The Name of This Blog is Secret

Get your facts first...

Then you can distort them as much as you please.

---Mark Twain

PSEUDONISM OF THE DAY

When your face is buried in a book, nobody can see you pick your nose.

ME...? OR SOMEBODY PRETENDING TO BE ME...? OR ME PRETENDING TO BE SOMEBODY PRETENDING TO BE ME...?

Pseudonymous Bosch: The Name of This Person Is Secret

()By Libby Molyneaux Thursday, May 20 2010

"WARNING: DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS PAGE!"

So beginsThe Name of This Book Is Secret, the 2007 children's work by Pseudonymous Bosch. The heroes are two 11-year-olds: Cass, a pointy-eared, intrepid modern-day Harriet the Spy, and her partner Max-Ernest, the outcast smart kid who lives under the same roof in a divided house with both of his divorced parents. The sinister Dr L and Ms. Mauvais are the grown-up villains. The follow-ups, If You're Reading This It's Too Late and This Book Is Not Good for You, are part of Bosch's "Secret Series," based on the five senses, with a fourth, This Isn't What It Looks Like, due in September, and the fifth thereafter... READ THE REST IN THE LA WEEKLY

PSEUDONISM OF THE DAY

When hiding in plain sight it is best to hide in sight of a plane.

TIME TRAVEL

 

As anybody who's read the end of my last book or the beginning of my new book knows, I'm very interested in time travel.  (Of course, to read my new book, you would have to travel into the future yourself--it doesn't come out until September 21!)  In this regard, I am very similar to one of the smartest men on earth--Stephen Hawking.  In a recent article, he speculates on just how it, that is time travel, could be done:"All you need is a wormhole, the large Hadron Collider or a rocket that goes really really fast," he says. Read the article now.  Or later.  Or later now.

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: DON'T READ MINE, READ THESE!

  
      

Ah, books.  So much type, so little time...

For some reason, many people—and by people I mean young people and their parents—ask me for book recommendations.  I’m not sure why.  It can’t be because they think MY books are any good (and if they do, they need more than a book recommendation, they need serious help).  Be that as it may, I happen to like books.  Quite a bit, in fact.  When I was young—and by young I mean under the age of seventy—I read nearly a book a day.  Here are a few of my old favorites (alphabetical by author):

CHARLIE AND CHOCOLATE FACTORY by Roald Dahl  As many of you know, this is my favorite book of all time about my favorite subject of all time.

THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster Juster is a word jester without equal.  Very fun if you like to pun.

FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER by E.L. Konigsburg A brother and sister break into the Metropolitan Museum of Art and sleep in a royal bed.  I don't know about you, but this has always been a dream of mine.  A Newberry-winning novel.

A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L'Engle Another Newberry-winner, this is a terrific book about interstellar time-travel and grumpy old witches.

THE EARTHSEA TRILOGY by Ursula K. Le Guin  To my mind, one of the best fantasy series ever written.  Le Quinn knows wizards and dragons better than anyone and was writing about them long before Christopher Paolini was even a sparkle in Eragon's eye.

THE HOBBIT by J.R.R. Tolkien The classic fantasy book introducing little people with big feet.  Written for Tolkien's own kids.  Read this one before The Lord of the Rings. (It's shorter and easier!)

BONUS MODERN-DAY BOOKS:

  
 
BEAUTIFUL CREATURES by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl  Forget about Twilight. If you like fabulous books full of gothic intrigue, supernatural mystery, and, er, a little human-inhuman romance, then this one is for you.  A truly wonderful book.  But a word of warning: it's very, very long.  For serious readers only. 

THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY by Trenton Lee Stewart  What can I say?  I may not like eggs benedict (too mayonnaise-y) but the Mysterious Benedict books are mysterious indeed.  If you like my books, you'll like these better.  Some people have unfairly and cruelly accused Trenton Lee Stewart of secretly being one Pseudonymous Bosch. Undoubtedly, these people have not met Stewart.  Unlike me, he is a very nice fellow.

A FEW NEW COVERS...

...or should I say missile targets?

AUSTRALIA - BK 3

 

UK - BK 3

 

PORTUGAL

ROMANIA - BK 2

 

GERMANY - BK 2

For more books covers from around the world, see the photo album.

"NO COMMENT": A COMMENT ON COMMENTS

Friends, Enemies, and Spies: 

As you know, I write to you from a remote location with only sporadic internet access, where the closest thing I get to human interaction is the occasional greeting of snow monkeys (and this is mainly the barring of teeth and throwing of unmentionable soft objects).  Even so, I occasionally look at this blog—after all, it has my name on it!—and it has come to my attention that a few of you have been commenting rather a lot.  I understand the impulse.  I comment all the time, even when no one is listening.  However, the comments on this blog have become a bit of a problem for yours truly.  You see, I have no wish to monitor the ramblings—be they ever so brilliant and witty--of all you budding young writers.  I fear one of you may say something that somebody else (for example, a parent) might consider inappropriate, and then what will happen?  We’ll all get in trouble.  Never mind what would happen if somebody wrote something about my books—heaven forbid!—that was supposed to stay secret.  There is every reason to believe the Midnight Sun has gotten wind of this website…

So, if you haven’t already caught my drift, I’m pulling the plug on the comments.  But I want to encourage you all to keep communicating with each other.  To that end, I would point you to some of the other Secret Series related blogs and fansites that have popped up.  (Thanks, Agent Nabu!)  Here are three I know about.  If others come to my attention, I’ll post them as well. 

http://www.nabuhorre.webs.com/

http://www.secretseriespb.webs.com/

http://www.alizil96.typepad.com/

Also, comments are still open on my facebook page—for the moment.

If there is something you would like me to post on this blog—sightings of the enemy, etc—you can always email me: bosch.pseudonymous@gmail.com.  Who knows, if I’m in a good mood, I just might post it for you.

Secretly yours, PB

IMPOSTOR ALERT: LA TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

Just when you think it's safe to jump back in the water... Alarming news: the scurrilous Impostor has scheduled one (or in this case two) of his so-called "appearances" for Saturday, April 24 at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.  (Festival? With him there I would call it a funeral!) Here is the information:

LA TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

SATURDAY, APRIL 24

12:30 PM, PANEL: 'TWEEN THE LINES, MODERATED BY NEAL SHUSTERMAN, WITH GORDON KORMAN AND DJ MACHALE, SIGNING IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING

4:00 PM, SECOND SIGNING: MYSTERIOUS GALAXY BOOKSTORE BOOTH

 

Seacret

Nabu caught a pic of this on his last snorkeling odyssey:

Look at the size of those fish! I'm frightened. 

Nabu's comment:

All I can say is I hope those Atlantians know what's coming for them.