Author James Maxey gave me the story seeds that eventually led to the creation of Soul Enchilada. I would like to return the favor by passing on this post from his blog:

Followers of my blogs, and the readers who read the acknowledgement pages of my books, will know that I lost my partner Laura Herrmann to breast cancer in May 2005. I’ve been interested in cancer research since then and have privately made contributions to cancer related charities, but I’ve never put out any sort of appeal on my blogs to solicit for this cause, until now.

Last week, I received several cases of my latest book Dragonseed. One of the ongoing themes of Dragonseed is the idea of healing, both from physical and spiritual wounds. Within the book there’s a miraculous object called a dragonseed: Eat the seed, and all your injuries will be healed. Even your oldest scars will vanish.

I have some science fiction hoodoo underlying the dragonseed. The technology to create a pill that will both diagnose and cure any illness is pretty far out in our future, if it exists at all. But, the part of this that isn’t science fiction or hoodoo is that I believe that technology has the power to work miracles. We have MRI and PET scans that can look into a human body and see it working in minute detail. We have developed surgical tools and techniques that can remove diseased tissues from a human body without doing undo damage to healthy tissues. My father had a heart attack recently, and the doctors had to place stents in his arteries. The incision to perform the operation was small enough to cover with a band-aid. And, right now, there are researchers who are taking apart cancer cells molecule by molecule to understand the genetic engines that drive them to a degree unimaginable only a few decades ago.

We live in an age of miracles because we live in an age of knowledge. Modern computers are finally powerful enough to process all the complex data contained within a human cell. The only barriers remaining between our present understanding a cure for any disease you can name are time and money.

These are not insignificant barriers. New technologies are always expensive. And, to be blunt, the world has a limited supply of really smart people, and a nearly unlimited supply of problems for them to solve. For better or worse, money is one of the most important driving forces of where the smart people focus their energies. In the sixties, it was decided we would put a man on the moon. We threw money at the problem, and produced a glut of rocket scientists. In the eighties and nineties, computer technology was fed enormous sums of money by the stock market, and smart people focused their energies on designing hardware and software, and with the result that today my cell phone has more memory than I do. There is a lot of money today flowing into health care, but only a fraction of this money goes to research of any given disease. I’d like to invite you to increase the fraction going to breast cancer research, both due to my personal connection to the cause, and because I think that this is the right moment in history to truly make a difference. I firmly believe this is a disease than can be cured within our lifetime. I don’t know if one day we will simply swallow a magic pill and be healed, but I do know that the day will come when we will be able to profile any cancer cell and match it with the appropriate drug to wipe it out.

To help bring this day closer, if only by a minute or two, I’d like to announce my “Books for Breasts” promotion. Anyone who contributes to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation through the “Team Dragon” fundraising page will get a free signed copy of Dragonseed.

You can contribute to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer foundation by clicking here. This will take you to my personal fundraising page; just click the button that says “support James.” Then, to get your signed copy of Dragonseed, just email me your mailing address to nobodynovelwriter@yahoo.com. I’ve set aside 50 copies for this cause; if I give them all away by the end of July, I’m pretty sure I can get my hands on another 50.

I’ve set up a modest goal of raising $300 through this promotion. This means I need to average contributions of $6, which is less than you’d pay for the book on Amazon. However, I’ll send you a book for a contribution in any amount, even if it’s just a buck. Spend a buck, get a book, save some breasts. Who’s with me?

Until yesterday, I was unaware of a site named commonsensemedia. org. My Big Brother Google alerted me, though, when one of the commonsensors posted a review of Soul Enchilada.

Dutifully, I followed the link. I read the review. As reviews go, it was fine. In fact, it was quite complimentary of the book. Then I read the section of the page labeled “Parents Need to Know.” Apparently, parents need to know only about Message, Violence, Sex, and Language. Curious, I clicked on the Message tab, and I found that Message is defined in terms of Consumerism and Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco. I’ll be frank: Soul Enchilada has a message, and the evils of rampant consumerism is part of that message.

However, that’s not what the commonsensors mean by Message, not when they list “clothing, shoe, candy, cereal, car, fast food, beer, sneaker brands” as mentioned. Of course, they’re mentioned. The main character drives a 1958 Cadillac. Am I supposed to leave out Cadillac and replace it with ‘car’? It’s not like Matrix, with its blatant Nokia product placements. Even worse, though was the list of Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco: “References to marijuana and morphine.” Excuse me? EXCUSE me? Morphine? The only mention of morphine was the main character’s memory of reading To Kill a Mockingbird. The only mentions of marijuana come when one character tells another to “get off the weed.” There is no weed use in the book, and no one uses morphine. The commonsensors certainly make it seem that way, however, clearly misrepresenting the book and the main character, who is adamantly anti-drug. The real Message, both the main character’s and mine, is lost in this terribly simple-minded translation.

