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Hi Mr. P,
My very first Pinkwater experience was when I found 'Lizard Music' literally lying in a field. I was 13, and it has remained one of the best books I have ever read. It has always been my favorite of yours, and I was really surprised to hear you say it was your best work on an interview I heard 2 days ago. ( yes, I know it didn't happen 2 days ago, but in my world it did!)
What was exciting was to hear you say you have written a book that you now feel is even better: 'THE NEDDIAD' and best of all- it's free online. So you can imagine my complete and utter dismay as I can't figure out where it is. When I "google" it I'm told I can buy it, but nowhere can I find the place to just read it. If I need to buy it I will, but I loved the idea of you putting it up as a rough draft, and being able to read it warts and all. I was excitedly
anticipating printing it all out and reading it all, preferably on my back with a bowl of popcorn balanced on my belly. this arraignment works for both my dog and I, as I am messy. But here's the rub- I can't find the story. Is it gone forever, or am I just not looking in the right universes?
Your guidance would be wonderful, and it gives me the added bonus of the ability to actually brag that I kinda sorta spoke to you. Thanks for whatever help you can give and thanks making the world a more interesting place!
Joy
First of all, finding a book literally lying in a field is neat! Imagine if you found a book lying in a field, and then discovered there were no other copies extant, and no record or knowledge of that book anywhere on earth. And then your copy disappears or ascends into the sky, and you start a religion...wait, I think this story has been done, more than once. As to The Neddiad online, it's the 2 year phenomenon that's happened to you before--it was online a chapter a week for like 79 weeks, free of charge, and with the compliments of the author and the publisher. But once it was finished, we took it off. (This is not to say that it isn't still up in some kind of unofficial way somewhere -- but if it is, I don't know how to find it). So, if you want to read it you will have to buy a copy or check it out at the library. Meanwhile, on this very website, we will be serializing the sequel, The Yggyssey, and there are audio books for free in the oodcast/audio archives section, including a serialized...yes!...Lizard Music!
I just wanted to let you know that my children enjoy "The Big Orange Splot." I've been reading to them from the same copy I enjoyed as a child and it's amazing to watch them make the same comments about the drawings and the story that I did when I was little. Thank you.
Korinthia
Thank you! Unless the comments are along the lines of, "Phooey!" and "Who thought up this stupid story?"
I have been reading your extraordinary books to my children for years--well, for several months, it only seems like years but in a good way, really--and have now enjoyed seventeen of them. When the children occasionally tire of a steady diet of Pinkwater we cheat on you with some Richard Peck, but we are pretty much a Pinkwater family. We would like to know if you ever intend to craft a sequel to Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars. These are characters and exploits of which we simply must have more. We are great fans but not so weird you need to erect a barbed-wire fence or anything. We look forward to reading more of what you have already written and all that you are still to write. Cheers!
Thank you. I feel like saying this, so I will say it to you: I believe that, over the past 40 years, more than half my energy has been expended dealing with publishers, and the other less-than-half in doing creative work. By dealing with publishers, I mean tricking them into doing what is good for them, for me, and for readers. There are many books I would have liked to write, but never did--this because I could not persuade a publisher to write a contract for them. One example: It took me years of trying to persuade different publishers to do an inexpensive paperback bind-up of all my out-of-print novels. They all said things like, "That sounds like it would be hard to do," "We have never done that before," and "We don't know how to do that." Finally Farrar, Straus and Giroux did it in a limited way. "5 Novels," hovered around the number 300 on the Amazon.com sales ranking for the first 18 months, and is still selling steadily years and years later. Simon and Schuster had similar success with "4 Fantastic Novels." There are many books I would like to write, and you might well like to read, that will never exist. I continue to do what I can. Meanwhile, I invite you to visit the Pinkwater Podcast on this website, where there are free audio books you may download. And I invite any smart publisher reading this to get in touch with me for some serious conversation.
Hey Daniel, I'm loving your stuff in Wondertime. It's such a gorgeous parenting magazine, and I really enjoy your thoughts on children's literature. Thanks!
Karma
Thank you! They make my stuff seem better than it is with the classy layouts.
I bought a copy of Karel Capek's "Nine Fairy Tales & One More Thrown in for Good Measure" in 1990 and immediately carried it on board an overnight train-- but I never actually read it until this evening. Both the text and the illustrations (by Karel's brother Josef) seem eerily similar to something you might have come up with. If someone had handed me an unattributed copy of the story "How the Famous Sidney Hall Captured the Magician," I would have bet a potato-turnip duck-fat latke that no one but you could have written it. I presume many others have pointed out this resemblance? Is Sidney Hall in fact Osgood Sigerson?
I know almost nothing about Karel Capek, except he was probably a better writer than I am, and may have invented the word, "robot." So, yes.
