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Tales Told Around the Inflatable Campfire

1/21/2014

4 Comments

 
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This is an inflatable campfire. Amazon has them for $12.99, and I like to think they come in a box marked DANGER: HIGHLY INFLATABLE, but they probably don’t. I first encountered them during a recent Parents As Reading Partners event at a nearby elementary school, which I participated in with three other local authors. 
The event was held in the evening, the theme was Camping Out, and each author sat next to his or her own campfire in the school gym and read to the kids, who went from author to author dragging their pillows and sleeping bags behind them, so it actually may have been a ploy to mop the gym during an ongoing custodians strike.
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Playing with fire.
I had never seen an inflatable campfire, and when I expressed trepidation to the event organizers, they assured me the school was equipped with inflatable smoke detectors. There was a billboard outside the school depicting Smokey the Bear holding a hatpin, next to the slogan ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT INFLATABLE FIRES. (Had I known in advance, I would have brought a bag of inflatable marshmallows. The Stay-Puft brand, as seen in Ghostbusters.)

For me, the most memorable moment of the evening occurred when I looked up from my book, from which I had just read a passage about three kids finding a crayon between some sofa cushions, to see a fifth-grade boy sitting a few feet from me, engrossed in a book three times the size of mine. I asked him what it was. He held it up so I could see. It was The Collected Works of H. P. Lovecraft. So I’m reading about crayons, and my audience is reading the Necronomicon. I told the kid Cthulhu would get him for this. (And, I swear, as I said the name Cthulhu, all the campfires in the room deflated a little. It was a creepy moment.)

The event was a great success. By the end of the evening the kids were pumped, and the campfires much less so. Mine had a distinct list to it, and so did I. I'm not as good at sitting cross-legged on the floor as I used to be. 

4 Comments
Jean Derwood link
1/30/2014 12:48:39 pm

Dear Sir,
I recently read your book whose title I am not going to write out in full (because let's face it; it is rather long) and enjoyed it very much indeed. (and by this I mean: it made me laugh out loud at work. since I work in a library this is Not a Good Thing for me but great for you since not very many things make me do that.) Probably my favourite thing about the book (besides the truly dreadful puns and the fabulousness of not having yet another Dumbledore-like-figure to provide a convenient Deus Ex Machina every other second) was the fact that you didn't have romance in it. Romance is all very well in it's way but not for eleven/twelve/thirteen year olds and one doesn't like to have it shoved down one's throat, so it was very refreshing to read the entire book and still have the three friends still be platonic friends.

In short, I loved the book, am looking forward very much to the next, and now I'm going to switch tabs so I can finish purchasing it.

Thank you very much.
Your sincerely,
Jean Derwood, 19 (years old)

Reply
Henry Clark
1/31/2014 12:20:25 am

Dear Jean,

It’s always nice when someone takes the time to write and say they’ve enjoyed WWFITS (I, too, find the title too long; I originally called it Hellsboro, but my editor said no) so thank you for your kind missive. I like the idea of the sound of laughter in a library; it might briefly drown out the sound of the seniors aerobics class in the basement.

It was easy keeping romance out of the book, except for Mucus the cat, whom I couldn’t keep my eye on at all times and who may have gotten into mischief when I wasn’t looking.

The sequel is currently on my editor’s desk. She’s concerned that at one point, a submarine appears out of nowhere and rescues my three still-platonic heroes from a sea of quicksand. The name of the sub is the Deuce Ex Machina. (As the captain explains, it’s not the flagship; that would be the Ace Ex Machina.) The whole quicksand sea thing may get cut before the book ever sees print. In the meantime, my next book (not a sequel) The Book That Proves Time Travel Happens, is due out in April of 2015 (yeah, it takes that long) and, again, is free of any character even remotely resembling Dumbledore.

Sincerely yours,
Henry Clark 61 (but can pass for 60)

Reply
Jean Derwood link
1/31/2014 01:54:20 am

Cats have an unfortunate habit of getting into mischief - of all sorts - when one is not looking. I think it's in their contract as cats.

I'm awfully excited about the sequel, and the prospect of another book even before that! (even if it's not a sequel.)

- Jean
P.S. I feel so sorry for grown-ups who are too grown-upish to read your book, because I feel quite sure that kids are not getting all the hysterical funny jokes and side-notes and it seems a pity for them not to be appreciated as they deserve.

Reply
Henry Clark
1/31/2014 09:39:55 pm

The electronic version of the book has done surprisingly well - I like to think that some of those eBooks were purchased by grown-ups who enjoy kid lit so long as nobody can see the cover of what they're reading...


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    Henry Clark 

    Pictured here on the day he sold What We Found in the Sofa. His mood is cautiously optimistic.

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