No More Dead Dogs

Relax, it's a book title.

One of my bookworms brought home a book that made me wonder if I needed to start monitoring the reading lists a little more closely. The cover alone was enough to raise an eyebrow and the synopsis I was given was "like, there's this guy that always tells the truth but it gets him in trouble so he hangs out with the drama club and changes everything. And the teacher writes memos."

Isn't that enough to pique your curiosity?

So I was up way to late last night reading "No More Dead Dogs" by Gordon Korman. I didn't mean to - it was late and I needed sleep and I thought "I'll just glance through it."

Famous last words.

"I knew Old Shep was going to die before I started page one," I said.

"Don't be ridiculous," snapped Mr. Fogelman. "How?"

I shrugged. "Because the dog always dies. Go to the library and pick out a book with an award sticker and a dog on the cover. Trust me, that dog is going down."

What a great read! It was completely worth the dark circles under the eyes this morning. I'm only surprised that there's no award sticker on the front of this book (SPOILER ALERT!) 'cause the dog doesn't make it...but you'll have to read it to figure out why that's okay. It's actually even quite funny.


(You can click on the cover to see more reviews, etc at Amazon if you're curious now too.)

A fantasy of a book tour

Last night, my kids and I attended the local Motiv8 Fantasy Fiction West Coast Tour in our area. Wow!

Now I have to say, as a writer, book signings are often a mixed bag when it comes to interest, excitement, store support, community turn out, etc. Some are really fun, some are really dreadful. Sometimes even the authors go to great lengths to avoid them. I have one colleague that says "You're not a real writer until you sat and been ignored by the public."

But this group did everything right.


Evangel Family Bookstore hosted the event and decorated the hallway of the mall with pillars, an antique podium, pillar candles (with those little battery-operated tealights inside so the mall was happy) and a chained-off circle of velvet-covered table. Each of the 8 authors was dressed in a medieval/Renaissance costume and each of them carried a sword with a cross embossed on the handle (apparently the mall wasn't happy about the swords but they were a HUGE hit).

The authors included Wayne Thomas Batson, Bryan Davis, Eric Reinhold, Sharon Hinck, Donita K. Paul, Christopher Hopper, LB Graham and Jonathan Rogers. Turn out was great and the authors kept the crowds fascinated until well after the lights went out in the mall. (In fairness, the mall stayed open an hour late to accommodate the event but apparently they forgot to tell the timer on the lights.) Along with the signing "circle", there were the usual short readings and then, a sword fight! Christopher Hopper and Wayne Thomas Batson did a fantastic job entertaining the crowd with their funny sword antics and Jonathan Rogers brought a scene from one of his books vividly to life - almost too vividly since it involved eel slime and mashed garlic...


Authors stood for photos, signed autographs for fans young and old, and some even knighted their readers. (I'm not sure I'm going to call my son "Sir" though.) My family has 8 treasured autographs (several of each, actually) and we have a new stack of books to read and we're anticipating some great adventure!

This group is going to be in 8 cities over 8 days on the West Coast of the US so if you want to know if they're in your area or to find out more about the authors and their books, visit www.fantasyfictiontour.com. I highly recommend it.