Percy: The Little Big Dragon p.3

I guess I should give you an idea of how long this story goes. Get this, it'll be 198 pages long.

Okay, just kidding, it'll be between 14 and 16 pages total. It's an easy reader, remember?

Anyway. the introduction of the big, ugly knight will be a cliff-hanger. You'll have to wait until 2011 (Monday, to be exact) to see what happens next.

Happy New Year! I love the concept of a whole new year. I hate the actual holiday. Can't we just glom it onto Christmas day and call it good. Ugh. Sayonara 2010! Bienvenu 2011!

Percy: The Little Big Dragon p.2

Percy: The Little Big Dragon p.1

Percy: The Little Big Dragon

Okay, today I'm starting a new story based on the winner of our Name That Dragon game--Percy! Here is the cover:

Percy: The Little Big Dragon isn't a comic, or even a picture book. This is an early reader book, the oddball stepping stone between picture books and chapter books. But here's the thing about nearly all early reader books: they have really simple illustrations. Kids go from looking at colorful, elaborate picture books to very stark, minimal early reader books. Now I know the focus is on learning to read, but there are pictures. So why not have big, splashy, picture-book-style pictures? With Percy, I'm going to attempt an early reader book with picture book level illustrations.

My daughter has been reading Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie books lately. She's at the early reader stage. Those books are really funny. In fact, I think I like them more than Mo Willems' picture books (sorry pigeon.) Anyway, I've always wanted to try one myself, so here goes. Get those early readers in here, see if they are too distracted by the pictures to read the words. I'd appreciate your feedback.

And We're Beak...

Hi Everyone. I hope you enjoyed your holidays and the Twelve LEGO Bots, I'd once again like to thank the geekmom website for co-hosting the images along side the Station, and also my LEGO photographer Jaime. Link over to their cool sites to see what they are up to.

A few things. Last year, I took this period off. From Christmas to around Jan. 4th, I went post free. I actually found that I missed making daily posts. I won't be skipping out this year. I'll be here, right back on track--no blog vacation. I've got a fun story I'll start tomorrow (starring someone you've seen recently here on the blog.)

Also, I've revamped the site and banner artwork. If you follow the blog through a reader, you may want to click over to the actual site to see the changes. (And, hey, why not click the "Follow" button, just for kicks--to make it official and all.) How do you like the new look? There's a big orange bird with a blue beak, isn't there?

Next week marks the one-year anniversary of CALAMITY JACK's release. Amazon is celebrating this with a sweet $6.00 deal on the paperback! So if you have some Amazon gift cards burning a hole in your pocket--or if you just want the super-awesome RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE sequel at an amazing price, clicky-clicky. And reviewy-reviewy, JACK only has 17 reviews, compared to RAPUNZEL's nearly fifty! Show Jacky some love!

Speaking of reviews, thank you to everyone who bought a copy of THE TWELVE BOTS and left a review. Me and the BOTS had a fantastic Christmas! Now that the holidays are over, the BOTS will be hibernating (unplugging?) for the next ten months, but there is still time to leave your thoughts in review form at your favorite online bookseller. Did you notice that the book was dedicated to "The Space-Station Cadets?" That's you! Did you know you had a book dedicated to you? Well, you do it's THE TWELVE BOTS OF CHRISTMAS, man!

We've got a big year ahead for the Space Station. More comics, more drawings and more games. February will see another PICTURE BOOK MARATHON (possibly with a return to THE LAND OF DOOM.) In the near future I'll have an announcement concerning one of 2010's stories (it will soon become more than just a series blog posts!) But you'll have to stay tuned for that. Clever detectives should be able to get a hint by browsing back a few months...I can say no more!

Stay tuned!

MERRY ROBO-CHRISTMAS!

The Twelve LEGO Bots of Christmas, Day 12

Hmm. They seem so much smaller in LEGO form...

Be sure to drop in tomorrow for the big Christmas Finale!

The Twelve LEGO Bots of Christmas, Day 11

This guy is my favorite of the LEGO Bots.

