Liv Noble
Post #3532 – 20130927
September 27, 2013
Dear Mr. P,
Would you ever consider (and eventually come to an affirmative answer) about speaking at a book camp for middle and high-schoolers? There would be lots of worshipful adoration and appreciation.
(Would just like to say that Young Adult Novel is my favorite written text of most of all time.)
If this is the designated salami vendor, then Howdy to You.
Daniel replies:
I would need to know where the book camp, (is there such a thing?), was located. If it were within a half hour of my house, I would certainly consider it.
glauber
Post #3520 – 20130923
September 23, 2013
Captain,
is there any chance of releasing The Afterlife Diet in ebook format?
Daniel replies:
I suppose so, but why? I'd rather write a brand-new novel and release it in ebook format. If no publisher comes forward for a little longer I just might do that.
Matthew Crain
Post #3519 – 20130920
September 20, 2013
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
One Saturday back in September or October of 1983 I met you in the dining commons of Bard College. –Actually, this Norwegian girl I was in love with poked me and said, "Oh my god, there's Daniel Pinkwater!" Me being from Kentucky, I said who, and she said, "You never read 'The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death?' And I let you kiss me!" And now thirty years later I've just finished "Alan Mendelsohn," and I enjoyed every word. When Alan says, "I'm not scared of him, I've read 'Moby Dick"–it's one of the best lines ever. I'm going to give my eyes a rest and then go straight to the "Slaves of Spiegel." These are excellent stories, Mr. Pinkwater. Simply excellent.
Your fan,
Matthew Crain
Daniel replies:
Here is what is wrong with your story--if you are to be believed, (which I do not), it places me in the Dining Commons at Bard College in1983. In that year I was old enough to know that even entering that place, let alone eating or drinking anything, was a risk not worth taking. Are you sure the Norwegian girl did not say, ""Oh god, there's Leon Botstein,"" or ""Oh god, I have terrible stomach cramps?"" Incidentally, reading books of mine one after another may result in the same utterances coming from you.
glauber
Post #3514 – 20130907
September 7, 2013
After "Click and Clack" retired from the radio, the producers of Car Talk have been artfully recycling their old material in such a way as to make it look like the programs are still being recorded. So last week they replayed the part where you called in and talked about the "Pinkwater" as the measure of an ideal seat, one that cannot be converted to mere units of length.
I just want to say that it was fun listening to that again. Maybe in a few years they'll replay the review of the VW Beetle.
I enjoy the occasional piece in cartalk.com, as well as the podcast. But you know that.
Daniel replies:
There's a new post from me about to appear at cartalk.com under ""guest bloggers"" any day now. Enjoy!
Joy Layton
Post #3509 – 20130829
August 29, 2013
Dear Daniel and associated minions,
I am the mother of two daughters who both love one another and hate one another passionately. This is demonstrated frequently while I am driving them somewhere and many times you have saved us from certain immolation either by verbal fireworks or by car wreck caused by distraction. How, you may ask? By the use of an old audiotape of yours- The Best of Daniel Pinkwater- Everyday Life. To my great sorrow, I had to sell my 14 year old van to buy a less decrepit 9 year old van and it has no tape player, only a CD player. I have searched your pinkwater.com site and the ubiquitous Amazon.com, and can find no CDs of Everyday Life. Please help me Daniel and minions- I need to be able to quickly slide a dose of Pinkwater into the slot to prevent loss of life and sanity. And as lovely as your other books are, which I can find a few of on CD, nothing holds back mayhem between two pubescent girls like Everyday Life. How can I get this salvation, read in Daniel's voice, back in my own life before the inevitable Hiroshima of arguments occurs?
with much desperation,
Joy Layton
Daniel replies:
Um...how about you download Fischwhistle from Amazon, and have your awful children read to one another? (I adapted this good idea from something I saw on The Dog Whisperer. I bet it works.)
DJ
Post #3510 – 20130829
August 29, 2013
Hey, I hope this is the right place!
I drew a scene from Lizard Music a while ago and I thought I'd share it with you.
img838.imageshack.us/img838/4253/pqs8.jpg
I loved this book in 4th grade, so I ordered a copy recently to read again, and I enjoyed it just as much as then.
Thanks for shaping a weird kid's childhood!
DJ Trousdale
Daniel replies:
That's some nice drawing! Everybody, go look at DJ's swell work!
David Kimball
Post #3512 – 20130829
August 29, 2013
In which of your books do you say something like this,"Chubby was not the dog's name, it was your nickname"? Thanks, Dave
Daniel replies:
In none of my books do I say something like that. However, I am considering initiating a new service whereby I will say anything you want in a forthcoming book, for a modest fee.
