Eric Luper's Random Musings

I was sitting in my office minding my own business when the UPS man paid me a visit. He brought this:



Now, I knew what was in this package but, as usual, I wanted to prolong the suspense. So, I placed it next to me and continued answering emails. When the suspense got too great and my hands were creeping all by themselves toward the scissors, I opened it.

Peek a boo, ARCs!



So, what does one do with a big pile of ARCs? I like to stack them and pose them in different ways, not unlike doing funny things with lawn gnomes. Here was my first pose.



Now what to do with all of these extra copies??? Hmmmm....

Okay, I'll admit the title is a major mouthful but I am so excited about this book. And I just got the green light from the higher-ups to share the finalized cover art. I love this jacket for so many reasons but I will just post it and shut up.



Okay, see now I can't shut up. I just love this cover.

Yes, the book is supposed to look like an mp3 player! Yes, there is an actual song playlist in grayscale behind the title! And yes, there is a blurb from the awesome Rachel Cohn right on the front!

Here is the flap copy:

Seth Baumgartner just had the worst day of his life. His girlfriend dumped him (at Applebee's), he spied his father on a date with a woman who is not his mother (also at Applebee's!), and he lost his fourth job of the year. It's like every relationship he cares about is imploding, and he can't figure out what's going on.

To find answers, Seth decides to start an anonymous podcast called The Love Manifesto exploring "what love is, why love is, and why we're stupid enough to keep going back for more." Things start looking up when Seth gets a job at a golf club with his hilarious and smut-minded best friend, Dimitri, and Dimitri's sister, Audrey. With their help, Seth tracks down his father's mystery date, hits the most infamous bogey in the history of golf, and discovers that sometimes love means eating the worst chicken-salad sandwich you can ever imagine.

Release date: June 8, 2010
Advance orders: NOW!!!

I recently discovered a surprise on Amazon! I was clicking around the site as many authors do (authors click around Amazon, right?). Anyhow, I was clicking around over there only to discover that my forthcoming novel, SETH BAUMGARTNER'S LOVE MANIFESTO, has been posted!

Sure, there's no cover design yet, but there is so much other great stuff to see...

For example, my ISBN-13 is 978-0061827549.

Also, there is going to be both hardcover and library binding versions! I don't exactly know what that means, but it sounds really cool!

Likewise, at 288 pages, it's my longest novel to date.

But the coolest thing about my Amazon listing so far are the mega awesome blurbs that are on there by Lauren Myracle, Rachel Cohn and Megan McCafferty. These are authors whose books I've read and admired for years... and now they are saying such nice things about my work! How am I going to wait until June for this one to come out???

ARCs soon, so stay tuned for some contests!

This article might illustrate one of those situations where profiling to catch a criminal might be okay...

One-Legged Man Held After One Shoe Goes Missing From Shop

I know there's a joke in there somewhere....

They caught him red-handed and one-footed?

You've seen it on the Twilight Zone and now it's being rehashed into a movie, but now take a look at this scaaaary (read: funny) take on The Box!!!



HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Just a reminder that no matter how big you think you are, there is someone else out there bigger than you. This from a story about a 10-foot shark that got bitten by a 20-foot shark:



Happy Halloween!

If I'm supposed to be a "young adult author" then how come I get so many emails from older people?

In 2007, I received a wonderful review from a 79 year-old woman who said that Big Slick has found a place on her shelf next to her Hemingway and her Fitzgerald. I'm inclined to disagree with her, but my parents taught me to respect my elders.

Then came the wonderful email and poem from the 68 year-old man who told me that Bug Boy brought back vivid memories of his childhood growing up with several racing enthusiasts. He went on to compare the racing scenes in the book to his memories of being a competitive swimmer.

