRITING LINES OF WORDS
BUT CALLS ON THE WRITER
TO ASSEMBLE SENTENCES IN SUCH A WAY
THAT THE READER RECEIVES THEM
IN THE RIGHT ORDER FOR STACKING IN THE MIND
Think on it and its wiser advice.
Have a Happy Easter Monday!
(And are you doing Clanger whistling yet?)
Penny Dolan
www.pennydolan.com
Images from Wiki Commons. Thank you.
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Great stuff Penny - so true! And hurrah for the amazing and wonderful Mr Postgate too: my review name on Amazon is nogginthenog! :-)
And aaaah for the nostalgia of the slide show - it was a family event, brought out as a special occasion and everyone came together to watch and comment ... the ritual of the hanging of the white sheet, or finding a blank wall (and later the expense of the specially bought screen)... the comments ... the snacks ... the upside down ones ... it brought us all together in a way that TV programmes never did, for all that they were smarter, cleverer and had moving pictures. Books did much the same unifying effect - in our family anyway, as we all wanted to read the same great books ...
And hurrah
Blimmin' Blogger cut me comment off in mid sentence. Never mind, I was starting to waffle anyway!
When I was still teaching creative writing, one of the assignments was only 1500 words long. I used to show Postgate work to prove that it was possible to produce something layered and sophisticated.
Good choice, Noggin the Nog! Those slide shows did have an almost dramatic unpredictability about them.
(Note. I am now trying not to think of the inherited boxes of family slides that must be sorted through. One day.)
And, Farah, that sounds such a good choice for your creative writing classes too. They sound as if they were fun. Did you have a favourite episode or character?
With the date being what it is, I'd wondered about putting up something funny and satirical about the world of books or education but so much is becoming unbelievable anyway.
Ah, have a sudden urge to rush off and find my DVD of Ivor the Engine...all with be well with the world!
I hadn't realised how prolific Oliver Postgate was! Oh, those slideshows... "Now here's Dorothy on the steps of the caravan... oh, and here's me on the steps of the caravan..." But we did used to get lovely snacks as a reward!
And then there would be the fatal animated moment when the slide changed into a sunset picture before your eyes as the projector overheated and the slide finally blackened into nothing.
I have a scanner that converts slides to images on your computer, Penny, but its a tedious business. Perhaps just save them for your children to throw out one day!!!
But Dianne, it's not about the pictures, it's about the whole ritual ... :-)