In the sense of full disclosure, the book does have Language. Several of them. English, Spanish, French, Latin, and ancient Akkadian. There is also cussing. Great gobs of asses, damns and hells, a few bitches, and a couple of shits thrown in. It’s not the way the proper young ladies are raised to speak, but nobody ever called Bug, who is the product of her environment, proper. Which is also part of the message of the book.

Books must have reviews—positive and negative–to survive. It’s the way things work. Commonsensemedia. org certainly has the First Amendment right to share its thoughts about books and other forms of media. But when someone misrepresents an author’s work in the name of warning parents about content that simply isn’t there, then we’ve crossed the line from reviewing to passing judgment, and that is never a good thing.

I was shocked! shocked! when I realize three weeks have passed since the last post. What’ve I been doing? It would be great to say that it was a terrific new project that I kept under wraps. Sadly, I’ve only been working through a revision (it’s done and is marinating before it goes out) and starting up my annual summer school courses.. While I wasn’t looking, though, people have been posting about Soul Enchilada:

Matthew Holm of Baby Mouse fame, in support of the Bridget Zinn Auction, is posting about overlooked gems on auction. He posted about my donation of the audiobook of Soul Enchilada. The current bid is $35.00. This is a great cause, so I’d like to spice up the pot: If the winning bid passes $50, I’ll throw in a signed copy or Soul Enchilada in addition to the audiobook.

AARP adds Soul Enchilada to its shortlist of books grandparents can buy for teens.

SPPL Teens: “Soul Enchilada is a death defying gut-buster! (aka: funny)

Cincinnati Public Library: “Readers who don’t mind the occasional bout of gross-out humor will be in for a fun ride here.”

Bettendorf Public Library: “This is a very funny book filled with madcap adventures.”

Ever had the odd experience of *knowing* you’ve made a post, but when you look back, it’s not there? That’s the case with my post last week chronicling the second day of the WonderTwins Mini-Tour. Although I wrote the post, somehow my blogging client software didn’t follow my command to post it. What good is software if it doesn’t follow your commands?

The original post is below.  But first, a couple of words from out sponsors: Soul Enchilada has been nominated for BBYA, Best Books for Young Adults, a honor presented by ALA. Nomination is only the first step in a very deliberate process, but it’s nice to be mentioned.

Also, David Lubar mentions his recent purchase of Soul Enchilada and writerross beats me to a most excellent pun.

The Wonder Twins Tour Part B

Holland Boys & Girls Club

For someone who once toyed with doing open-mic stand-up, the venue at the Holland Boys & Girls Club was perfect. Espresso bar, pool and ping-pong tables, computer lab, and small gym, plus a stage, lights, a mic, and a stool. Who could ask for more. But wait! There is more. Add an uber energetic youth programs director named JJ and a group full of smart, funny, engaging teens as an audience. They hadn’t read the book, but I didn’t mind–I taught high school English, so I;m used to leading discussion where no one has read the material.

A sign that I was in the right place.

Boys & Girls of Holland

JJ and friend

Asked EXCELLENT questions.

The whole crew. Thanks guys!

BrillianceAudio studio tour:

The third day of the trip, I had the delightful experience of touring the production and engineering studios of Brilliance Audio, the audiobook publishers of Soul Enchilada. It’s a humbling experience listening to professional readers work their magic from inside a sound proof cubicle with nothing but a book, a reading light, and the sound of their voices. The geek in me loved watching the engineers work through “punches” or mistakes in the readings, and then clean up the recording for any page noises, missed words, hiccups, sighs, or tummy rumblings.

Another sign that I’m in the right place.

This is where they record.

This is where they fix the recordings (note happy engineers).

And this is how they decorate the conference room (turn your head to the right).

