Mandabach--OR NOT

I need help finding books for Alternative School!

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:49:47 GMT

I'm hoping to get a whole bunch of books ordered for the library at my new school, and I'm looking for recommendations.

We have a very diverse group here, from voracious readers to reluctant ones, and they like everything from Orson Scott Card to Ellen Hopkins to Kerouac.

But we're alternative, so I'm thinking that the usual high school setting as it appears in the young adult novel won't appeal very much.

Or I'm thinking that they typical suburban issues won't appeal very much.

At the very least, I'm looking for stuff that's close to the edge, but maybe I'm wrong in my assumptions. Maybe our students will dig into any good read—regardless of my prejudices.

N E waze--- please comment!!

I really want your list of top titles for the 15-19-year-old set.

Random notes on my work in progress: CONTACT HIGH

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:13:38 GMT

I’m nearing the end of break time. I finished the latest draft of my work in progress 13 days ago, and am going back to work on the next round of revisions on Monday.

Until things are almost finished, I can’t tell anyone anything about what I’m writing. But now, I’m excited and feel compelled to share a little:

>At this point, the novel is called CONTACT HIGH.
>It takes place in the late 1970’s.
>There are no cell phones (or even cordless ones.)
>There is a lot of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin and the Stones. **
>It’s the story of one year, four friends, two couples, best friends, complications, breaking into an abandoned round barn, breaking up, breaking walls that maybe stood for a reason (of which the heart knows nothing), getting back together, driving to Wisconsin, a 1971 Duster, a motel, a bonfire, a beach fire, breaking up again, camping, Special Export, German Wine, rain, strip poker, stomach flu, stories, cigarettes & other combustibles, a redhead, the police, swimming, a basement, another basement, a pizza joint, a lake, a canoe, a field party, another lake, long hair, THE SOUND AND THE FURY, THE SUN ALSO RISES, blankets under the oak trees, blankets on the hay, sleeping bags, mosquitoes, OFF!

** I hate Journey and Foreigner and REO, and so do my heroes! {but not thier girlfriends, and like my heroes, I also adore some people who enjoy these horrid bands–my wife and Kylie C. among others.}

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

READING AND BOOK SIGNING @ BARNES & NIZZELOBLES

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:56:30 GMT

I STILL AM GETTING TO BED CLOSER TO 3 AM THAN MIDNIGHT, but I am relaxing a little, now.

Despite plumbing projects. More on that later.

My first catch-up blog is about my Barnes & Noble reading on June 7.

The event started with a writing club mini-reunion. Taylor, Jack, Brandon, & Li-Mae and I had lunch and I read bits from my work in progress, CONTACT HIGH, and they helped me choose one to read that day.

The reading was super fun. I brought my new portable turntable and started with Cassie’s fav form Zeppelin I, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.” Then I read from OR NOT as well as a tiny bit of CONTACT HIGH.

I had great questions, including one about who had inspired Cassie and have I actually ever had someone that amazing as a student. No one in particular and lots of people. Some of my former students in the room are easily as amazing, gifted, insightful as my beloved Cass.

As I signed books, I played my Nirvana, LIVE IN NEW YORK record, and knew I was doing the right thing when management asked me to turn it down.

Overall, I love, love, love the energy I get from these things and am so thankful to have people who will come out and support me. Always a little sad when it’s over, because I’d like to spend more time with people than I get to. But, you know me–I love being the center of attention, and I love you people who come to see me. Lot of love in this paragraph! Sorry for gushing, but that’s how I feel, and I’m grateful and want to express it.

