Ten short days from today, one of my blog readers will win TWO of my books: Pirate & Penguin (2023) and its seafaring sequel, Pirate & Penguin 2 Few Crew (2024)!
I love these books. Kirkus loves them too! Read the reviews HERE and HERE.
It’s a pirate-and-penguin-palooza!
It’s a treasure trove of bountiful booty!
Most importantly, it’s really easy to enter.
How To Enter
To enter the contest, all you need to do is leave a comment below that answers the following question:
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Who is your favorite cartoon character and why?
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That’s it! Leave a comment and you’ll be entered in a random drawing to win signed copies of Pirate & Penguin and Pirate & Penguin 2 Few Crew!
And who will select this lucky winner?
Him:
This guy has been my loyal raffle picker for the past 12 years. When it comes to picking winners, he is second to none.
He is currently in Massachusetts doing some of that fancy college book-learnin’, but when I told him about this contest, he vowed to return to New Jersey next week! Isn’t that wonderful? He is traveling hundreds of miles from his school just to give someone free books!
If he can do that, the least you can do is enter for a chance to win.
How To Increase Your Chances of Winning
What’s that? You want me to stuff the ballot box in your favor?
No problem.
If you promote this contest on your blog, I’ll give you an extra ballot!
And if you promote this contest on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, that Blue Sky thing, or whatever else, I’ll give you an extra ballot for every social medial platform you post on!
And if you want to suggesta completely different way to promote the Pirate & Penguin contest, let me know what you have in mind; I’ll almost certainly give you an extra ballot for that, too!
That’s a lot of chances to win.
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The random drawing will be held on on Friday, November 29.
The winner will be posted on this blog on Saturday, November 30.
And that’s it! So leave a comment! Spread the word! Celebrate Pirates and Penguins! And win!
Well, let’s just say 2024 has been a year of distractions. More distractions, apparently, than I’m capable of handling. Today, lemme tell you about The Big Distraction That Has Affected Everything.
For most of this year I’ve been recovering from ankle replacement surgery. Or, rather, I’ve been recovering from ankle replacement surgery and the surgery that came before the ankle replacement surgery. The first surgery was necessary because my ankle was so messed up, doctors had to fix the ankle before they could throw it away and put in a new one in. I didn’t even know this kind of pre-surgery surgery was a thing. But it is! And it sucks!
I have a reputation for being accident prone, but I didn’t need the new ankle because of a self-inflicted injury. My ankle was always messed up. I’ve had a few surgeries before this one (the first was way back 1985) so this is not my first rodeo.
That said, the 2024 procedures have been especially crummy.
Surgery number one required a recovery time of 11 weeks, during which I was on crutches. I don’t find moving around on crutches to be difficult, but if you are an introvert, like me, I don’t recommend ever leaving the house. Those aluminum sticks serve as a Stranger Conversational Beacon. And it’s awful.
“Hey, what happened to you?” strangers would ask.
I must have answered that question four jillion times.
And then there were the folks who just yelled jokes at me.
“That’ll teach ya ta upset your wife!”
“Whatever you did, don’t do it no more!”
“Ain’t tapdancin’ any time soon, eh?”
Ha-HAAA! Hilaaaaarious!
These jokes were exclusively uttered by old men. I don’t know why old men need to pipe up with these one-liners so often, but, by God, they are always ready for action.
Many years ago, when Ellen and I were on our honeymoon, she slammed her head against the low ceiling of a tour van. It was quite a wallop. It was obviously painful. There were tears in Ellen’s eyes. But none of those context clues stopped the old guy in front of us from cheerfully announcing, “Ooh, that’s gotta hurt!”
“Shut your mouth or I’ll murder you,” I replied.
So, once upon a time, I threatened an old man’s life. I also write for children. I am a man of many layers.
But I digress.
The second operation was The Big One. Judging by the resulting scars, I’m guessing that the surgeon opened me up with a fireman’s axe. The aftermath was so gross, my son, Alex, insisted—then demanded—that I not show the post-op photos on my blog.
My boy has good instincts about such matters, so please enjoy this photo of my foot pixilated within an inch of its life.
It’s still kinda nasty.
Long story short, I’ve been hobbling around since March, first on crutches, then on one crutch, and, now, a cane. Thank goodness Ellen and Alex have been so willing and eager to help me throughout my long, painful, and persistent gimpy period.
