I am really, truly, honestly in need of a new Snarkout Boys book! Please.
I’m poor, and I work a horrible job where they lock me in a room with 34 17 year olds for hours and won’t let me use the bathroom.
Is this some kind of community service in lieu of jail time thing? What did you do?
Hello,
I am a fourth grade teacher in Ceres, CA and one of my students wrote Mr. Pinkwater a letter. I sent it to the publisher (NAL Penguin Inc.), but it was returned. May I get an updated address so I can resend her letter?
Publishers are traditionally awful when it comes to sending along author mail, sending it without first opening it, sending it in a timely manner, and sending it with return address intact. One is usually about as bad as another in my experience--but, since I'm currently doing a lot of business with them, you may as well send me mail in care of:
Please Forward to Author
Daniel Pinkwater
Simon and Schuster, Children's Books
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020Once I get mail, I try to answer it promptly--but there are times when I get swamped, and things lag. Best way to get a fast answer is right here--this forum. (You can also request that our friend Evan forward it without posting, if you so desire).
Mr. Pinkwater,
My time on this Earth would not have been half as satisfying without the likes of Yobgorgle, the Last Guru, Lizard Music, and so on.
The Pinkwater Chronicles meant one hell of a lot to a certain fat, weird 10 year old from upstate New York. Why, without the influence of your stories, I might not have grown up to be the fat, weird 29 year old I am today.
Please quote me on your new book jacket.
Bob Schultz
Stephentown, NY
You have the same chance as everybody else to get quoted on the outside of ""4"" my excitingly-titled next collection of old stuff. Actually, that's not true...you have a better chance than someone who hates my work. A slightly better chance. It's all up to Simon and Schuster.
Mr. Pinkwater,
So, I’ve been in the habit of calling my local Barnes and Noble every couple of months to find out what books you have available and if you have any books that are about to be published. The bookseller who answered the phone told me you have a book coming out titled, “I Snarked With A Zombie.”
I did a little dance of joy! A new Pinkwater book with “Snark” in the title! I was thrilled! Until she told me the expected publication date…It started off fine when the girl said, “December First.” Then she paused, and added, “Sir, the date the computer has is 12/1/2024.”
I almost dropped the phone. As an avid fan of anything Snark, my hopes had been pulsing through my veins and I experienced a rush I hadn’t felt since the 1980’s. But do we really have to wait 25 years? Am I doomed to be bothering my local bookstore every couple of weeks for the next 25 years, watching the days and months tick by? 25 years is a long time… But, heck, I’ll be along for the ride… Maybe I’ll get to read “I Snarked With A Zombie” to my grandchildren. Or, by then, maybe they will have to read it to ME!
Waiting for 12/1/2024,
Jeffrey Allyn
Phoenix, AZ
That's a mistake. The pub date is 2041. It's to be a centennial book. I can hardly wait to read it myself.
What is your favorite color? Do you have your own house? What is your favorite kind of music? What is your favorite subject in school? What is your favorite book that you have written? My favorite book that you have written is Fat man in space.
Blue. Yes. Loud. Art. Fat Men from Space. I like your name.
Does your wife ever help you write your stories?
What was the first story you wrote?
Do you have any children?
Carina Periera
Fourth Grade
Always. The Terrible Roar. None. (but I have a dog, which is like a child only with more fur).
D.P. –
I happened to surf into a brief synopsis of a piece you did on 8/1/95 for NPR concerning housekeeping. It included the virtues of over-the-sink-dining. Apparently, you would therefore be of the Sinkie persuasion. Given that assumption, at this time, we’re contacting certain Internet web sites to inquire as to promotional opportunities. Would you be interested in displaying a link to our site if we were to display a link to yours?
Thank you for your consideration.
Norm Hankoff, Founder
The International Association of People Who Dine Over the Kitchen Sink
* STANDING
* IN
* NUTRITIOUS
* KITCHENS
* INGESTING
* EVERYTHING
It's not my website to link or not-link. However, I do not eat over the sink. Such a practice is depressing and may be unhealthy. Food should be enjoyed while sitting, and in pleasant surroundings, nice tableware, convivial companions, maybe some music. Like many another, you confuse a literary device with my own taste. I decry your sinkiness. Why bother to have a civilization if people are going to do that? I could say more, but I do not wish to disgust the decent people who come here.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater
We are a 3rd – 4th grade class from G.C.S. We are called Middles Green. We’ve bean reading your HCE book. We are making a giant chicken out of paper mache. And are feeding the chicken pennies to make it weigh 266 lb.. We would like to that you for the inspiration. When out chicken weighs 266 lb. we are going to take out the pennies and give them to Unicef. The teachers are reading and acting out the whole book at our All-School.