Here’s a few pics taken by Liberty Grad, writer, and all around awesome-woman, Marty:

Also in attendance were:
Lee, Andy, Niles, Brandy, Kyle, Anna, Caltera, Chy and her two cool friends in the picture where V. is hiding, Kelsey, Kaley, Brittany Lana, Emily, Mary, Becky, Leah, Michaela, two old CC people and their wonderful daughter, Druzzie Dru and friend and sister, Dennis, and that lady just outside the cafe who was working on legal pads and laptop who kept scowling at me for having a reading in what she seemed to think of as her own private Idaho–love you, too, lady!</p>

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

finally done with latest revisions and ready to blog about old stuff like my barnes and noble readin

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:15:43 GMT

I STILL AM GETTING TO BED CLOSER TO 3 AM THAN MIDNIGHT, but I am relaxing a little, now.

Despite plumbing projects. More on that later.

My first catch-up blog is about my Barnes & Noble reading on June 7.

As I signed books, I played my Nirvana, LIVE IN NEW YORK record, and knew I was doing the right thing when management asked me to turn it down.

Here’s a few pics taken by Liberty Grad, writer, and all around awesome-woman, Marty:

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

READING AND BOOK SIGNING @ BARNES & NIZZELOBLES

Thu, 29 May 2008 13:09:11 GMT

Hope to see you there!

Barnes & Noble Booksellers,

1565 Briargate (across from Chapel Hills Mall

Saturday, June 7, 2 p.m.
call 266-9960

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

u like youtube better? a book trailer for Mandabach’s OR NOT

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:33:05 GMT

I love my myspace, but here’s Meredith’s OR NOT preview on youtube. Share if you like.

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

A video trailer for OR NOT

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 05:19:29 GMT

My dear family friend, high school senior and all around superteen, Meredith, made this video for me ages ago, but I only just figured out how to upload it.

Mandabach’s OR NOT: a book trailer

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

NObody expects the SPANISH INQUISITION!! Contest, interview, etc.

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:04:13 GMT

ONE of my very favorite Monty

Python sketches is

The Spanish Inquisition:

But first, here’s a link to Niles’ full interview of

yours truly. This was the basis of his article in the

Doherty High School paper, (which I got some

nice comments about that rightfully belong to

him.) Be a friend and comment his blog, and

read the interview–I go a little long sometimes,

but there are some interesting questions and

at least one embarrassing answer that has to do

with Monty Python.

And here’s the contest:

What four items are among the chief weaponry

of the Spanish Inquisition? (Not including nice

red uniforms, the soft cushions, the comfy

chair, and the rack.)

Email your answer to

bmandabach @ msn dot com, and one person

who answers correctly receives a free book.

Peace, Love, & Vinyl,

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

And the winner is . . .

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:37:13 GMT

Anna!!

At first she was confused by my previous blog

that showed my sharpie drawing, but Anna has

won a copy of Or Not, and I couldn’t be more

pleased. She was a loyal fan of the book when it

first appeared, bit by bit, on my myspace blog.

She also left lots of comments, which I love.

Thanks forever for all of your support, Anna!

By the way, the ink is as permanent as my arm and its epidermis, and the design is by J.R.R. Tolkien. Not so original on my part, but my love for the professor and his work has lasted over thirty years without diminishment. My daughter and I are reading LOTR for the third time, and are at the point where Frodo has just taken off the ring (at Gandalf’s long distance urging, and against Sauron’s long distance urging) on the seat of Ammon Hen.

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

Ink, Contest

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:33:57 GMT

Permanent or permanent marker?

and, what does it signify? If you can answer both questions, I’ll enter you in a drawing for a free book. Send your answer in an email to bmandabach at msn dot com. There are clues in an earlier blog on my myspace, if you feel like doing some research.

(no comments that give away the symbol, please:)

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

Sympathy, American History, We Wear the Mask

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:10:45 GMT

One extra day of Black History Month this year, so I’ll close it out with some thoughts and some poems:

Today’s BHM trivia contest question at school pissed me off:
“Who killed Martin Luther King?”
Yes, knowing this person’s name is knowing some history. But how many other, better things are there to know?

Forget his name, never speak it again, let it rot like his soul was rotten. Let’s not sing the names of murderers. Let’s close our fists around their syllables and plunge our hands deep in the mud and drown them.