The Twelve LEGO Bots of Christmas, Day 10

The Twelve LEGO Bots of Christmas, Day 9

The Twelve LEGO Bots of Christmas, Day 8

That nose makes it look like my Moto-Milker has a pig nose...hmm, looks much better in person. So here we are at day 8, we're almost there. Only five days until Christmas--only a few days left to order a copy of the BOTS! Time is running out!

The Twelve LEGO Bots of Christmas, Day 7

The Twelve LEGO Bots of Christmas, Day 6

Okay, I've had FOUR people say that they were missing their avatars. But they've all gotten them now--sorry for the delay, guys. Is there anyone else? Have all the avatars made it to those who sent their CALAMITY JACK photo?

Happy Saturday! (these posts go right through the weekend, so be back tomorrow!)

The Twelve LEGO Bots of Christmas, Day 5

Today's BOT is easy to build. Very, VERY easy to build.

The Twelve LEGO Bots of Christmas, Day 4

This was the first of the BOTS where I had to choose a specific one to build, since they all look different. I think I picked the right one.

Over the past week, I've had TWO people inform me that their CALAMITY JACK avatar never made it to them. One in the comment section, and one at my signing at the King's English. Remember the JACK avatar thing, WAAAY last January? I thought I had finished and sent them all long ago. But some (two, at least) never made it. I've sent those two out (you know who you are) is there anyone else? I hate to think I'm missing anyone. Shoot me a message if you never received your avatar (and you qualified.)

The Twelve LEGO Bots of Christmas, Day 3

The Twelve LEGO Bots of Christmas, Day 2

I'm going to be at the Provo Library today (Tuesday) at 4:00 doing a reading of The Twelve Bots of Christmas--in a robot voice. There will be books on hand for sale, as well as the actual LEGO Bots on display. See you there!

The Twelve LEGO Bots of Christmas, Day 1

Okay, lets kick this off! The Twelve LEGO Bots of Christmas starts today! You know him, you love him, he's day 1's Bot, the Cartridge:

If you'd like to see the LEGO Bots in person, they are currently on display at the Provo Library.

You will notice that these LEGO photos are considerably better than my past LEGO photos. I have my photographer friend, Jaime Richardson, to thank for that. Visit her site here. Thanks Jaime!

A Week of Failed Santas, Friday

Our final failed Santa (boy, those went by fast--I could do them all month!) will be recognized by all sci-fi fans. It is:

SANDWORM CLAUS!

This massive Santa lives 21,000 years in the future on a far-away, desert planet. He does not bring presents. He produces a spice which allows space travel, and creates psychic abilities when ingested by humans. But you can ride on him, sort of like the "one-horse open sleigh."

On Monday, we start the Twelve Days of Christmas countdown! It will be BOT related. You may already know what I'm planning.

This Saturday, I'll be signing books at The Purple Cow bookstore in Tooele at 2:00. I will be accompanied by an actual human Santa (non-dentist, I think.) Hope to see you Tooeleians there!

A Week of Failed Santas, Thursday

Technically, this should be a great Santa. After all, it's a mash-up of the two Christian holiday mascots. Instead, it is confusing, disorienting, even a little nauseating. I present to you:

The Christmas-ter Bunny.

If this thing ever came to my house, I don't care how many baskets of presents it was carrying, I would cower in fear. This is a bad, bad Santa.

In totally unrelated news, I saw Disney's TANGLED last night. People have been telling me how RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE was, "Totally ripped off" I was excited to go and see for myself. There are a few similarities, sure. The one that killed me was how Rapunzel had only three books in her tower that she had to re-read--I think they were even the same size and color as our Rapunzel's tower books. Really, though, they did a fun, and totally different take on the fairy tale, and I really enjoyed it. It definitely does not fall into the "Rip-off" category. I do like to imagine that the Disney folks read RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE and borrowed a few things, just for fun.

Anyway, it was a cute movie and I recommend it to all RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE fans. If Disney does a sequel where Rapunzel and (the guy, forgot his name) go up against giants and beanstalks, then I'll call foul. In the mean time, go check out the movie--or, if you haven't, go pick up a copy of RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE--better yet, give a copy of the book to a TANGLED fan for Christmas. They'd totally dig it.

A Week of Failed Santas, Wednesday

From long forgotten tombs comes Mummy Claus!