Reviews and interviews, plus a hunt for luggage:

1. Alethea Kontis interviews me for Ingram Book Company

2. Jia on the Dear Author blog says nice things about Soul Enchilada.

3. The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books says this: “Bug finds that she is a key tool in Beals’ plan to overthrow Lucifer as head of the underworld, and that gives her just the amount of leverage she needs to pit the two baddies against each other in irresistible competition in the fields of competitive pizza delivery and basketball. This plays into the same spirit of Southern blues mythology that ignited Charlie Daniels’ fiddle but credibly renders it specific to the time and characters. Bug’s urban slang and feisty, streetwise attitude make her endearing.”

4. The Bookends Bloggers of Booklist Lynn Rutan and Cindy Dobrez reviewed Soul, as well. They also included a post about my recent visit to Grand Haven and Holland.

5. I’m on the hunt for the perfect luggage–22 inch carryon with slot for laptop, outer pocket for toiletries, wheels, and a handle. Suggestions?

Cindy Pon’s extraordinary debut novel, Silver Phoenix, is on sale today. All launch buzz hyperbole aside, this is one of my favorite novels of the last year. Cindy is gifted writer with a great eye for sensory detail, but it’s the voice of the main character, Ai Lang, that carries the story. I read a lot of books. This one is a keeper.

And remember, Buy Indie! 

The official description: No one wanted Ai Ling. And deep down she is relieved—despite the dishonor she has brought upon her family—to be unbetrothed and free, not some stranger’s subservient bride banished to the inner quarters.

But now, something is after her. Something terrifying—a force she cannot comprehend. And as pieces of the puzzle start to fit together, Ai Ling begins to understand that her journey to the Palace of Fragrant Dreams isn’t only a quest to find her beloved father but a venture with stakes larger than she could have imagined.

Bravery, intelligence, the will to fight and fight hard . . . she will need all of these things. Just as she will need the new and mysterious power growing within her. She will also need help.

It is Chen Yong who finds her partly submerged and barely breathing at the edge of a deep lake. There is something of unspeakable evil trying to drag her under. On a quest of his own, Chen Yong offers that help . . . and perhaps more.

About the Author: Cindy Pon was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and her family immigrated to California in 1980, settling in the suburbs of Los Angeles. She began writing stories before she was officially declared English proficient. She received her bachelor’s from the University of California, San Diego, and also earned a master’s from New York University. The author is a student of Chinese brush painting, and her love for the art is reflected in her storytelling. Cindy Pon lives with her husband and two small children in San Diego, California.

Last week, I flew to snowy Western Michigan to do a couple of short but glorious site visits with Wonder Twins librarians Cindy Dobrez and Lynn Rutan, as well as touring the offices of my audiobook publisher, Brilliance Audio (more about that later).  Of course, my flights were delayed–never fly with me–due to mechanical problems, weather, and someone who got caught in the jetway. Eventually, I made it to Grand Rapids then drove across to Grand Haven, which is on the shores of Lake Michigan:

I stayed  in this beautiful B&B below, the Harbor House Inn. The room had a great view of the river, and the breakfast was yummy.

So were the table fowl. Bring on the chikins!

With some free time and Google Maps on my phone, I ventured into nearby Holland, where they grow lots of tulips. I was a couple of weeks early for the Spring blooming, so I found a reasonable facsimile.

Eventually,I located the bookstore that was sponsoring my talk with the Boys & Girls Club later in the day.

I was intrigued by the Famous Nutty Paddle Pops. Alas, I didn’t get the chance to try one.

And then…

On to Harbor Lights Middle School to meet with Cindy Dobrez, Lynn Rutan, and the BBYA Reading Group. My name in lights! W00t!

Here’s one half of them….

And the other half….

This sculpture was too fun to let escape photoless.

They made me a cake! My name in lights AND a cake?

Let them eat cake!  And drink pop! (You know Southerners don’t call it pop, right?)

The BBYA Club kept me on my toes with a string of great questions. I managed to answer them all–I think. Way too quickly, I had to move on to the next event…

…but not before getting a pic of Cindy’s Printz Award Chikin.

Next up: The Boys & Girls Club of Holland!

I’m not making this up. Courtesy of Google alerts, I found this Japanese website, which has posted Cynthia Leitich Smith’s interview with me after translating it from English to Japanese  back to English. I think.

Read on, brave friend, and discover why I "scribble for the profit teenagers today."

Author Interview: David Macinnis Gill on Soul Enchilada, Comedy Blog

David Macinnis Gill is the inventor of the launching blockbuster, Soul Enchilada (Greenwillow). His stories bear appeared in different magazines, and his carping biography, Graham Salisbury: Island Boy, was published about Scarecrow Press (2005). He holds a bachelor’s noxious in English/creative composition and a doctorate in insight, both from the University of Tennessee.
David has been a firm painter, cafeteria executive, bookstore schlepper, stoned votaries counsellor, and college professor.