And let’s lift up the poems on our voices, because it’s only one month until National Poetry Month! (formatting is funky–always is when I cut and paste from poets.org)
by Paul Laurence Dunbar:

Sympathy

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!

When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;

When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,

And the river flows like a stream of glass;

When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,

And the faint perfume from its chalice steals–

I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats its wing

Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;

For he must fly back to his perch and cling

When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;

And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars

And they pulse again with a keener sting–

I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,

When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,–

When he beats his bars and he would be free;

It is not a carol of joy or glee,

But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,

But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings–

I know why the caged bird sings!

American History
by Michael S. Harper

Those four black girls blown up in that Alabama church remind me of five hundred middle passage blacks, in a net, under water in Charleston harbor so redcoats wouldn’t find them. Can’t find what you can’t see can you?

We Wear the Mask
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,– This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be overwise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask!

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:03:51 GMT

Saturday night I finished this amazing book by Peter Cameron. It’s one of those stories that summaries fail, so I won’t even try. This review does pretty well, Brian Farrey’s review on Dispatches from an MFA-Seeking Writer, but it seems to me that this story is so well-told that telling what it’s about doesn’t say much about the book at all.

Furthermore, even though I’ve given you that link, I’ll say that I think it’s better to read Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You without knowing anything that’s going to happen. Not that what you read in a review will spoil it, it’s just that my preference is always to avoid knowing too much about a book before I read. I want to be open to the most subtle bit of surprise. I want the story to reveal itself. I want to guess and predict. I want to let the writing tell the story.

And this one is the kind of book that you can read the first page and know you want to keep reading.

What I will say here is that the book is hilarious and smart. Protagonist/narrator James slays me with his observations and Cameron just kills me with his dialog. James is a kid (18 years old, in the summer before college) with some serious issues, but despite how impossible he is, I believed that he was either right on or I sympathized completely despite the fact that I knew he was fucking up.

And the way Cameron begins with such a strong, endearing voice and “gotta read this passage aloud to your friend” humor, then gradually reveals the story with precision and restraint . . . What can I say?

I wish I could write like this!

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

What is Young Adult? What’s not? Why? And other Questions . . .

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:29:34 GMT

Not long ago I read a really interesting novel, The Tribes of Palos Verdes by Joy Nicholson.

It’s a bildungsroman, story of a girl, her twin brother, water, and fire. (Salon Review of Tribes)

My wife, Lee, who doesn’t read much YA, picked it up at the library, read it, and passed it my way. It’s just over 200 pages, which is the usual length for realistic YA fiction, and the characters are the right age–so why isn’t it YA?

A while ago I asked FLUX editor Andrew Karre why he though Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep wasn’t YA, and he said it was just because a YA editor hadn’t gotten a hold of it. But I wonder.

I happened to be on a pink-jacketed novel kick (why don’t some guys read some books?) when I read Prep, which was the second in the series, the first being Natasha Friend’s Perfect, which happens to be YA.

A couple points of contrast stand out in my mind more than a year later:

Perfect is 200 pages long.
Prep has a post-adolescent perspective.
Perfect’s cover is almost entirely pink, while Prep’s just has a little pink in it.

Now, I know that not all YA is under 300 pages, but it seems like most of it is. And don’t you wish that more of it was longer? Are teens, if they aren’t looking for fantasy or sci fi, scared of thick books? Or do adults just think they are?

And have not some agents, editors, and reviewers come to expect a certain length and formula from YA? I don’t read nearly as much as they do, and I know most are looking for something that stands out as different, but it seems to me that a lot of the YA I read gets going and wraps up at much the same pace.

Back to Prep: it was a bit too long, maybe, and could have used some cutting, but the pacing of the book develops–as I remember it–with more immersion detail and complexity than Perfect. I’m loathe to criticize my peers–and Friend is probably a better and certainly a more successful writer than I–but Perfect left me wanting more.