Traveling with help from his eight canopic Reindeer jars, Mummy Claus bears ancient gifts, and curses! Thousand year-old curses! Mummy Claus is shuffling to town.

A Week of Failed Santas, Tuesday

Tuesday's bad Santa is...



Santapod, the Giant Isopod Santa! He flies around on his sled pulled by eight sea cucumbers. When you leave a treat out for Santapod, skip the milk and cookies, this Santa would much rather gorge himself on a putrefying whale carcass. He's the jolly giant cockroach of the sea floor!

This is not the first time isopods have appeared on the blog. Click here if you don't know about Chuck the Lazy Isopod. Scroll down until you see some jesters, then stop and read the posts from bottom to top. You'll learn more than you ever wanted to about these cuddly creatures.

A Week of Failed Santas, Monday

So you've probably seen Robo-Santa, I've been talking a lot about him and his 12 BOTS this month. (Buy it! Buy it!) You may also know Santasaurus, the candy-cane-striped Triceratops from The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas. (Buy it too!) So far, I've done more books with off-beat Santas than actual Santas. Off-beat Santas are all the rage in picture books right now. There are Evil Santas, Pirate Santas, a whole bunch of Dinosaur Santas (Tyrannoclaus, Santasaurus etc.) Alternative Santas, they are here to stay.

This week, I thought we'd spend some time with some Alternative Santas who will never get a picture book deal.

Monday's Santa is...

Jolly Old St. Dental Claus. He comes down the chimney and performs oral surgery on all good boys and girls. You better watch out.

Geekmom!

This week I did an interview for the Wired blog Geekmom.com. They did a great review of the BOTS as well as an interview with me. Click over and see! There is also a sneak preview of what is to come here on the blog...

Thanks Geekmom! Great write-up! And cool site, I've bookmarked it for the LEGO posts alone!

And the Winning Dragon is...

Percy! By a mile!

Everybody loves Percy! So he is November's Most Favored Dragon! I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of him, there may be a Percy story in the future.

I installed something cool at the Provo Library yesterday. It is something everyone will get to see on the blog here in a week or two, but you can see it early and in person if you live by the library. Check the glass cases on the way to the Children's desk.

Have a great weekend! New story starts Monday!

Name That Drag--Uh oh! It's the NaNoWriMonster!

And the dragon with the most votes is...

Wow! I'm surprised it took him this long to show up. It's Chester the NaNoWriMonster! Long-time readers will recognize him from last November when I was doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month.) I didn't participate this year, but I plan to next year. I hope everyone who did finished their novel. Here's the update on the book I was writing during last year's NaNoWriMo: Still not finished. I've sold five book contracts since then, three picture books and two graphic novels, but I never got around to finishing those last 50 pages of my NaNo-novel.

Thanks to Chester's interruption, it looks like we have one more day of voting. Pick that winning dragon! Vote your pick in yesterday's comment section. Or today's if you feel like it.

And to everyone in SLC, tonight is the big holiday author party at The King's English bookstore. It's from 5-7, come say hi, I'll be up to my elbows in BOTS.

Name That Dragon Wrap-up

And our final winning name is...

Ba-ba-ba-bum!

"Behold, this dragon shall be called Lucent! Slithering between worlds and planes of existence, he strikes before you even sense his presence!" (Named by Courtney)

Thanks for playing everyone! I think that was a pretty spectacular run of Name That Dragon. I'd especially like to thank our judges, Uly, Lucy, Shannon and Dean Hale, and final week judge, Jessica Day George. Great job judges!

Now it is your turn to judge. It's time to choose your favorite dragon of them all. Here is a refresher:

Leave your vote in the comments section and we'll see who wins the coveted "Most Favored Dragon" title. The chosen dragon will get a brand new drawing in a different pose.

Votes for "Turkor" will be immediately disqualified.

If you enjoyed this game, please support the blog by purchasing one of my books (I recommend THE TWELVE BOTS OF CHRISTMAS,) leave a review on Amazon (also BOTS,) and join the "Space Station Cadets" by clicking the "Follow" button on the right.

Tomorrow we'll announce the winning dragon and Thursday we start a new story!