Dear Daniel Pinkwater,
How do you make such smart ideas? Your stories are so, funny. The Hoboken Chicken Emergency is so smart! I like the name Bobowicz. How do you do that? I hope you write more books, Please don’t stop.
It is not that my ideas are smart--just that some ideas (other people's, not mine) are not-smart.
Dear Daniel Pinkwatear,
Your books are the best. How do you think about the characters and great ideas like in the Hoboken Chicken Emergency. You wrote so many books and still all of your are great.
I look at actual people, and the things they do, and then I mess with those things.
Dear Daniel Pinkwater,
How and where do you get your humor? If you can tell me, please tell me? I think the Franken Bagel was a very good one because there is all these funny types of bagels, but my favorite was the Hoboken Chicken Emergency(I wonder if you remember Franken Bagel?)!
I get humor from what real people do--it's funny. Of course I remember Frankenbagel...I wrote it!
I saw “The Neddiad” on a shelf today, and remembered that I had heard of, if not read, your work at least fifteen years ago, when I was in some sort of school or another. I read your Chicago hot dog story just now. Not only have I been up and down Route 9 a lot since moving to Poughkeepsie (haven’t seen Herschel’s though), I used to work at a place in Rhode Island called Spike’s Junkyard Dogs, whose signature hot dog sounds a lot like a mutation of the classic Chicago hot dog. It’s got their special mustard, tomatoes, a pickle, hot peppers and scallions, so it’s missing a few things, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the owner modeled it after a Chicago hot dog. Anyhow, The Neddiad looks good, I’ll read it sooner or later, but I wanted to share thigs.
Scallions???? Sacrilege.
Dear Mr. Pinkwater,
Reading The Yggyssey, the first hardcover edition, I noticed a few instances of last minute corrections in the text, judging from the typesetting. Now I think that there may be more corrections in the paperback edition, and my question is: should I buy the paperback, too, to have the final, corrected version?
I liked the book, of course, as I have liked every one of your books I have read. There is something in your writings that reminds me of R.A. Lafferty. Do you like Lafferty’s books?
Best regards,
R.J. Laaksonen
Many years ago--you will know how many when I mention typewriter and carbon paper--I was looking at television, and saw an interview with Rex Stout. Stout said he enjoyed writing but hated to rewrite, so he wrote slowly and carefully, and never revised. ""That is for me!"" I said. I bought lots of ""carbon sets,"" single-use carbon paper packed with sheets of thin paper attached, and wrote all my good novels of the 1970s slowly, being careful not to make mistakes, with four carbons--and except for ignorant misspellings and misplaced punctuation, and a very few typos, what I typed is what is in the printed book. Today, I write more or less the same way--but the advent of the word processor allows one to think on the screen, try things out and see how they look, and this gives rise to other kinds of errors, (see the comments following chapters of the serialized Adventures of a Cat-Whiskered Girl, on this website). I will not speak of errors and corrections made by the publisher and printer after the manuscript has left my hands. No book is perfect, especially mine, and this does not cause me any concern. If you are concerned, you can buy the paperback, and even search for copies of the bound uncorrected proofs that publishers send out to reviewers, and compare them to the raw text we post as serial chapters here before publication. Then you will know all. I have no idea why you would want to, but God bless you. I do not know the work of R.A. Lafferty.
I’ve been a huge fan of “The Big Orange Splot” for years. Even have one adorn my 5th grade classroom. This project by a California photographer got me thinking of you. She has been capturing images of houses built in Santa Clara in the 1950s. Originally designed to look identical, in the ensuing 50 years Mr. Plumbean’s message to make your house look like all your dreams has been acted upon.
juliabaum.com/artwork/949914.html
All the best.
Does anyone else find a lot of those houses kind of scary?
I offer my condolences regarding Lulu. I had a chihuahua who got under my skin–he survived being snatched up by an owl (he was mistaken for a rabbit) and a confrontation with a large buck. He fought two other dogs to win the affection of his lady. And he sang in obscene German when I played the harmonica. Yes, dogs rule.
Were the songs anything like:
""Ungl
My Four-year-old son, Elie, told me today: “Mr Plumbean’s body is shaped like a plum and his face is shaped like a bean.”
Hm. I never noticed that. A lot of art is unconscious.
I don’t read kids books much since I spend more time getting through college. I have to say that every once in awhile it is quite refreshing to hear them though. Your book as aired on Reading Rainbow ‘The Tooth Gnasher Superflash’ was one of my most remembered and enjoyed stories from my youth. Maybe you will put that up on your site too?