Not because of the ambiguous ending. I had a fabulous discussion with a couple of my students about it, and we all appreciated how the end allowed us to imagine a future for the characters that is suggested rather than spelled out.

I wanted more because, though Friend brilliantly made me understand bulimia for the first time. (In a purely physical level her writing took me right there so I almost feel as if I have gorged myself sick and then released it all back again. I almost feel like I want to.) I just wanted more of the characters, their relationships, their lives, and all I got was 200 pages.

After all that about length, I still think that it’s probably not a central issue here. Fantasy YA gives intricate detail, and tends to take its time–even if the time rushes by in fast-paced action–and gives us the characters’ whole world.

Rather than quantity, I think that the what makes a book YA or adult is a qualitative difference. In Prep, a huge factor is the perspective of looking back on those teen years as opposed to being in them. This completely changes the voice, and though I don’t think that makes it any less attractive for teens, I think it makes it a lot more palatable for adults.

At the same time, I think this perspective gives YA it’s authenticity. As the FLUX motto says, “YA is a point of view.” It’s being a teenager, not trying to make sense of it from the dotage of your 20’s or 3o’s. The best writers of YA, then, must possess a gift of imagination (or else they exist in a state of arrested development).

In Palos Verdes there’s also a qualitative difference–something present in the voice, something very spare that says adult. Maybe it’s something not present in the voice, as well–the absence of a certain preciousness that too often finds its way into novels that we adults write for teens. I know there are plenty of YA novels that don’t have the preciousness; my point is that the clean, spare prose and the cool, distanced voice makes Palos Verdes something that’s marketable as a story for grown-ups. And, if such books get into the hands of the not-quite-grown-up, I think they will often appeal.

I asked Lee why she thought Palos Verdes isn’t YA, and she said that the Medina (the protagonist) isn’t exactly a great role model. (Andrew is screaming, now, if he’s reading this!

C’mon! How many girls are there out there who are going to get themselves and their brothers nice, if slightly used, surfboards by lifting up their shirts in the pool house? Really clever girls might even figure out that they could “pay” for a snowboard by showing their stuff in the garage! Lee recognizes that its possible for teenagers to empathize with the protagonist without emulating her, but she–like a lot of adults–are concerned. What about the kids who might see maladaptive behaviors and be attracted to them?

I don’t know. I don’t think that the fabulous Alaska is going to tempt anyone to jump into a car after a night of boozing. Nor do I think that any more kids who have gone and asked Alice over the years have been scared off drugs than have been intrigued by them, regardless of what happened to her. If she really existed. I remember people saying that the whole thing was propaganda. And Alaska got hers, too, didn’t she? Are characters who make bad decisions okay as long as they are punished?

Are characters in YA more likely to be good role models than those in other fiction? Unquestionably. Is this good for kids? Is it good for the literature?

Premise for a distopian teen novel:

In a not so distant place and future, all kid and teen literature (media?) is produced by a shadowy government/~~media conglomerate like Harpercollins~~ corporate collective with the purpose of inculcating future citizens/consumers with appropriate self image and values. Until the kids start writing for themselves!

But we old fogies need not worry. They won’t really be able to write until they are old enough to ~~sell out~~ appreciate the need to guide the hope of our future!

Did I get off topic?

What is an isn’t YA and why?

btw, snopes.com says that Go Ask Alice is not in fact “a real diary”.

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

Quotable Quotes for 500

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 05:14:52 GMT

From Friedrich Nietzsche:

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate

his friends.

Digressions, objections, delight in

mockery & carefree mistrust are signs of

health; everything unconditional belongs

in pathology.

He who fights with monsters might take

care lest he thereby become a monster.

And if you gaze for long into an abyss,

the abyss gazes also into you.

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

I’m talking about Shinola, not shoe polish! (Sheesh! Don’t you know your brass from yo

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:45:55 GMT

shinola!

