Barry’s book!!!
Can I just tell you how great it is to be friends with another novelist? Not only do I have a ready editor whenever I decide to e-mail him my stuff, but I also get to read his manuscripts fresh off the fingertips before anyone else sees them. It’s like knowing the person who creates flavors at an ice cream parlor, and getting to be one of the first tasters.
And best of all, I get to share in all the thrills and successes of Barry’s career, as they happen. Like now.
First, understand this: the official publication date for Barry Lyga’s novel The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl isn’t until October 2. Barry planned a whole book launch party around it. My husband and I are packing our party clothes and flying back east for it at the end of the month. I understand there will be massive amounts of food.
So imagine Barry’s surprise when he walked into a bookstore at the mall yesterday and saw his novel just sitting up there on the shelf so serenely among the other books as if Barry HADN’T BEEN WAITING FOREVER!! COULDN’T THE BOOK HAVE CALLED??
It turns out “official publication date” means more if it’s the latest Harry Potter than it does for the rest of the books in this world. Because if you’re a bookseller, you sure don’t want to hear that your competitor down the road got her shipment of HP in earlier than you did, and everyone in town is mobbing that store to find out what happens with Harry and Snape. So it makes sense to set a date and time when everyone can begin selling, so that every store will have crazed customers standing around at midnight wearing capes and oversized glasses.
But for rest of us, it looks like our publication dates aren’t so sacred. Barry’s novel has already been shipped out to the various stores and warehouses, and even Amazon.com has started shipping, so starting this week we should be hearing some noise. Because trust me, Barry’s novel is totally noise-worthy. It’s funny, smart, harsh, touching, radical, and has one of the greatest high school girls you’ll ever meet. She does what the rest of us would never dare to do. I’m both afraid of her and wish I were more like her.
So now, two weeks early, the waiting is over. And just like the song says, the waiting is the hardest part. You’ve done all your work, you know the book is coming out, you try to concentrate on your current novel-in-progress, but it’s awfully hard. The anticipation is incredibly distracting. So many what-if’s and thens and can’t-wait-untils. But now it’s here.
Let the devouring of this novel begin. You are going to have so much fun.
Technorati Tags: Barry Lyga, The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, Harry Potter, Writing, Publishing, Authors, Books, Reading, Young Adult Fiction
September 18th, 2006 at 6:53 am
Barry’s having a party?
September 18th, 2006 at 8:14 am
Uh-oh, Barry, you did invite Diana, didn’t you? Diana, you are so invited. If you’re serious, let’s talk.
September 18th, 2006 at 9:48 am
Diana? Do I know someone named Diana?
Just kidding! Diana is MORE than welcome to come. She gets in free on the Yale Alumni Launch Party Program. Show your diploma at the door for half-off all rides and free cotton candy!
And remember — your veritas sux if it ain’t got that lux!
September 18th, 2006 at 10:07 am
barry,
this is indeed exciting news. i have cleared out a corner of my bookshelf for books by authors i know, even if only by six degrees of kevin bacon–my own little personal reader-as-semi-stalker kind of shrine. so i will be sending you my copy “fan boy” for autographing (ditto with diana), along with some suggested dedications, just as soon as it hits the barnes and noble in my humble little corner of the earth.
until then, SUPER SINCERE CONGRATULATIONS.
September 18th, 2006 at 10:13 am
You know what? This is why state school kids like me can’t stand you smarmy Ivy Leaguers. We may not know Latin (hello? The deadest of all dead languages), but our football and basketball programs totally kick your Ivy arses.
NOT that I’m sensitive about this, but why don’t you and your little Yale friend go play on the Latin blogs? And here’s some Latin for you: Ixnay on the Aleyay Aggingbray. Some of us can’t help it that we cared more about being drama geeks in high school than about studying all the time like the rest of you nerds. And some of us (sniff!) didn’t even know we were allowed to leave home to go off to college.
But, on a side note, for all the rest of you state school people, if you want a glimpse into the parallel universe of Ivy League colleges and their weird rituals and clubs–not to mention all the privileges I didn’t even know were possible–be sure to read Diana Peterfreund’s novel Secret Society Girl. I learned a lot from it, and not just about hot college guys (although that was fun, too).
Okay, rant done.
September 18th, 2006 at 10:47 am
Congrats to Barry-I just checked out the link to the book(thanks,Robin)and it looks great. It should do very well(the title is kickass)and I’ll keep a lookout for it.
September 18th, 2006 at 11:02 am
Annette — I’d be HONORED to be stalked by you. Ready whenever you are.
