Heck in Denver

Hmmm…to stay in my cozy hotel room or brave the rain and cold to give a book reading?

Food for Thought

Wordstock—Portland’s premiere literary event—hits town next weekend, and they’ve created these fun, food-themed videos. Give ‘em a look and I hope to see you next Sunday at Wordstock!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkkwrWJ_aSA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy4MQsW7HOw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xWwTOmTV3k&feature=related

The Devil Went Down to Texas

This just in from perhaps Heck’s biggest fan, Dawn Cline: teacher and librarian at Timberwood Middle School.

“Timberwood Middle School is in Humble, Texas (oxymoron!). It’s named after Humble Oil, which is now Exxon. We’re about 30 miles northeast of Houston. We’re still picking pine needles out of our back sides due to Hurricane Ike. The students pictured are sixth and eighth graders. The eighth graders are some of my amazing student assistants.”

This makes it official: Timberwood Middle School is most DEFINITELY near the top of my list of favorite Texas children’s learning institutions northeast of Houston!
Congratulations! I am, however, rather jealous of the poster. I didn’t even get a Heck poster! Man…

Smiles and Tribune-lations!

Journalist Eric Bartels and I had a nice chat last week that is now featured in the Portland Tribune. In this age of sound bites, pithy slogans, and excerpts, it’s refreshing to be posed meaningful questions and have the space to jabber on about things I care about! Read all about it…or me…whatever!

A Dweeb Kicked Thresh Hog!

…is an anagram for Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go. Why do I make anagrams of my book’s title? The question may be “why,” but the answer is “Whyville.”

Whyville is a virtual world for teens and pre-teens, and they have a contest going where virtual people attempt to solve anagrams based on Heck. The prize? “Clams, face parts, and projectiles.” Seriously. Apparently they are a hot commodity in Whyville. Who? You! What? A contest! When? Now! Where? Whyville!

Heck on TV!

I was apparently on KATU’s AM Northwest Show a couple of weeks ago. I say/write “apparently” because it was really early in the morning and I barely remember the actual experience, though it certainly appears as if I had fun.

Hosts Helen Raptis and Dave Anderson made me feel very much at home, or as at home as you can feel on a set made to look like a living room, surrounded by bright lights and cameras. And no need to adjust your monitor: I was wearing my Official Heck Outfit, scientifically designed to look as if I were engulfed in flame.

WATCH IT HERE!

Heck on TV

The Oregonian reviews Heck

The Oregonian, in their August 10th edition, reviewed Heck, saying that it is “chock-full of clever references and plays on words that may be lost on younger readers.” I, however, have faith in you, dear readers! The Oregonian also cautions that the book contains “a fair dose of potty humor” (versus an unfair dose, use only as directed, if symptoms persist please contact the nearest potty-atrician immediately). To read the whole review, go here:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/books/2008/08/young_adult_fiction_review_hec.html

Actually, you don’t have to “go” to it so much as simply “click” on the link. But you’ve probably already stopped reading…right?

If you were sent to Heck, which Circle would you be sentenced to?

Well, if I were sent to Heck, it would have to be the Circle of Heck reserved for really, really old boys. I would be the victim of one doozy of an administrative error…the likes of which hasn’t been seen since…the last doozy of an administrative error.

As a kid, however, I would have—more than likely—visited all of the Circles of Heck at one time or another. That’s probably true with most of us. If pinned down to pick just one, I would first ask you to stop pinning me down because it is very uncomfortable and I have a trick back that occasionally goes out…where it goes I don’t really know.

Perhaps I (not my back) would have gone to Snivel, the Circle of Heck reserved for whiny, cynical kids, the kind that not only think that their glasses are half empty, but that someone will come along at any moment and take that glass away from them.

Or Lipptor—which sounds like some prescription medicine your grandpa might take for his cholesterol, but is in reality the Circle of Heck for kids who sass back, who use words as weapons.

OK, in retrospect, you should have kept me pinned down because I keep squirming around on the floor of your question, but perhaps also Fibble, the Circle of Heck for kids who lie, since I have worked in the advertising industry, taking to the art of artifice far too readily.  

Even Wall Street Digs Heck!

Meghan Cox Gurdon of the Wall Street Journal – that bastion of all things
“kid” – had swell things to say about Heck in this weekend’s edition. Thanks
Meghan! No netherworld detention for you, unless you dog-eared the pages of
the book rather than used a bookmark – that really bugs me.

Read the review here: Wall Street Journal Review

What, exactly, is HECK?

I’m so glad you asked!

Heck is, in a nutshell, middle school: only a fantastical, ridiculous one populated by nasty demons and dead, cranky historical figures. For me, the middle school years were a terrible, terrible time.

You’re not treated like an adorable little kid anymore who can get away with anything with a shrug and a mischievous smile. And you’re not given the respect, responsibility, and – perhaps most importantly – the credit card and car keys of a young adult.

You’re just stuck in this maddening in between place that feels like eternity, where everything is happening both too fast and too slow. Plus, you’re trapped inside an increasingly unrecognizable body that is constantly freaking you out and under constant assault by perspective-shattering hormones.

Now back to The Explanation of the Concept of Heck, already in progress:

Basically (Dale E. Basically), I had been reading Dante’s Inferno (a really cool, really old, and really hard to follow book) and perhaps listening to Pat Benatar’s seminal ”Hell is For Children” (a really cool, really old, and really hard to follow song). I don’t know, whatever the exact circumstances were, somehow the notion of a Hell “Lite” just for children occurred to me, and I just knew it had to be called Heck, a place where the pre-adult souls of the darned toil for all eternity, or until they turn 18, whichever comes first.