I see no reason not to.
It is happening again! I am reading, “Lizard Music” to the class and first there is a girl in the room named “Liz”, then last Saturday Turner Classic Movies has that movie about a giant lizard from Venus, and today lizards on our weekly program, “Newsdepth”….
RS
But no actual lizards turning up in unexpected places yet? Let us know when that happens.
hi my name is Abba-Natan, (but everybody calls me Abie) I am 18 years old and i just wanted to say that i grew-up reading your books. (ok, thats not true most of the time my mother read them to me) my all time favoret was your “Hotel Lary” series. some day when i have children of my own i will read your books to them. i look forward to that day. be well and keep writing.
Thanks to you, and your mother!
I just finished reading The Neddiad out loud to my 7-year old son and 10-year old daughter. The book was selected by my daughter’s junior girl scout troop for their book cub. The 18 girls in the troop will be meeting this Friday to discuss the book and their impressions of it. We loved the book and have just started reading The Ygyssey.
I somehow stumbled upon your books in a strange fashion. I heard about them by reading a review of one of Kevin Brockmeier’s children’s books on Amazon.com. I read his books Grooves and City of Names out loud to my children. Grooves is still in print but I had to order a used copy of City of Names because it is out of print. I was curious if you have read these books and have an impression of them. Kevin Brockmeier is well-know because of his adult book A Brief History of the Dead, but I’m not sure if his children’s books are as well know. My children and I thought that his children’s books were very entertaining and might be worth mentioning on your radio program.
We’ll let you know our impressions of the Ygyssey and hope to read The Adventures of the Cat Whiskered Girls on-line and in print form when it is published.
Thanks for the fun time you’ve given me with my kids.
Everyone stumbles on my books in a strange fashion. I didn't plan it this way, but I like it. I don't know the work of Kevin Brockmeier -- I'll be on the lookout. I'm glad you're enjoying my stuff.
I am so sad that, after stating so clearly why you hate Walt Disney, you would be enthusiastic about Inga Moore’s bowdlerized version of “Wind in the Willows”. Yes, the illustrations are magnificent, but when she claims to have “abridged” the book, what she has actually done is ripped out it’s heart.
Do I exaggerate? Well, find a copy of the Michael Hague illustrated “Wind in the Willows” and look at the chapter entitled “Piper at the Gates of Dawn.” You will find the most beautiful picture of baby otter asleep at the feet of Great Pan, the god of the animals. Read ANY version for a beautiful description of religious awe in the great god’s presence, (even if not illustrated) then try to find that chapter in Inga Moore’s version.
This was not an “abridgment” but a very deliberate censorship. Young minds must not be made aware of the pagan gods at all costs! I pity the children who grow up with this version as much as those who only knew the Disney version. Shame.
I always suspect/blame the publisher in cases like this--and the illustrations are so good! Also I doubt it was deliberate censorship--you may give them too much credit. More likely there were considerations of length, readability, fear of losing the attention of readers, or simply not understanding the passage. This sort of thing happens all the time. At least this publisher, unlike Disney, does not make a specialty of watering down literature. You are right to point out the omission, and I am right to point out the work of a gifted illustrator.
I am a youth services librarian who loves the Irving and Muktuk books. I am doing an ice cream making program for 40 children and will be reading Ice Cream Larry to the children before the program. If you will be on Long Island on October 13 and would like to make some ice cream, we would love for you to come.
I used to be on Long Island, and in Huntington even! Why didn't you ask me then? Now I am here, and will be here on October 13th. I would love to come and make ice cream...but I can't. Eat some for me!
I read your books the Yggyssey and the Neddiad in one day over the summer. Now that school has started I need to do an “Author Talk” and I picked you as my author. I am having fun getting to know you better!
My question is how do you pronounce the “Yggyssey” and “Neddiad.” I want to make sure I say it right in my author talk.
PS. Is there anything special you want me to say about you in my author talk? I am in sixth grade. I like that the whale from Moby Dick is one of your favorite characters. I like Whales, too.
Lauren
Hi, Lauren!
""ig-ah-see"" and ""ned-ee-yad"" Here is something you might want to include in your author talk: Writing is not hard. The whole trick is learning to write a good sentence. (What is a good sentence? I don't know, but I know one when I see one.) Once you get so you can write a good sentence, you can write paragraphs, whole pages, or a whole book, because those things are made up of sentences. That is all there is to it. You don't have to be smart or anything....look at me. I notice that your email is made up of good sentences, so you can be a writer if you feel like it.
Daniel