I'm a writer and I am dedicating the month of February to writing Valentines to my favorite children's book writers and illustrators. Because of your wonderfully bizarre brilliance, I wanted you to be my very first Valentine:) Here's the text:
Bizarre words delight.
Like a spell cast by lizards.
Music to my ears.
To the Great Daniel Pinkwater,
Thank you for filling my childhood with dancing popsicles, bands of lizards, and dangerous avocados. You taught me how to delve into the moonscape of my imagination and claim it as my own. Your stories lead me on journeys I never could have dreamed of, inspiring me to dream
farther and write my own stories. Thank you for the indescribably delicious books you've created.
Your ever enthralled fan, Sara Wilson Etienne
It can be seen in full color on my blog at:
http://www.sarawilsonetienne.com/i-heart-daniel-pinkwater.htm
Thanks again so much and Happy Valentines day! Sara
Wow! I have gotten some valentines in my time--well, no, actually I haven't, but this would be the best one if I ever had.
One of my two sons has just received prescription eye glasses for the first time in his young life. He is very excited, and really couldn't be happier about this event. His twin brother is taking his lack of lenses well, but feels a tad left behind. This seems to be the inverse of what my peers reaction would be when I was a lad, in the 1970s. Do you recall how you felt when you first joined the ranks of the bespectaled? Was it like a Cubs' three game win streak, or like a Ukrainian tugboat pilot losing his hat in March?
I plan to write about this someday. Meanwhile, ask the optician for a pair of cheapest frames for your non-corrected twin, have the maker's name if any removed from the demo or plano lenses that come with the frame, and there he is, happy. Or buy him a pair of shades, and he can be cool and happy.
Hi!
I am looking for book recommendations for a 2nd grader (almost 8) who loves science fiction and isn't quite up to reading Harry Potter and similar level books yet. Blue Moose seems to be just about exactly the right level of challenge (not to mention the fact that my smiling muscles get a very aerobic workout every time I read it).
My first thought, of course, was _The Muffin Fiend_. What other of your books could tickle his science fiction tastes?
Thank you absurdly much--for this advice and for all that you write!
Kevin
You know, you could almost pick any book of mine out of a hat. I mean, supposing you had a hat of sufficient size to contain all my books. I can't guarantee that this 2nd grader will like a particular title, but--possibly short of the long novels, (and possibly not)--he can probably "handle" most of them. Experiment--go with what's available and see what works.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I grew up on your books. I have a weird literary crush on two people-- you, and Susan Sontag, and you have the extra advantage of being alive. I once thought you invented Dada. Now I'm twenty-one, and even though I am allergic to beer, I need to go to a beergarden. Suggestions? I really, really want one surrounded by defunct train cars.
thank you,
Alex
I agree, that is some weird literary crush...me and Susan Sontag. Now I need to go to a beergarden. (Though I should say that for a certain period Sontag's and my name appeared together on certain lists, posters and programs--a book fair here, a phony-gold academic medal there. I made a point of not speaking to her or making eye contact with her, for the usual reasons, and also not to rub in to what low company she had sunk. Later, I stopped turning up at literary events, chili cook-offs and greased pig chases, so never saw her again). I don't know if there is a beergarden scene in New Haven--but I bet there was one way too long ago to do you any good. You can wait for spring and take a six pack into someone's back yard--preferably someone you know.
Dear Daniel Pinkwater I love your stories
and I read so many of them. My favorite one is
second grade ape.
Thank you. A little-known story, with really wonderful ape drawings by the great Jill.
Hi Mr. Pinkwater! I wrote last August telling you that our Mother-Daughter book club had picked "The Neddiad" for our January meeting. Well, we (about 20 of us) read it and loved it! Other family members would overhear us reading it out loud and come in to listen and then wanted to read it themselves. Our favorite line was "The The Tar Tar Pits"!
The girls (7 and 8-year-olds) had some questions: Did you have a nickname when you were little? Where did you get the idea of Eloise - did you have a sister like that? How did you think up all those funny names and where did you get the idea of the book? Finally, we're just curious if anyone has bought the rights to the book because it would make a wonderful movie. We think Jim Carey would make an excellent Billy.
Thanks again for an excellent read and we look forward to discovering more of your books.
K.C. Poulos and the Oak Park Mother-Daughter Book Club
"The Yggyssey" is coming next!
I must say Mr. Pinkwater that I have only read one of your books, but that the one I read,Young Adults, is out standing. In fact it is so good that it has been drifting around our town, passed hand to hand, for months now. Is there any possibility that we shall ever here from the Wild Dada Ducks again?
The Young Adult Saga: Originally published as "Young Adult Novel;" then with additional material, as "Young Adults," in both a trade and mass market paperback edition; the original Young Adult Novel is published as part of "5 Novels," and there are various Kevin Shaprio fan-fiction websites. Vaguely comparable to Young Adults is "The Education of Robert Nifikn," and....the one I am writing right now, (no title yet).