Shoe polish:

From Wikipedia:

Shinola was immortalized in colloquial English by the phrase You don’t (or He doesn’t) know shit from Shinola which first became widely popular during World War II. The 1979 Carl Reiner film The Jerk includes a memorable demonstration of the phrase, and Thomas Pynchon’s 1973 novel Gravity’s Rainbow includes a lengthy discussion of the phrase.

Aside from being an amusing bit of alliteration, the phrase implies that the subject is stupid or woefully ignorant. Shit and Shinola, while superficially similar in appearance, are entirely distinct in their function; only one is good for polishing shoes, and anyone who fails to distinguish one from the other must be ignorant or of low acuity. Similar expressions include, doesn’t know his ass from his elbow or Sir Henry Wood’s doesn’t know his brass from his woodwind.

Shinola!

NOT shinola: (and not prettiful like the shinola pictures, so DO NOT SCROLL DOWN here if you don’t like being grossed out, because if it’s not shinola, then it’s crapola!!)

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(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

SHINOLA!

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 05:55:24 GMT

From an old song I used to dig from from Todd Rundgren & Utopia,
“Shinola”:

Sung:
I see you’re still in the headlines
You pegged the latest trend again this week
I’m not impressed by the outfit,
Or your revolutionary chic
And here it comes,
I see you forming the words, you’re performing the exercise
And here it comes,
It’s the feeling that I heard the same speech a hundred times:

Screamed:
This is the jabber of a

chimpanzee!!

The motion of your mouth

looks much the same to me!!!

The differentiation might

be hard to see,

But this is crapola!!!

(the political message of the picture, while I don’t
disagree) is incidental to what I’m talking about)

Sung, very melodically, with harmony:

This is shinola–

shinola!!!

Spoken:
Everyone’s talking, few of them know
The rest are pretending, they put on a show
And if there’s a message I guess this is it
Truth isn’t easy, the easy part’s shit:

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

viral

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 06:01:39 GMT

I keep thinking about this, from Publishers Weekly:

Yes, teens spend a lot of time online. But for publishers trying to use that to their advantage, it takes

more than just shifting promotional dollars to

the Web. “Part of the trick to marketing

books to teens online is that the most

effective results seem to come from the

coverage that appears most organic,

viral and uncommercial in

nature,” says Tracy van Straaten, v-p of

trade publicity at Scholastic.

wtf?

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

Book Lists, Recs, Reviews: Teen Book Reviewer and Melissa’s POISED AT THE EDGE

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 06:45:33 GMT

I promised Em that I would post some book recommendations on my blog, but I am sick and lazy, so I will just point out a couple of links:

Teen Book Reviewer missed her goal of reading 365 books last year, but she did read over 300! Here is her myspace, and here’s a link to her 30 favorites of the year.

Melissa has a myspace blog, Poised at the Edge, filled with reviews, interviews, etc. Melissa is a great resource when you’re looking for a good read.

And there’s also the Cybils! Short list of young adult novels coming on 1/7!!

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

Books I Read Last Year–an Incomplete List of My Reading in 2007 of the Common Era

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 01:41:25 GMT

EVERY SO OFTEN I start keeping a list of books that I’ve read. Once I even tried an annotated list. Trouble is, I never manage to stay interested in these lists, and the one I began last January in the foolishness of my new year’s optimism was lost along with my little moleskine notebook.

So, this list will be incomplete, but I’m having fun looking at Lee’s list for titles I also read, going through the bookcases, and remembering other books that have been returned to the library or loaned out. One book leads to another, both in time and in the mind, so I’ve remembered a lot, but not all, of them. Blogging about some–like the Stephen King and the Margaret Atwood–has made them stick in my mind better, which reminds me of Aidan Chambers’ saying: “All writing is memory,” which speaks both to how we write from memory and remember what we’ve written about.

The lists are in no particular order. Books that made a really strong impression on me are in bold, and are followed by a one word description.

Though I just started it, Jess Walter’s The Zero blew me away in the first sentence, paragraph, page, three pages. Shelter, by Beth Cooley, (another Spokanite) also has a strong beginning. Titus Groan is a slow starter, but I can’t wait to really get into it!