Today, I received another wonderful email from an elderly person. This one was from an 85 year-old woman. She told me that her great grandson had the book and was reading it on a visit to her assisted living facility. She took a look at Bug Boy and expressed interest in reading it too so he gave her his copy after he finished. She began reading Bug Boy at 7:00 last night and was so "rapt by it" that she couldn't put it down. She went on to say that once her meds kicked in and she began falling asleep in her chair she "couldn't help but read the last chapter to make sure things turned out all right for poor Jack."

High praise. Thank you, Edith!

So what do you think? Should I start a genre all myself called OLD ADULT or should we work to raise awareness that young adult literature isn't just for the young?

Thanks to the MentalFloss blog, I came across this website that lists 11 common mistakes in writing. It's worth taking a look at just to make sure you don't make any of them!

Thanks to several trusty critiquers and a rockin' editorial department. I make none of them!!!

It's rare that I am happy to write a check, but today I was overjoyed to send in my tuition payment for the Kindling Words East writing retreat at the Inn at Essex in Essex, VT. I was fortunate to go to KW last year and had a total blast. I met lots of people I only knew from online, re-kindled (get it??) old friendships and met some awesome new people.

I also wrote more than 12000 good words in three days!

I am so looking forward to Kindling Words East 2010. It's such an inspiring event!

Is anyone else around here going???

I had a great event this weekend at a great bookstore with a great author. I was in Glens Falls NY at a bookstore called Dog Ate My Homework with novelist, Kate Messner. She is the author of The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. Just go read it. It's quite good.



Kate and I chatted with the crowd, talking a little about where our books come from and a little about the writing process. Lots of kids, lots of interest and lots of fun.

Oh, and lots of cookie...



As is their custom, the good people at Dog Ate My homework presented Kate and I each with our own dog bone cookie to take home. We did our best to share, though!



And for those of you who ask if I ever take a bad photo, the answer is yes. Here I am looking much like an ape (thanks Ella) and Kate looking frightened. Rightfully so as I had not yet had a bit of cookie and I was HUNGRY!!!. Me Want Coooookkkkiiiieeee!

What do these two books right up next to each other make you think of?



If you said, "a Thoroughbred about to trample a young girl who is not paying attention to what's going on over her shoulder" you'd be right.

If you said, "Hey, both of those books are selections for the Autumn 2009 Kids' Indie Next List!" you'd also be right.

But come this weekend these books next to each other will have an entirely different meaning. That's because this weekend Kate Messner and I will be doing a book signing together at Dog Ate My Homework in Glens Falls NY.

If you do not know who Kate Messner is, get your head out of the sand! Not only is she the author of THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z (Walker, 2009) but she is the uber-talented author of like a dozen* other books that are acomin' in the next few years.

Kate and I will be signing books, shaking hands, passing out goodies** and chit-chatting with whomever is interested in coming down. And we're hoping it's a lot of you!***

Here's the information:
Where: Dog Ate My Homework
Address: 206 Glen Street, Glens Falls NY
Date: Saturday, October 3rd
Time: 4pm to 6pm

And in case you're on the fence, here is an article about Kate and an article about me that came out this weekend. Between the two of us, we totally hogged up the front page of the Post-Star Books Section!




* Okay, a dozen was a bit of hyperbole, but she's got a bunch of books in the publishing pipeline, both middle grade and picture books!
** If I can think of any good goodies to give out (suggestions welcome)
*** If you can't make it down there, call Dog Ate My Homework at 518-792-0133 and order a copy of Bug Boy or Gianna Z and we'd be glad to sign them for you while we're there!

One of the most common cocktail party questions I get are along the lines of why I've chosen to write for young people. Usually, this question is meant disparagingly, but maybe I'm just in a cynical mood today. So, I'll give everyone who's ever asked me that question the benefit of the doubt. I'll ignore your rolling eyes and how you look down your noses at me. For the moment, I'll assume what you really mean is something along the lines of why don't you write something I myself might be inclined to read?