We’d love it if there was any way you could some visit us and our chicken. We do the show on Wednesdays but we could change that to any day you could come.
P.S. You could wear your chicken outfit if you want.
I no longer visit....chickens.
Mr. Pinkwater,
Did you actually write these books, or is some fiend using your name to amass great wealth and fame?
Thanks,
-Paul
A fiend.
Does Mr. Pinkwater visit elementary schools?
How much are his visits?
How far in advance do you need to book him?
He has been known to do so.
As much as 4 hours.
Way far.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I’m an English Major at Baruch College in NYC. At the present I am taking a course in children’s literature.. Our professor has asked us for suggestions on who we would like as a guest speaker (in November, I think) and I suggested yourself. Is this something you may do? Who would we contact for something like that? It would be a great honor for the whole CUNY system if you were to consider this.
Respectfully,
Damian Griffin
I may do it, but not this November, (next month). Yes it would be.
Yobgorgle… the legend, the myth, the reality. I can’t tell you how weird it was to be a tot, a youth, a small person reading Yobgorgle (and Lizard Music, and Alan Mendelsohn, and etc.), and realize that possibly the world was even stranger than you could imagine. And all because Pinkwater could imagine it. I have longed for a library like the Rochester one all my life, and some really good chili too. And this is not to even begin to mention the Worms of Kukumlima…. sheer genius at work. Warping young minds for twenty years, and counting.
There's always talk about me (or my work) ""warping"" young minds. I want to say that it was never my intention to warp anybody else's mind, just to warp mine (more). If somebody else got warped, of course I'm glad, but it's just a by-product. Besides, it's pretty clear we live in a warped society...look at the Presidential candidates, for example...what is it when you warp a mind that's already warped or destined for warpage? unwarp? meta-warp? overwarp? It doesn't matter. It was never my intention. What I wanted to do was wrap young minds.
You are correct, I am nothing. I only know the meaning of the word Nettlehorst. Nettelhorst on the other hand , is a word that no mere human can understand. It is a concept like wax lips and sixteen inch “Clinchers” that I will never grasp even if I read all your books.
Are you admitting you can read? I suppose that sort of thing won't get you in trouble where you live, but here in the valley, I'd have a lot of difficulty with the neighbor-folk if they thought I was doing something subversive like that. Isn't there some member of the vegetable kingdom known as a horst nettle?
Manus-
I guess now you know you are in trouble. Much in the same way I feel when one of my clients calls me Buzzy.
Anyway- first heard you in your current guise when living in SF at the beginning of the decade during the construction depression. Driving over the Bay Bridge listening to you was great fun. At first I wondered if Daniel was you. But the longer I listened the less question there was. The only one that remains is which came first?
Best regards from Susanna and myself (our 27 year old son missed out on you).
There were two principal German terror weapons used in World War Two. One was a rocket which was long and graceful, and the other, was the well known exploding robot plane, which was smaller and stubbier, sort of a boxy buzzbomb.
Jill and I often talk about the set of carpeted bleachers you built in your New York apartment. I recall they were made of a series of boxes, and did not get talked about in fashionable Manhattan society, and thus did not become a popular item of decor. No buzz, about those boxes, and they bombed.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
I have listened to your show for many years, and enjoy your work very much. You have told some Great Stories!
When I first heard you on the radio, many years ago, I wondered about your name, Pinkwater. I was reminded of “God Bless You Mr. Rosewater” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
I have not however seen any of your books though in my many trips to the toy store to buy books for my daughter (3 years old). Next time, I will look harder for yours.
Keep up the good work,
Andrew Rein
Rolling Hills Estates, CA
Last time I was in a book store, I noticed there were a lot of toys, so I guess it makes sense to expect to find books in a toy store. Imagine the quizzical expression on the face of the great Kurt Vonnegut when we were seated together at a banquet, and I sneezed, and someone said, ""God bless you, Mr. Pinkwater.""