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I am a 28-year-old social worker who has to deal with all sorts of complicated human problems every day at work. One of my most trusted ways to relax in the evening is to pick up one of your books, open to a random page, and read from there. It's interesting that I find your books so soothing when they are about such exciting and absurd topics. But I can honestly say that The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death puts me in a deep meditative state!
Mr. Pinkwater, your books tap into something very powerful: It's the comfort of repetition (obscure movies, hot foods, old cars), the value of unlikely friendships, and the quest to find one's own meaning in life.
Incidentally, I spent half my childhood in the rumble seat of a 1936 Packard. What a car.
Shana
This is an example of something I have known about art since practically the beginning. If you do it right, even if you are a person as devoid of serious content or insight as I am, if you make it right, the reader, or viewer, or listener, will somehow be able to personalize, derive meaning or comfort from it. This is why completely inarticulate and usually drunken abstract expressionists were able to make wonderful paintings. So you, 28-year-old social worker, find that you are tapping into something very powerful in books of mine, by which you mean in yourself, of course. All I can take credit for is making the books according to the rules of art as I understand them--and the proof is in your own personal pudding.
Thank you for writing The Neddiad--it was one of the first children's books to captivate me in a long time. I do have a question: How did you become a children's book reviewer? I think that would be the best job in the world.
Like everything that happens to me, it happened by accident. I don't think of myself as a book reviewer--more like someone who has a special point of view because he makes books himself. I'm no expert in the field of children's literature, not a librarian or a teacher. It's a lot of fun to point out books I like, so others can enjoy them too.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I don't know exactly how to start this off, but the simplest way to try is to thank you for bringing Borgel into existence. My father and I used to listen to it every time we went on a road trip, and let me tell you, it makes for a wonderful childhood memory.
It's a great book...it's so much fun to imagine, and as a result, never gets old. It's beautiful, in the strangest way possible. Like if the Great Popsicle was a book.
Much love, in a detached and hopefully not creepy way,
Quinne
Thank you. Quite possibly we'll be offering the audio Borgel in the Audio Archives section of the Podcast section of this very website before very long. Stick around.
dear mr. Pinkwater, my brother and I have had a band for a couple years now with ever fluctuating band-names. We have always been drawn back, though, to "the snarkout boys" inspired by two of the greatest novels of all time. The thing is mr. Pinkwater,we were just wondering if you would sue us if we took this band name. please know that it is only out of the love of these books and an appreciation of your work that we would choose this name.
Merry Christmas
I would only sue you if you became highly successful and rich.
Hi, I am one of your biggest fans. I thought about googling "Daniel Pinkwater" to see if I could find a site about you, and here you are. I like the Werewolf Club books, but I've only read the first two. Bye!
I like the Werewolf Club books too. I wish 1,000s of people would clamor, and get the publisher to let us do more. Not that they would, even with clamoring.
Hello,
I taped you reading Jolly Roger on public radio a while back. I would really like to buy a high quality copy of that reading. Is this possible?
Thanks!
Dan
Just keep visiting the Audio Archive in the podcast section of this website. We will get around to Jolly Roger, and you can download it.
Feel free to remind me.
Hello.Mr.Pinkwater. My friend Joey(a major fan of yours) gave me a copy of Lizard Music,and i was hooked.He recently got a tattoo with your likeness, i was wondering if youve gotten alot of that? I would like to send you a picture of it,and if you could please sign our books. If you dont want to help me thats fine, but ,do it for him. THink of all the pain you have caused him, tattoo guns don't feel like cotton candy you know. We have also written a song about lizard music and would like to send you a copy. The song will either make you laugh or you can use it, amplified,to chase squirrels or vacuum salesmen off of your property. Thank you and enjoy the buffet.
Ruben Mclaughlin
I think I would rather not see a tattoo in my likeness. But I will sign books, and send them back, if there is a postpaid return mailer.... easier is to arrange to have me sign a small piece of paper, like a bookplate, which you can paste in, and save me a trip to the post office. Ed the webmaster will guide you.
Ruben, check out this page for more info! --Ed
It may just be that I'm easily confused or that there's some sort of parallel universe thing going on at the Bayone, NJ, zoo, but I have a question about polar bears:
Why is it that in the Larry books the polar bears at the zoo are Roy (Larry's brother), Bear Number 1, and Bear Number 3, while from Irving and Muktuk's point of view, they and Larry's brother Roy are the three bears in residence?
Thanks for your help on this ...
It's very simple--Bear Number One, and Bear Number Three, are their zoo names. Presumably, Roy's name for official purposes is Bear Number Two. Similarly, I am known to government agencies as Space Alien 37962W. (Webmaster Ed: should I not reveal that in this forum?)