Peter D. Van de Vate
Post #3507 – 20130826
August 26, 2013
Mr. Pinkwater,
I never imagined that you were a fellow Tennesseean. I understand that you live in upstate New York. I was born in Rochester. My mom's family is from the city. My grendfather and his brothers owned a plumbing supply business there until the late 60s when they retired. It was the Behrer Nason company and had a warehouse in lower Manhattan that was condemned to make room for the World Trade complex. I am in Tennessee due to my father's employment with the late great Eastman Kodak Company, now Eastman Chemical Company, with a huge facility in Kingsport.
I write to you because I am an avid listener of NPR, and really enjoy it when you are featured.
I am also a lawyer who writes articles on the origins of words and sayings, etc. So, I appreciate what you do.
I was compelled to drop you a note of appreciation and admiration.
I just heard you on Car Talk, probably a rerun, discussing butt attributes and driving. Quite interesting and, as usual, amusing.
Be well.
Daniel replies:
I regularly use words in my work. I find them to be useful and entertaining.
People in genuine upstate New York take offense when the region in which I live, the Hudson Valley, is referred to as """"upstate,"""" generally by New York City folks. It is upstate of the city, but downstate from where people encounter moose on the highway, and have snow on the Fourth of July.
After 25 years, I have quit submitting new pieces to NPR. I am pretty sure they don't know I'm gone. Instead, I contribute to The Bob Edwards Show on SiriusXM satellite radio. It is a lot of fun. I also write things for cartalk.com, which is also a lot of fun.
My memories of Memphis are hazy and date from early childhood. I understand I had the accent at one time.
Thanks for your appreciation.
Clarissa T.
Post #3505 – 20130821
August 21, 2013
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
In my last month of high school, I chose your work for a literature presentation. Half-way through my public reading of a passage in The Avocado of Death, I began laughing and could not continue. I apologized enough that no points were docked.
I am now an LDS student going to an LDS university. The only two books I brought with me were the scriptures and a tome of your work.
Thank you.
Clarissa T.
Daniel replies:
No doubt you are quite influential among your fellow students. Let them know what to read. I'm assuming you're out west--if you haven't read The Neddiad, it might have some resonance for you.
Feldenstein Calypso
Post #3503 – 20130817
August 17, 2013
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
Several months ago I started writing a daily blog. More than any other author, as I write it, I find myself harkening to your writing, and often it provides for me a little bit of a compass in my work. The following is the one piece most explicit about that connection. From the comments I received I am thinking it may have sold one book for you! Though I suspect my readers use libraries or buy used. Anyway, thank you.
Let us, together, end the internet
In the totally wonderful Daniel Pinkwater book The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death our teen narrator visits the family home of Rat (a teenaged girl) for breakfast. Her family is very eccentric, although, come to think of it, every single person in the entire book is eccentric, which I think is part of the enormous beauty of Daniel Pinkwater's writing and understanding of the world. Anyway, at the breakfast table, Rat's Aunt lectures passionately on the evils of opera. It turns out this is not a random speech, and that this Aunt has devoted herself to inveighing against opera, is fiercely against listening to opera, and is committed to explaining how opera can ruin your life. This mission of hers is matched in fervor only by her apparent love of opera. Any time not spent warning against the evils of opera she spends in her room, with her massive collection of opera albums, listening to opera.
There's just something about this…
Here's the world famous blogger writing away once again on the internet. What will he write about today? Every day must be something new, no resting on laurels here! He pauses mid sentence to wander the sprawling internet, home of his blog, for sustenance and inspiration. His hopes flicker. Why can't he find things he likes? 300 billion pages but he feels sad and lonely, uninspired and unentertained. Here is a link. It is a link to a link to a link to a link. It is very popular. The world famous blogger is jealous. The linkers to the links that have good links are more world famous than the world famous blogger. First it was called the "web", and "the net". Then it became the superhighway, the internet superhighway, and now, now it is the internet racetrack, a race, round and round and round. The world famous blogger parks his old battered internet car. "No," he says "This isn't working out." He heads off into the weeds, on foot. "I'm afraid the internet itself just hasn't worked out." He says sadly "And I'll be here daily, so come on by."
Daniel replies:
So that's why that one book of mine was sold! Keep up the good work!
Zorana
Post #3501 – 20130813
August 13, 2013
Dear Daniel Pinkwater,
I think I am all grown up. I am even a Mom to an almost four year old boy whose favorite book is the Big Orange Splot (on many days).
