Tuesday, April 22, 2008

We Interrupt This Meme...

...to bring you Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Yes, that's right: Peter Rozovsky hit me with the latest meme and I have been caught at the playroom, with the closest books to me being Walter The Farting Dog and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

Neither have 123 pages.

Not even together.

And I refuse to use my own book, which I'm working off of for promo stuff at the moment, so I am amending the meme just a wee bit.

Before I get to the meme, I do have some things to mention.

Damon does ComicCon.

Marshal Zeringue has plugged Damien Seaman's first interview with me. He's mentioned WHAT BURNS WITHIN in new books and
mentioned this on Campaign For The American Reader.

And ultimately, he put WHAT BURNS WITHIN through the
Page 69 Test. You can follow the link for an excerpt, and to see how it stacked up.

Montreal advances to round two of the Stanley Cup finals, but after fans took to the streets in celebration and burned police cars and damaged businesses, one has to wonder: what would they have done if Montreal had lost?




Now, back to the meme. Here's the way it's supposed to work:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open it to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you (and I understand that etiquette calls for you to avoid "tagging" someone else who has already been sent the meme, if possible).

So, I'm going to give you the stunning intro to Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett.

We were all sitting around the big kitchen table. It was Saturday morning. Pancake morning. Mom was squeezing oranges for juice. Hentry and I were betting on how many pancakes we could eat. And Grandpa was doing the flipping.

Seconds later, something flew through the air headed toward the kitchen ceiling... and landed right on Henry.


(Eee, gads, what could it be? I can't believe you're going to leave me in suspense like that Sandra! This is turning into a real nail-biter...)

And on to Walter The Farting Dog by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray.

"Well, he smells awful," said their mother. "I think you'd better give him a bath."

Mother walked in and said, "He still smells awful."

And that's when they got the first clue. The tell-tale bubbles in the water.

"He's probably just a little nervous," said Mother, hopefully. "His stomach must be upset."

But Walter's stomach wasn't upset. Walter's stomach was fine. He felt perfectly normal. He just farted a lot.


(I promise to post a "proper" page 123 thing when I get back to my books.)

Now, I do have to tag five people, and try not to re-tag people who've already been tagged, so I'm going to tag: Brian Lindenmuth, Amra Pajalic, Barbara Fister, Vincent Holland-Keen, (who probably thinks I was abducted by aliens several months ago) and MG Tarquini.

4 comments:

John McFetridge said...

I just want to say, those opportunistic jerks in Montreal aren't 'fans' and were nowhere near the game.

And they're going to do it three more times this year as the Habs win the cup.

Sigh.

Steve Allan said...

Fucking Canadiens. Boston doesn't need the Stanley Cup anyway - Superbowl, World Series and the Celts getting ready to take the NBA championship. I guess we'll share the love - until next year when the Bruins get their act together.

Sandra Ruttan said...

But John, how can they do it again if they're in jail.

Oh, wait... never mind.

Steve, I know, I know. Fucking Canadiens. ;)

Peter Rozovsky said...

I was in Montreal, a few blocks away from the Bell Centre when the seventh game ended. I saw no flames, because I expect the action was moving east, away from the arena, and I was west. I did hear cars honking, though.

After Montreal fans burned cars following the Canadiens' Stanley Cup win in either 1986 or 1993, I remember thinking: This sort of thing happens in the U.S., not here. Now they're doing it after a bloody eighth-finals win. It was a hell of a game, though.
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