Read in 2007

Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep
Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment (Pevear and Volkhonsky, trans.) *tortured
William Faulkner: Sanctuary *whiskeyjar
Stephen King: The Dark Tower VII *hile!
Philip Roth: Everyman *compression
Ian McKewan: On Chesil Beach
Barry Lyga: The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl
Robin Brande: Evolution, Me, & Other Freaks of Nature
Aidan Chambers: This is All: The Pillow Book of Cordia Kenn *fearless
Auralie Sheehan: History Lesson For Girls
Jennifer Bell: High Maintenance
Kevin Brooks: Candy *breakneck
Denis Johnson: Tree of Smoke *truth?
Pamela Des Barres: I’m with the Band *love . . .
John Green: Looking for Alaska *Alaska.
Nick Hornby: How to be Good
Joy Nicholson: The Tribes of Palos Verdes
Jeff Eugenides: Middlesex *epic
Margaret Atwood: Alias Grace
Carrie Jones: Tips on Having a Gay Ex-Boyfriend *real
Alex Richards: Backtalk *snarkvoiced
Erin Hunter: Warriors: Into the Wild (r/a=read aloud)
JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (r/a) *finale
JRR Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings ( r/a) *favoritest
ibid: The Sillmarillion (r/a)
Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little Town on the Prairie (r/a ) *growing up:/
Julie Andrews Edwards: The Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles r/a

I read part of these, but drifted away from them and want to get back– includes short stories & essays:

Anton Checkov: Stories (Pevear and Volkhonsky translation)
Margaret Atwood: Surfacing
Joan Didion: The White Album *true
Peter S. Beagle: The Last Unicorn

Currently Reading:

Beth Cooley: Shelter
Jess Walter: The Zero *amazing
Cynthia Voigt: Dicey’s Song
Mervyn Peake: Titus Groan

Just bought or received:

Jess Walter: The Zero
Peter Cameron: Someday this Pain will be Useful to You
Calvin Peake: Titus Groan
Henry Miller: Tropic of Cancer
Robert Penn Warren: All the Kings Men
Dostoevsk: Notes From Underground
Jonathan Ames: Wake Up, Sir

I’m going to read a lot more this year–starting tonight.

Happy reading and Happy New Year to you!

Love and Peace . . .

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

Brian’s Best Butterbeer Booster–Pyro Style and Other . . .

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 03:30:57 GMT

ONE CHRISTMAS DINNER, many years ago, my father went a little overboard with the brandy–not in the consumption, but in the quantity with which he doused the plum pudding. And so, as he carried the platter into the darkened dining room, while blue flames danced around the tray, they also danced in a little stream onto the floor and left a trail of melted carpet.

I offer this tale as a caution: if you like fire, by all means enjoy the “pyro butterbeer.” But don’t set anything on fire that you don’t want to burn.

More recently, about three years ago, I went googling for a butterbeer recipe to share at my “Lunch at the Three Broomsticks” club at school. I found many ideas, (sorry! can’t remember where:( ) though I couldn’t bring my favorite to school. I did, however, bring all my test-batches to the annual Heiss family New Year’s Eve gathering for testing.

I’m presenting here the top tasting recipe:

BRIAN’S BETTER BUTTERBEER BOOSTER (I think that night we came up with even more b’s, but I disremember now:)

You’ll need:

Good cream soda in large quantities
Mrs. Richardson’s or other good caramel sauce
a few cups of Butterscotch schnapps
pure vanilla extract
butter
a stout sauce-pan
stove
fire
jars, mugs, ice
tasters & helpers

What you do:

Pour a couple of cups of schnapps into the sauce pan and set to heat on medium. How much cooking you do depends on if you want to boil/burn off the alcohol so this mixture is safe for house elves & children. Even if you don’t, it won’t be very stong (unless you’re a house elf). Buttershots is about 15 % alcohol. If you mix the booster with cream soda at 1/10 ratio, this dilutes it to about 1.5 % or less, since some of the alcohol is going to evaporate, and there are other ingredients.
If you want to leave it a little boozy:
- warm up the schnapps, but don’t boil or let it steam.
- Stir in some caramel sauce as it warms–maybe one or two overflowing, dripping tablespoons-full per cup of schnapps.
- pour in a cap-full or so of vanilla
- melt in a little butter–a very little because it hardens when chilled. You may want to leave this out unless you like your butterbeer hot; even then you can dot the top with butter.
- stir it up.
- slide the pan off the heat as soon as the caramel and butter are melted and stirred into the mixture.

If you want it safe for house elves (almost alcohol free)
- Do everything the same, but heat to boiling.
- boil until it the mixture reduces to about 75% of it’s original volume. Since alcohol vaporizes at a lower temp than water, the alcohol should be pretty much gone by now. Give it a sniff or a taste and see what you think.

Pyro Butterbeer! If you like fire:
- Add only the vanilla to the schnapps.
- Heat it until just before boiling.
- sniff it carefully! Smell that alcohol?
- give it a good stir to get the fumes going and set it ablaze. Be careful! Use a long candle/grill lighter if you have one. Don’t let your hair swing over the pot.
- Turn off the light and enjoy the blue glow.
- stir it around, taking care not to burn yourself or set your wooden spoon on fire. The burnt wood flavor is unpleasant. (use a metal spoon:)
- When it goes out, stir it up and light it again. You can keep burning it until it won’t light anymore, or you’re bored.
- Add the rest of the ingredients.
- boil/burn/mix until reduced to 75% of original volume.

When you finish cooking the booster, let it cool.

I like my butterbeer cold:

Pour a little booster into your mug. (try about 1/10 ratio and add more if you like it strong and sweet)
gently add cream soda.
gently stir
put in as much ice as you like–again, gently.
You now have a mug of rich, creamy, sweet, and foamy butterbeer!

If you want to try it warm:

Mix to taste with warmed cream soda and serve with a dot of butter. Don’t boil the soda, or it will loose its fizz entirely.

If you’re of legal/moral age, and you like a little extra cheer:

add some good rum to taste, but watch out because this is very sweet and might give you a headache in the morning!

If you have suggestions for bettering the booster, and thus the butterbeer, please comment!

Finally, enjoy your butterbeer with good friends–muggle or magic! Or alone with your favorite book or movie. And watch those house elves!

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

Too many links: Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist Movie! Contest. And a QUESTION . . .

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:20:59 GMT

Andrew Karre told me, and Sara of Sara’s Holds Shelf told him about this first. But tonight I read about it on Rachel Cohn’s myspace blog: the film adaptation of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist! Sara wondered, but sounds like it’s going to be fantastic. When I brought this book to school last year, my students were practically fighting over it, and they are going to be really psyched about this flick. When I first saw this pic of Rachel and Kat Dennings, I thought Kat looked almost too beautiful to be Norah:

I like this picture because it shows me something else, not exactly Norah-like, but, well, you know, gangsta.

Also check out Andrew Karre’s album and book coupling contest and win yourself a book!

Question: I’m keeping my livejournal, because I can post simultaneously. And I love my myspace like a baby blanket. But should I keep my blogspot, or direct my traffic to my mandabach.com website?

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

Suspense–A Day in the Writer’s Life

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:43:23 GMT

Check out this blog by Rhona Westbrook about a sudden attack of angst, Walmart, revelation, and the comments on suspense. This woman has some good stuff going on!

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

Author of the Month :D Embracing the Child . . .

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 01:36:25 GMT

Here’s another link that I’m excited about–this one to a website that has named me its AUTHOR OF THE MONTH!! The site is called Embracing the Child and the main feature of this honor is an interview.