I am also a big fan and wish I could have grown up reading your books. Since I did not grow up in the U.S., I only discovered your existence when my husband gave me the Neddiad to read. Of course, I read many more of your books since. My favorite one is Lizard Music. But then there is Adam Mendhelson: Boy from Mars. Or Yobgorgle. It is crowded at the top. Tonight I will continue reading Borgel. So maybe next week that ends up on the list too.
When discussing kids and imagining how they will grow up, my husband and I have a phrase to describe someone we think will end up being interesting (unconventional, intriguing and overall fascinating to be around) %u2013 he/she will like Pinkwater%u2019s books.
I grew up in Croatia and while there were many good children%u2019s books written by local authors, I cannot share any of them with you because I can be quite certain you do not speak a word of Croatian. However, I thought you would enjoy this cartoon. It was my favorite growing up and a major reason I wanted to be a scientist. It is called Professor Balthazar. He is a genius inventor who comes up with fantastically terrific stuff. Reminds me of you.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpgnKoavZ8o
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWCttgEOwCI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-V0QHltQBc
Daniel Pinkwater, you make people%u2019s life better. To quote Richard Scarry (my son%u2019s other favorite author), best books are children%u2019s books and best writers are children%u2019s writers.
Best,
Zorana
Daniel replies:
I doubt you are all grown up. This is a good thing. I do have a physical resemblance to Professor Balthazar, but I don't have a nice hat like his. Apparently you're wrong in guessing I don't speak a word of Croatian--I understood every word in the cartoons, very similar to English actually. Richard Scarry is right of course.
David
Post #3500 – 20130813
August 13, 2013
I have read (and loved) some of your books Including Bushman Lives. However, I would like to know if you are going to write a sequel to Bushman Lives. I thought it was a very interesting book, but it seemed to end in the middle of the most exciting part and I couldn't find any information about a sequel. Thank you.
Daniel replies:
I did that on purpose--ended it just at the most exciting part--so you could have fun thinking about what might happen next. I might write a sequel.
Kevin A.
Post #3498 – 20130807
August 7, 2013
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
It was around twenty years ago that I made the mistake of picking up the first two books of the "Melvinge of the Megaverse" trilogy. I read a great deal in my youth, and it truly says something that these books have resonated for me for so long: the tale of a world full of people seeking some infinite grandeur of which they've only heard tales, that no one can agree on how to reach but which is so worthwhile that one should spend a lifetime just finding a place to park for it.
My mistake, of course, was that at the time I did not pick up the third book, "Night of the Living 'Gator", not suspecting how entirely elusive this volume would become and denying me closure until at last I finally paid a rather exorbitant price for a used copy on Amazon so that my search might finally be over.
Of course I was confused at first when I finished it %u2013 it is a marked departure from the previous books, with many characters casually tossed aside with no real explanation %u2013 until I realized that it too has its messages. One may find oneself exactly where one wanted to be, only to find that it wasn't what one expected and that one is nearly as lost as one was to begin with. Sometimes instead of a central conflict, life is just a series of bizarre sequential coincidences, and the looming confrontation one constantly anticipates ends up being dealt with swiftly by pet shop employees. Great mysteries thought to be lurking in the navel of the echidna can be swiftly dispelled if one merely bothers to look them up in any handy reference work.
It is only now that I notice you addressed these books here eleven years ago as the product of "poor advice from a schlocky agent". I don't suppose you got around to reading them in the meantime? Have you ever considered developing the original subject matter further?
Regards, Kevin.
Daniel replies:
It takes all kinds of readers to make a world. I myself am a finicky sort of reader--bad writing makes me a little sick. I congratulate you on your robust constitution. For the information of others, the books referred to were part of a deal with a ""packager."" On the advice of an agent I no longer employ, I was to write a ""bible"" like unto what is done for a TV series, and some general outlines. ""Top rank"" science fiction writers were standing by to execute the books. In the event, the packager saved money on hiring writers, the product was, the say the least, substandard, and a merciful providence dictated that there should be a trademark/copyright conflict about the title, and the whole project was more or less withdrawn from the market. Yet, copies are still floating around for those with a taste for such things and money to waste.
Steve Charney
Post #3495 – 20130803
August 3, 2013
Long time no hear. Glad to see you're still alive and kicking. All's well here. Best to Jill.
Daniel replies:
Steve Charney! The last great radio ventriloquist! I still remember many of your wonderful routines. Like the one in which your dummy, (sorry, wooden American), Harry, fell in love with your tennis racquet. You have been an inspiration, in that you are a superior artist, even more under-appreciated than me.