What were you like as a inexperienced reader?
Starved.
He nowadays lives on the Carolina earth-slip with his relations, with the addition of fourteen fish, two rescued dogs, and a nocturnal marsupial. I accomplished to ponder the maiden well-illuminated of day of votaries and haven’t stopped that. In mid-section votaries, I signed up to be a library humanity Friday so that I could bear disenthrall access to the library in the later votaries, after votaries, during lunch, homeroom, and any begetter when I finished my beget. At haunt, I ponder jocose books, and my comics assembly was staggering.
I ponder impartial about the unbroken shooting counterpart, initially sports books as a mid-section reader then proficiency fiction and aversion as a teen.
Sadly, I sold it in the later first to college.
Why do you scribble for the profit teenagers today?
I of we all suborn e learn stuck in an lifetime, to some measure assess. Plus, I was a stoned votaries counsellor, and I wanted to pass dated students books to ponder, of, and talk about. For me, that lifetime was seventeen, and I silent desire like I’m that above-named.
What about inexperienced fanciful heroes appeals to you as a man of letters?
Like stories about lawyers and sports, stories with inexperienced full-grown heroes bear built-in acting.
Who can curb a coming-of-age legend? We are a association that appreciates a good enough butterfly hatching. An emissary ponder anybody of those stories and suggested I scribble novels as an alternative.
Could you require us about your master plan to issuance? Any sprints or stumbles along the technique?
Stumbles, make haste bumps, and See trade circles! My maiden fiction was published in literary magazines in the antediluvian 1990s.
I began as without delay as, and after at most seven tries and thirteen years (I estimate I’m a unpunctual learner), I figured dated how to scribble a blockbuster and build a legend presentation that got a apportionment of blower.
In June of 2007, I submitted it to my modish emissary, who signed me on.
Looking disown on your apprenticeship as a man of letters, is there anything you upon you’d done differently? If so, what and why?
I would bear majored in something other than nonconformist composition in college. After two revisions, it sold to GreenwillowBooks, a firm that I had each on many occasions admired and at the beck no circumstances dreamed would pick up Soul Enchilada. It’s more deserving, I of, to bear something to scribble about than to allot on many occasions information to scribble a uncommonly personal to model of fiction.
Instead, I would bear gone to workshops about practicing novelists who could bear shortened my information curve. There is nothing like finishing a legend, then revising it until it’s as good enough as it’s first to be.
On the fling side, what was most constructive to you in terms of developing your around?
Those seven unpublished novels.
It’s heartbreaking when you reciprocation that the finished outcome isn’t in any case first to be good enough adequacy, but it gave me the belief that I could brook any overhaul, no burden how staggering, and silent narrowest import the bring about objections to to. It also makes it easier attentiveness and split up with away something that impartial is at the beck no circumstances first to beget.
Congratulations on your launching blockbuster, Soul Enchilada (Greenwillow, April 2009)! What was your inaugural enlightenment for the profit composition the legend?
The blockbuster began as a icky fond of deficient in legend in 2005.
Also, my critique partners, Julie, Shannon, Jean, Lauren, and Lindsay, who are but readers and writers, bear saved my mental health a hundred times all at the beck the aegis. One of my writers groups was having a Halloween legend call into inconceivable. I was preordained different legend seeds to build my beget, and I had to encompass the seeds in the legend. I entered the legend into the WIN icky fond of deficient in legend call into inconceivable, and it won. While I didn’t around, my hint was greeted enthusiastically about the association.
What was the timeline between energize and each issuance, and what were the pre-eminent events along the technique?
Flash convey two years: I was struggling with the umpteenth overhaul of a ghost legend when I unfaltering to do something with the Halloween legend. I bootless the other blockbuster aside and began letting the storyteller of the icky fond of deficient in legend require me more about her energy. The unbroken timeline would be:
1.
Her agency swept me up, and the maiden capital not cricket c dated of commission was down within a month. energize: 20052. maiden capital not cricket c dated of commission finished: 20073. unpunctual down: up to date constitution academic 20075.
agent signed: 20074. issuance: 2009.
What were the challenges (literary, enquiry, intellectual, and logistical) in bringing the libretto to energy?
I should mention, "getting the narrator’s agency principal," because she is so bosom from me.
The bring about objections to to came from the scene, El Paso. But that was the easiest position.