And the answer to that question is because young people are awesome. There is no disputing this fact. And in case you have doubts, just watch this video:

With all the hoopla surrounding book releases, book signings, book editing, book interviews and, of course, book writing, I often forget one important detail: that my work is making its way in the world and affecting people in very interesting and very important ways.

That fact was brought home recently when I received a moving email from a gentleman who told me “The family I grew up in were racing fans and compulsive gamblers. The only reading material in my house was The Brooklyn Eagle and The Racing Form. Your writing bought it all back in vivid detail, and your love of the sport shines brightly still.”

This man goes on to encapsulate what I was trying to say in Bug Boy better than I ever could: “For many of us we unknowingly carry a handicap of some kind, often placed there by another, not necessarily a sponge in the nostrils… Yet, we drive for the finish line with all we got.”

And if that was not magical enough, he went on to write a poem about how Bug Boy reminded him of his own youth as a competitive swimmer. Of course, this is printed with permission.

READING BUG BOY
For eric luper

Bug Boy words on the page
In late Saratoga light,
Are lifted off,
As if ink was ice melting
And no wet left behind,
Eyes turned into Turkish Towels
For the soaking up.
Better still,
More like my first lap, underwater,
Breastroke 200 yard college race,
All the marbles on the line,
Touching the wall for the turn,
Flip over deep inhale
Push off long stretch
Not yet feeling the wet,
On the way home with Jack
And Fireside only seven laps left
The pool my track,
Starting block the starting gate,
Lap their furlong,
Their 1934 my 1959,
Thoroughbreds in flight,
Through water through air,
As one.

Bob Salzman
8/21/09

Thank you, Bob, for reminding me of some very important things. It’s people like you who make this journey worthwhile.

I have so much to catch up on when it comes to this blog. There is just so much news to tell, but I have been bursting at the seams with one particular piece of information and I simply must allow it to cut in line.

This little tidbit appeared in Publisher's Marketplace late last week:

Eric Luper’s romantic comedy SETH BAUMGARTNER’S LOVE MANIFESTO, in which seventeen-year-old Seth spends the summer podcasting and seeking the answers to love after being dumped, getting fired, and spying his dad with another woman, all in the same afternoon, to Alessandra Balzer at Balzer + Bray by Linda Pratt @ Sheldon Fogelman Agency (NA).

So, the news is out. My next novel is coming out in June 2010!!! After Big Slick and Bug Boy, the big question is "How did Eric Luper end up writing a romantic comedy???" I suspect I will have to answer that question soon!

I will admit that when I picked up this book, I was not too enthused. It was like 425 pages long and I had a stack of other books in the pile (still do, actually), and I only get fifteen or so minutes a day to read (usually before I fall asleep or while two kids are jumping around asking me questions). I assumed this book would be occupying me for a month and a half or so.

How wrong I was.



I tore through this book in three days, foregoing swimming in Lake George on one of the last swimmable weekends (it's cold in there now!) and a boat ride to Ticonderoga (I can't read with all that movement!). From the first chapter, the characters grabbed me, the plot grabbed me, but most importantly the imagination grabbed me. There is no doubt that Scott Westerfeld is a great world builder. He did it with Peeps; he did it with the Uglies series. But LEVIATHAN is something else altogether. The imagination is fantastical and everything is larger than life, yet somehow it's also believable. Westerfeld makes you want to suspend your disbelief. And the art is remarkable. It makes this story simply come alive. BTW my favorites are "The Streets of Lienz" on page 118 and "Standing Firm" on 358.

Imagine World War I turned on its head. The Austro-Hungarians and the Germans (known as Clankers) have embraced machinery, wielding giant walking tanks (much like the technology of Robotech but much more primitive) while the British and French (known as Darwinists) have harnessed the power of genetics to create strange and exotic war machine creatures such as The Leviathan which is a living zeppelin made from the body of a whale, but fused with the genes and attributes of hundreds of different other creatures to make it a self-sufficient eco-system that can rain hell down on its enemies.