Lady T — Thanks!
Robin — Modern football was INVENTED at Yale. Deal with it.
September 18th, 2006 at 11:58 am
Did you know that over 200 Harvard grads were accepted into the brotherhood of Freemasons last year? This made me wonder over at http://www.askafreemason.com - are Yalies good enough to be Freemasons?
By the way, anyone can join MY society that is not secret but has secrets - Slavepainters. We teach mindlessly following the orders of others and use metaphors of how to put a nice coating over any imperfections. Its roots can be traced to Home Depot or Lowes.
September 18th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
Wow, Patrick, and girls are allowed and everything?
September 18th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
Absolutely!
September 18th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
gosh-who’d of thought-class warfare on rb’s blog!
unlike robin i bear no grudge against self-entitled, i’m sooo smart or i’m sooo rich (or perhaps, even likely, both), effete eastern establishment ivy-league snobs. unlike robin i don’t prejudge people or relegate them to convenient stereotypes.
no, i have nothing agaist yale–make that HAD. now that i’ve learned the inconvienent truth about “modern” football i believe that i hate yale, let’s remove the qualifier–i hate yale. i stop short of saying i hate eli’s (ny times crossword, every sunday), with one notable exception who happens to currently inhabit a certain piece of historic real estate we like to call THE WHITE HOUSE.
i love the reference to “modern” football, soccer is of course so “old europe”.
i was shocked to find out that modern football had been “invented”. (how many lab rats died for that and where was peta when this was going on?). naturally i assumed that football had descended fully formed from the mothership of the evil, alien (and i don’t mean spanish-speaking) conquerers patiently taking over our world one mcdonalds at a time–the same evil aliens who have convinced us that jesus was republican and las vegas a family fun park.
i digress, i really don’t care all that much about alien take over-que sera, sera. but i do really hate football.
in his youth my husband (who will remain nameless) was obviously abducted on a dark, rural road, late at night in flagstaff, arizona and after undergoing a thorough physical examination, a football chip was implanted in his brain, or perhaps that other more highly functional male body part south therof. whatever. my (nameless) husband can count on one hand (mickey mouse’s hand) the number of football games of a certain (also unnamed) land grant institute of higher education (how much “higher” i can’t tell you, all i know is last time i checked you did in fact need a ged to gain admission–damn those school achievement tests) that he has missed in the last 33 years. and by an unfortunate accident of affliation we call marriage i have been subjected to 33 YEARS OF MODERN FOOTBALL MISERY–THANK YOU YALE!
now let me be clear, we are not talking about ohio state or university of michigan–we are talking really bad modern football. i had no idea how bad until they banned alcohol in the stands some years back–amazing how much more forgiving you are with a buzz on. if that isn’t enough to make you hate yale my husband actually believes subjecting me to four hours of unrelently torture is a DATE–that’s right, a DATE. yes he does take me out for a burger and martini afterward–but a DATE, oh pleeze.
but wait, it gets worse. my husband was able to secure a very large television,a television that required “installation” over a week’s period of time by some guy named rudy and then numerous follow-up’s by the “sony master technician”, yeah, one of those, ya know, special wiring brought in through the roof, many, many holes in the wall, for a sum which he refuses to disclose, that, from what i’ve been able to garner thus far, airs football of the modern sort 24/7/365.
so thank you very much yale and george bush and special thanks to you barry for inviting diana, but not me, to your gala book launch. no, its okay, i’ll be way too busy watching modern football to care. don’t worry, i’ll still be stalking you (not gonna’ let you off that easy!)
September 18th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Oh sheesh, better head on over to the bookstore and see if they’ve got it. It would be great to read it BEFORE the party. Congrats, Barry!
Oh, and Robin? Escriba codea ergo sum. I read Catullus in the original, still have that book kicking around somewhere, and there isn’t anything our century’s smutmongers could have taught those Romans. His poems to Lesbia . . . wow. BTW, I did go to a state university. Rutgers.
September 18th, 2006 at 8:11 pm
Uh, BJ, is that supposed to make me feel better? Or are you just as bad as Barry, throwing your brains up in my face? Very bad form, I must say.
And Annette? Do we need to send someone over?
September 18th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
okay bj, so let me get this straight, you were invited to barry’s party? how nice of him. (is it rutgers? do you think he’d be impressed that i graduated with honors, make that highest honors, from a school that had a rodeo team? yes really.)
September 18th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
Wow. I just witnessed a complete meltdown on the internet.
And it was FUN!