I bear at the beck no circumstances been to West Texas, so Ineeded a ton of info on places, names, locales, smells, sounds, and attitudes. My critique partners were expensive, and I acclimatized the Internet for the profit the shut-eye.
What about the publishing activity has surprised you most and why?
The amount of on many occasions and dynamism my publisher wishes allot to around secure the unbroken shooting counterpart is unquestionably principal.
The other inflexible position was weaving all of these disparate elements of folklore, appear enlightenment, sports, the follow, classism, and the American literary canon into anybody zestful declaration. I’m thrilled that I kept notes on my enquiry, because there were individual elements that I had to confirm in the later including them.
Also, I was surprised that my rewriter likes cross dated marks.
Terrifying. I had heard that they were verboten!
Big spitting image, what is it like, being a launching inventor?
Thrilling. Intense. Joyous. Overwhelming. Lonely. Flattering.
Rumbling. Fumbling. Stumbling. And humbling, when you learn that there are individual people that you’ve at the beck no circumstances heard of who are cheering for the profit your not any libretto to do serenely.
In terms of marketing and outreach, how do you join with your readers?
With both hands and lots of Velcro? I bear the requisite websites (personal and libretto specific), Facebook, MySpace, Goodreads, and Twitter.
How do you equilibrium your energy as a man of letters with the responsibilities (speaking, stimulation, etc.) of being an inventor? Or, more globally, how is that correcting first?
The technique I conspicuous by equilibrium is to run out from anybody side of the ascend to the other, hoping that it won’t extremity. Readers can phone via any of those sites, as serenely as the phone something on my website. Balance-wise, I of I’m a dead originator.
I’ve each on many occasions been a hyper-attentive man who daydreams constantly, and I don’t multi-task serenely, so there’s a apportionment of putting dated of fires and bouncing from anybody trustworthiness to next.
Do you beget with a mentor, critique association or accomplice, or exclusively with your rewriter? Why does that read leak-proof thick-witted to beget for the profit you?
Did I already mention that I bear an elevated critique association? Well, I bear an elevated critique association fully of (now) published authors.
Someday, when I’m a grownup, I’ll suborn e learn organized. We got started via Verla Kay’s blueboard [Children's Writers and Illustrators Message Board] and created an electronic seating array. They are all acute readers and reassuring of anybody another.
Since my maiden purchase, that has morphed relatively, with my rewriter intriguing the foremost in shaping my beget. It was their belief in Soul Enchilada that made me reciprocation that I had a unexcelled hint.
But I each on many occasions after their feedback in the later I send beget to my rewriter.
What notification do you bear for the profit commencement writers?Read with an examination for the profit around.
I attest to that notification, although I of starting writers should ponder thoroughly in the genus of their tiptop and then chose a insufficient different of brilliant writers whose beget they attentiveness exceptionally.
The expected notification is ponder, ponder, ponder and scribble, scribble, scribble. Read the books again with a carping examination, irksome to attentiveness the structural elements that around the blockbuster beget.
And when you scribble, be meditating of both your activity and your outcome.
You garb more than anybody hat in the devotee of YA rumours! Could you distend us in on your other activities in the devotee?
I’m the past-president of the Assembly on Literature for the profit Adolescents, the largest mistress association compensation to the ponder of inexperienced full-grown rumours. Can you scribble a locate more dramatically? Can you nip your activity so that you beget more efficiently and create mannerly emulate?
Be game to make one’s technique by foot away from a legend that isn’t working so that you can construct up a legend that wishes. I served on the ALAN Board of Directors for the profit barely ten years.
In totting up, I wrote an to column for the profit Teacher Librarian journal and was a libretto reviewer.
How do the individual "Davids" in YA rumours require on anybody another? Do they each on many occasions suborn e learn along?
The inventor David is briefed more about the authority David than vice-versa. I’ve published books and article of literary critique about the YA devotee. Publishing is a debouchment, and working as ALAN president has preordained me fraught percipience on how marketing, sales, and stimulation beget.
Because I was in the reminisce over of how marketing-and-publicity departments tiptop authors and books to incursion, along with where they are promoted and why, I was uncommonly briefed about what happened after Soul Enchilada red my hands for the profit the irrefutable on many occasions.
I desire like I bear a broader seascape of the devotee of inexperienced full-grown rumours and how I how as a man of letters I correspond into it.