As much as I enjoy writing the Spy School series, the Belly Up series has been a lot more fun to research.  Being an author has opened some doors and allowed me some experiences lately that have been truly wonderful.  I thought that my recent experience getting to meet a rhino at the San Diego Zoo would be tough to top.  And then this happened:

Despite the fact that I have been writing about all sorts of other fascinating animals in my books, elephants have always been the animals that I loved the most.  They are intelligent and emotional and amazing.  I had always hoped to have the chance to interact with them like this, but never got the opportunity until this week.  This is not at a zoo, but at a private facility.  Both these elephants have been rescued from other facilities where they were not being properly cared for.  In addition to having all my research questions answered, I was allowed to spend three hours with the elephants, feeding them, petting them, and occasionally just relaxing with them.

Now if I can only talk NASA into letting me go up on a rocket as research for Space Case…

I will fully admit that I started writing middle grade fiction, in part, so that I would be cool to my children.

Now, in the pantheon of cool jobs, ‘middle grade fiction author’ is still well below ‘astronaut,’ ‘fireman’ and ‘quarterback,’ but still, it was the best I could do.

And for quite some time, I don’t think my kids necessarily regarded the job as being cool at all.

But that has now changed.

As you may recall from the last post, I finally had the joy of reading one of my own books to my son (who is now old enough for them).  He requested Spy School first, and the good news is that he really, really liked it.

Still, this wasn’t what made me cool.

That happened after we finished it.  My son then expressed regret that he’d have to wait until the sequel came out to read that one.

“Actually,” I said, “You’re the one kid in the entire world who doesn’t have to wait for the sequel to come out to read it.”

I happened to have a copy of the sequel right there.  I’d been planning on proof-reading it.

And so, I’m now reading it to my son.  (And proof-reading as we go.)

My son is enjoying this one too, and getting a great amount of joy that he’s the first kid in the world to read it.  (Although he keeps giving me notes.)

This, to him, is cool.

And frankly, the whole experience is awfully cool to me as well.

Now I just have to keep him away from kids whose fathers are quarterbacks.

In posting the following list, I do not mean to indicate in any way that Belly Up is actually better than any of the other works.  Only that, according to the reviewers on Goodreads, it is:

Belly Up: 4.05 avg rating

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare: 4.00 avg rating

Romeo & Juliet, same author: 3.73

A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens: 3.64

The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway: 3.78

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen: 4.02

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck: 3.71

Slaughter-House Five, Kurt Vonnegut: 3.88

The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne: 3.27

So, the next time your teacher catches you reading Belly Up instead of the book you’re supposed to be reading for class, just let your teacher know that Belly Up is considered a better piece of fiction by the masses.

I’m sure that will go over well.

So I read at the West Hollywood Book Fair this Sunday and while the fair was lovely — and much larger than I’d expected — it was also one of the hottest days ever in Los Angeles (only beat out by Monday’s 113 degrees).  That’s not the wonderful part.

This was the first time I’ve ever read at an event like this and there was one unexpected result.

It was the first time my children have ever heard me read Belly Up.

This might seem odd, but my kids are still young.  I’ve been trying to get Dash onto chapter books for a while now, though he’s still needed plenty of pictures to hold his attention.  (‘Winnie the Pooh’: Not quite enough pictures.  Shel Silverstein’s ‘Lafcadio’: Close.  Dav Pilkey’s ‘Captain Underpants’ series: Perfect.)

So I hadn’t read my own book to them.  But after I read my passage (the part where Teddy goes to meet Summer at World of Reptiles and trouble ensues) Dash was excited to hear more.  The moment we got home, he went to his room to get his copy of the book and asked me to read it to him.  He really wanted to hear how the hippo got murdered.

Now, there’s NO pictures in Belly Up, except for the gorgeous chapter headings.  I had to explain to Dash that these were merely decorative — and that a chapter with a lion heading didn’t necessarily mean it was about a lion.

I don’t think Dash is quite old enough for this book yet, so I’m reading parts I think he’ll like.  After the first few pages, he told me, “I can picture everything you’re reading in my mind.”

“That’s what reading is all about,” I told him.

I’ve wanted to write a book since I was around Dashiell’s age, but I don’t think it ever occurred to me that one day, I might be reading a book I wrote to my own son.  Or that it might be the first non-picture chapter book he ever listened to.

It’s incredible.  Wonderful Wonderful Wonderful.

In my very first post, I mentioned the fact that I have a good friend who is an astronaut.  There are a great many perks to having a good friend who is an astronaut.  (Though not quite as many perks as there are to being an astronaut.)  Among them:  Occasionally, they are willing to take stuff of yours into space.  For example, the cover of the galley of Belly Up.  (The actual book cover wasn’t ready in time for the launch.):

This was taken in the cupola of the International Space Station.  That big blue thing in the background is our planet.  (In fact, if you look really closely, you can probably see your house in this photo.)

And, just so you don’t think I’m the kind of Dad who carelessly sends his book cover into space and doesn’t think about his kids (or his niece)… Here’s my family… IN SPACE!!!

Awesome, isn’t it?

Wow.  What a week.

Launch #1: This website.

But of course, you knew that.  You probably read the front page article in the New York Times.  Or saw the special Collector’s Editions of People and Entertainment Weekly.  Or watched the five hours of simulcast live coverage on MTV, VH1, Disney XD, Nickelodeon, C-SPAN, E! and PBS.   So I don’t have to go on about it.

Launch #2:  Space Shuttle Atlantis

Thanks to my pal, astronaut Garrett Reisman, I and my family had VIP seats to the launch of space shuttle Atlantis in Florida last Friday.  What an incredible thing.  An amazing, unbelievable event.

There’s only two more shuttle launches after this and then… that’s it.  End of an era.  So if you are in any way able to get to Florida to see one, GO!  (Plus, I’d advise everyone to watch NASA TV this week to see Garrett’s spacewalks.)

Here’s a picture I took from my seat (which was as close as you could get):

Launch #3:  Belly Up.

My book came out yesterday.

I would have written this yesterday, but I was on a plane back from Florida.  And, to my surprise, although the official launch date was yesterday, the book actually showed up in bookstores over the weekend.  This was a surprise to me.  And thus, the first time I ever saw my book in a store was in a random Barnes & Noble in suburban Orlando.

Now, seeing your own book on the shelves of a store… That was just as awesome as seeing a space shuttle launch to me.   A very nice employee named Cory walked me through my first impromptu in-store signing.  So if anyone happens to be near the Plaza Venezia Barnes & Noble on Sand Lake Road relatively close to DisneyWorld… you can acquire one of the first signed copies of Belly Up there!

While I’m at it, I’d like to thank Barnes & Noble for their exceptionally fine placement of my book – in tandem with Carl Hiaasen’s new YA novel, which is an honor, as Hiaasen has been one of my favorite authors since I was a teenager.  (Cory was very impressed by this; in Florida, Carl Hiaasen is publishing royalty.)

If you don’t have your copy of Belly Up yet, call your local bookstore to see if they have it.  If they do… go get it.  And it they don’t… ask them why not.

Happy reading!

Stuart