Actually, Annette, to quote another (more palatable) Yalie: I feel your pain. Personally, I can take football or leave it, but my wife is a certified football MANIAC and around fall/winter, the house becomes a VERY strange place indeed…
September 18th, 2006 at 9:08 pm
annette - on behalf of MEN everywhere, I’d like to apologize. Clearly in order to call that a DATE, he should have got you a nice ribeye. Unless his team lost - cause then you’re lucky you ate anything…
And exactly what is it that happens in college?
(Congrats Barry!!!!)
September 19th, 2006 at 7:42 am
Annette — Rodeo? Really?
I don’t know whether I should be stunned or turned on…
Thanks, Patrick!
September 19th, 2006 at 8:05 am
(Are college drop outs allowed to participate in this conversation? lol.)
“Some of us can’t help it that we cared more about being drama geeks in high school than about studying all the time like the rest of you nerds.”
That would be me. I had a full theater scholarship to a state college. And I walked away. Far, far away.
But I have three beautiful children.
And congrats Barry. You must be beaming. (Do men beam?)
September 19th, 2006 at 8:26 am
patrick, thank you for the apology–i feel better now, i really do.
barry i’m so sorry about your wife. fortunately its like malaria–chronic, but not fatal, with intermittent periods of remission coincidental with basketball season.
September 19th, 2006 at 8:31 am
Heather, drama geeks are always allowed everywhere on the blog. You are my sistah.
September 19th, 2006 at 8:50 am
Heather - I never worry about whether I am allowed to participate. I put those - those edumacated peoples in thare plays al the tym.
September 19th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Robin, I was just pointing out that State Schools can give a good education if that’s what you’re there for. And you might get a kick out of the poetry of Catullus now . . . really.
Annette, I’m sure Barry would invite you if you promised to wear your rodeo college leather chaps and bring your riding crop. Might give the word “book launch” a whole new meaning . . .
September 20th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
great suggestion bj–but i was a barrel racer (fyi, eastern establishment so-called “public school” grad, there ain’t no “crops” in rodeo). i’ll take the bait, i do intend to read some, what i’m sure will be very subversive, poetry of catullus.
September 21st, 2006 at 5:19 am
Barry’s book wasn’t in the local Borders store yet….
Can’t read it on the flight home this week.
September 21st, 2006 at 8:25 am
Bummer, Patrick! It’s not in my local Barnes & Noble yet, either. They say any day now. Guess some parts of the country get favors the rest of us don’t. Try again in a few days.
September 21st, 2006 at 12:57 pm
Are you saying that there are people who get preferential treatment over ME?
This concept disturbs me.
September 22nd, 2006 at 12:08 pm
oops, no crop. Okay, substitution– howzabout a six foot bullwhip?
September 23rd, 2006 at 7:24 am
So here’s something weird about Barry’s book - There are used copies available… This was the most interesting description of one of the used ones.
Comments from the Seller:
New York 2006 Soft Cover First Edition, First Print Fine. No Jacket Pre Publication Copy SOFT COVER PRE PUBLICATION COPY (RS)
Robin - I’m going to go looking for used copies of your book now… These used dealers are good. I bet they have copies of my unfinished work-in-progress.
September 23rd, 2006 at 8:02 am
Patrick, now I’m worried there might be bootleg copies of the movie that hasn’t been made yet from my screenplay. Thanks for the tip–I’m going to look into it.
September 23rd, 2006 at 8:18 am
Patrick,
Those are, no doubt, copies of the ARC (advance reader copy) that Houghton Mifflin sent out to bookstores and reviewers and early readers. They printed about 4000 of those suckers, so I’m not surprised they’re cropping up. They’re softcover, though, uncorrected proofs, etc. Basically, not sure why anyone would want to pay for the pleasure of reading typos!
Especially when the real deal has a nice dust jacket and is in beautiful hardcover.
September 23rd, 2006 at 9:21 am
4000? Wow! You know, some SciFi novels that’s the actual print run.
And I completely agree. I always buy new. I don’t want some icky cooties from someone else. You know, some people read books in the bathroom. EWWW!
Anyway, I’m going to check the local bookstores for a NEW - BRAND SPANKIN’ NEW copy today!
September 23rd, 2006 at 12:19 pm
i just got my amazon confirmation for barry’s book–it’s in the mail!
bj, there’s really no way for a girl from new jersey to “get” rodeo. i suspect that most peta members come from new jersey, because they just don’t get it (they also don’t “get” circus). maybe they’re not originally from jersey, maybe they just went to school there–am i right or am i right?