Here’s an excerpt:

ETC: The voice of Cassie, the main character, rings so true, especially her thoughts and emotions as she makes entries into her journal. How were you able to achieve that authenticity, writing in the voice of a teenage girl?

Mandabach: One of my old friends who just finished the book emailed me saying, “Are you sure you’re NOT a 14-year-old girl?”

I’m pretty sure I’m not, but that’s the exciting thing about writing fiction–going deep into your imagination, bringing everything you know and feel, and living that alternate reality via language as you attempt to communicate it.

So how did I achieve authenticity in the voice of a teenage girl? (check out the whole interview at the link above to find out . . .
Peace, everybody, and talk to me!

<3
M

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

Off the Road again, Or Not. Interview, Review, Barnes & Noble, etc.

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 20:33:11 GMT

FIRST OF ALL, here are links to a couple of new things out there:

My longest and most in depth interview so far: Authorlink Interview
More good ink: South Florida Sun-Sentinal Teenlink Review

NEXT GIG:

My fall micro-tour is over, but I’m doing one more event in town before the close of the year:
- Barnes and Noble @ the Citadel, on Academy Blvd.
  - December 15, Saturday @ 1:30-3:30ish.
I hope to see some of the new friends I met today in Chapman’s creative writing class at Coronado High School. What a great class. You guys really know how to make an author feel good: laugh a lot and at the right places and say, “Read more!” It was also fantastic to see old friends Mr. “Stay Black” Ken, Tiffany, Kara, and Emily. Love you all.

WASHINGTON NOTES:

Spokane was amazing–what a cool city. But it helps to hang out with the best people:

My incredible friend Sam Ligon, author of the great novel Safe in Heaven Dead and editor of Willow Springs

Sam’s wife, Kim, and kids Jane and Paul, who are all brilliant.
His friends, Kelly Chadwick, who introduced me to some fantastic wine, and
poet Renee Rohl, who introduced me to her students at Barker Center.
Other friends, novelist Jess Walter and his wife
Ann, who used to live in my fair city and write for our hometown newspaper The Gazette. (Both she and Jess worked for the Spokane Spokesman-Review until former Gazette editor Stevie Smith came on board and began ~~running~~ ruining it.)

I had a great day visiting with creative writing students at Barker with Renee’s class and also with Jim Creason’s groups at North Central High School. Special thanks to Dylan, Pauline, Cassie, and (your dad-burned name slips my mind, but you’re the best) who I met in class and who actually came out to the reading that night at Auntie’s Books.

This event was a little different for me, with the reading showcased up front and with microphone, even, which made the power of the poet’s voice truly tremendous.

Then it was a weekend of hanging out with my daughter who is the same age as Sam’s girl, Jane. Or the girls spent time together, mostly, and Sam and I stayed up until three or four every night listening to music and talking. And talking. And talking. It’s funny to think that I’m still friends with the guy I pulled a desk out from under in Mr. Johnson’s actor’s workshop class when we were in high school. But that he’s still the most brilliant person I’ve ever met is no surprise.

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)

Spokane Bound, Not Your Mother’s Book Club, etc.

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 05:29:07 GMT

I never got a chance to do a write up on my last trip, but the hostess with the mostest has done a better job here Literaticat on the Mandabach, Hopkins, Asher, & Lyga gig
with the San Francisco portion.

Here’s silly me reading:

Tomorrow I’m off for the last stop on my fall 2007 micro-tour, Spokane, WA.

That where my best old friend Sam Ligon lives, and where I’ll appear at Auntie’s books on Friday night. I’ll also be visiting two creative writing classes at two different schools, North Central and Barker Center. This is is my favorite part, I think, becuase it’s so energizing to talk with the kids about writing. I’ll miss my own students, of course, but the new groups are refreshing.

It’s cold and snowy over in Spokane today, but looking at this pic from the area makes me wish I was going to be there in fishing weather. (Though I have fished in the snow!)

Peace, and wish me happy trails!

(Originally published at mandabach.com. You can comment here or there.)