Alek is the son of the Archduke and on the run while Deryn is a young girl posing as a boy to serve in the British military. Both living very different but very secretive lives, their paths cross in an unexpected way and, well... I don't want to reveal too much. Let me just say that LEVIATHAN is the book I wish I had when I was a kid. I'm already looking forward to the sequel.

If you're not already sold on Leviathan, check out the book trailer:

I had an opportunity this weekend to stay at The Adelphi Hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY. If you have not read Bug Boy, you might not be aware of the significance of The Adelphi (or if you read it you might not remember), but it's the posh Victorian hotel where Elizabeth's family is staying during track season. You may recall the scene where Jack walks to the hotel with his friends on his heels and Elizabeth is up on the balcony looking down? That is where I stayed and they are only open for part of the year.



This is the very famous lobby where people meet in the afternoon for tea and biscuits.



This is the spot where Jack tells the boys to scram before he calls up to Elizabeth on the piazza (see the red flowers? That's the front rail of a fancy-schmancy balcony).



Here is Elizabeth's spot on the balcony looking down at Jack.



And here is what life looks like on the Adelphi balcony overlooking Broadway. It's where i finished reading Hidden Talents by David Lubar and took in the first thirty pages of When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead over several cups of coffee. Both very excellent, BTW. I mean the books and the coffee.



The hallways are just as quirky as the rest of the hotel. Furniture and interesting art everywhere.



and...



So very cool. And for those of you who have been incredibly patient about my big news, there is new big news but I can't tell you that either because it is contingent on me telling you the first big news. So, as a hint I will offer up this photo:

Today is my daughter's birthday. She is turning five and unfortunately has to sit through a long day of kindergarten before we can properly celebrate tonight. It's great to see her get older. On the way to school today, I asked her what she wanted to accomplish as a 5 year-old. She said she wanted to learn how to read and how to drive the car. Like her dad, I guess she aims high, but is accomplishing half your goals enough? In this case, I'll say yes.

Here is some of her art, which is framed and hanging in my office:

This is her first piece. She painted it when she was 2 with ink stampers on a paper plate. I enlarged and framed it.



And this is her most-recent piece. It was painted with watercolor over scribbled-on wax on white paper. Age 4. I guess she's in her blue period.



Happy birthday, baby girl! By the way, how long am I going to be able to call her baby girl???

via The Telegraph via MentalFloss blog in an article listing the 20 most bizarre Craigslist ads of all time:

Looking for bridesmaids
"So, my fiancee and I are getting married in June. He has 8 groomsmen lined up and I only have one bridesmaid. So, I need some girls who are attractive and around my age to stand up in my wedding. You can be single or taken. It doesn't matter....you just have to be hot. But, not hotter then me. Email me for more information. The wedding will be in Madison and you won't have to pay for a thing."

and

Autographed copy of Plato's Republic
"1st edition of The Republic signed by its author. There is of course a reasonable amount of wear and tear, (light highlighting and underlining, dog-eared pages, back cover missing, etc.), but it is in overall good condition considering its age."

Really? I mean, really?

As far as I know, The Intern is reasonably new to the blogging world.All I know is that she is an intern at a New York City publishing house. Not only does she share interesting insights to how the publishing world works but she is funny as all get out (what does that mean, anyway?).

Anyhow, today she relates the "Hedonic Treadmill" to publishing and writers. It's all about happiness and how when we achieve our goals we immediately reset our goals and don't get much happier overall.

If you are new to writing and the publishing world or have been around a long time, this is a blog you will want to keep your eyes on!

artistq over at Creative Dreams showed me some love today with her awesome post complete with a photo of her reading Bug Boy at the track as well as a photo of the famous-among-trackfolk Sam the Bugler reading it! It's worth a looksee... and artistq's blog is worth following. She's a smart and inspiring cookie!

Thank you, artistq, for making my Wednesday special! You rock!