I’m in PT and am getting better, but it’s been a long road that has sapped me of my motivation to do much of anything, including promote my upcoming picture book. But that’s a post for another day. 🙂
I’m such a doofus, I didn’t even think to take photos. This shot is courtesy of the lovely and talented author Nancy Tandon.
I’ve been a published kid-lit author since 2012, but I’m a late bloomer and a slow learner and an all-around dolt, so the first kid-lit book festival I’ve ever participated in was this past Saturday.
And I never would have signed on if fellow author and Facebook buddy Tim Young hadn’t invited me to apply. I’d never met Tim in person, but I knew he wrote a book that featured a capybara, so he was clearly a man of good character.
Only later did I realize that Tim is the reason why the Chesapeake Children’s Book Festival exists in the first place. He founded it. And the guy knows how to found a fine festival.
In the end I sold a bunch of books, became buddies with some wonderful authors and had a marvelous time.
Here are my five takeaways from the event:
Just look at that Sleepy Happy Capy Cuddles/Pirate & Penguin extended universe synergy!
1. I’ve never been to a kid-lit festival, but I knew enough to dress for success. I thought I was pretty clever to don a t-shirt of a capybara dressed as a pirate—until I met Phaea Crede who plugged her book Super Pizza and Kid Kale by dressing in a full-body pepperoni pizza onesie with matching headgear. It was amazing.
But that was only the beginning of Phaea’s amazingness; at about halfway through the festival, when Phaea’s onesie got too warm, she removed it to reveal an oddly tasteful pepperoni pizza dress underneath. If I admire anything more than Phaea’s writing, it’s her commitment to pizza-based activewear.
2. The festival organizers from the Talbot County Library had a marvelous way to drum up interest in the event. If a child signed up for the library’s summer reading program, he or she would receive a voucher for a free book. (Authors who received vouchers get reimbursed by the library.) All day long, kids slowly walked up and down the aisles holding their vouchers like Wonka Golden Tickets, meticulously weighing their every option before handing it over to The Chosen Author.
Lemme tell you, getting a voucher from a kid was a far greater honor than making a cash or credit card sale from a mom or dad. A voucher was 100% the kid’s decision. It mattered. (And I got a bunch of ’em! Yay!)
My Penguin: custom made and coveted by all. Thanks again, Dahlia!
3. This festival marked the grand public debut of my Penguin stuffie! (In case you don’t know, Penguin is red because inPirate & Penguin, Pirate paints Penguin to make the bird look more like a parrot.) It was sewn by Dahlia Walker, my son’s lovely and talented girlfriend. (Marry that girl, boy! She’s a keeper!)
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love that bird. Penguin was also loved by the kids, one of whom attempted a birdnapping, which was quickly thwarted by yours truly. And, yes, I’m pressing charges! I don’t care if you’re in kindergarten, kid, you’re a thief and you’re goin’ to the hoosegow!
4. One part of the festival I was especially looking forward to had nothing to do with chatting with kids or selling books: I wanted to meet Nancy Tandon. I’ve known Nancy since 2012 when she appeared out of the ether with an offer to plug my first book, Sarah Gives Thanks, on her blog. I was grateful for the offer and Nancy and I have been bloggy pals ever since. But in all of the years since our first email chat, we’ve never met in person. Well, she was at the festival, plugging her own books, The Ghost of Spruce Point and The Way I Say It. I was kind of giddy about it.
Nancy Tandon! (Another photo courtesy of Nancy Tandon.)
I am pleased (but not surprised) to report that Nancy is happy, peppy, and about as lovely a person as I could’ve ever hoped to meet. And (also no surprise) she’s an incredible writer.
5. At the festival, my table was next to Mary Quattlebaum, a fantastic writer for National Geographic and the author of her own pirate picture book, Pirate Vs. Pirate. It was such a pleasure to chat with her. But it was even more of a pleasure to chat with her husband, Chris, who, over the course of the festival, became my marketing wingman. He would read my books and fall into boisterous hysterics. Then, with great enthusiasm, he would encourage everyone within earshot to buy my wares.
“He’s great!” “This is hilarious!” “Look at this book! It’s so funny!”
Chris singlehandedly sold every copy of Everybody’s Favorite Book (and made sure to buy his own copy). Mary, to her incredible credit, did not mind her husband’s divided loyalties in the least. She seemed to encourage them. And that, I think, is a big reason why I love writing kid-lit so much. Kid-lit authors understand more than any other writer that a rising tide raises all boats. We support and root for each other. We’re like-minded. We naturally become fast friends.
Hey, Look! A Writer Fellow! 