Happy Thanksgiving from “Pumpkin Spice”!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! And to celebrate the holiday (while also shamelessly plugging a recent project), here’s a cropped image from the “Thanksgiving dinner” spread in Pumpkin Spice, a children’s book which was written by yours truly and illustrated by the super-talented Monique Dong. Pumpkin Spice is out now from Penguin Random House. (In other words: Plug-Pluggity-Plug!)
Pumpkin Spice is out now from Penguin Random House. It’s available at bookstores everywhere, as well as HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Here’s what critics are saying about Pumpkin Spice:
“Dong’s warm, cheerful illustrations enhance the cozy fall vibe…A lightly enjoyable seasonal pick that will find a place in fall displays.”—School Library Journal
“…a fun-filled sensory exploration of the sights, sounds, and especially smells that make fall great.” —LitPop
“This board book will be much-loved by everyone who enjoys pumpkin spiced… well, everything… each autumn.” —Kids R Us
“Rich with sensory detail, Pumpkin Spice makes a great introduction to fall for little bookworms.”—Bookstr
“Teachers who teach in early education classrooms will want to add this delightful board book to their collection of fall picture books.”—HubPages
“This sweet board book explores autumn through the senses…with lush illustrations sure to grab attention.” —Cracking the Cover
And here’s a look at the complete, un-cropped “Thanksgiving Dinner” spread from Pumpkin Spice:
Last but definitely not least, if you’d like to see all of the other books I’ve written for Penguin Random House (even the ones which don’t involve talking gourds), click HERE.
Watch Me Talk About “Shadows of Dawn”!
As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post, I’m currently working as a writer and narrative designer on an upcoming video game called Shadows of Dawn, developed by Next Player Games. And as I’ve also mentioned in that very same post, the Shadows of Dawn Kickstarter campaign is currently ongoing.
Also, for the past several weeks, the folks at Next Player Games have put together a series of videos in which members of the Shadows of Dawn development team talk about their jobs. So here’s a video in which I talk about my work on the game.
If you watched the video above, you’ll notice that I talk about a children’s book you find in the game called The Neighbors Are Coming, written by an idealistic author named Norbert Justman, who wrote the book long before the alien collective known as the Mosaic arrived on humanity’s doorstep. In those early days, when the people of Earth knew the Mosaic was on their way but didn’t know to make of this otherworldly hive-mind species, some folks thought that the Mosaic would be benevolent and friendly, like the aliens in Close Encounters or the Vulcans in Star Trek. Norbert Justman was one of those people. Norbert Justman was wrong. Here’s some conceptual art of a tattered copy of The Neighbors Are Coming. This artwork was created by Ari Kleinberg, who’s a Lead Systems Designer on Shadows of Dawn:
To find out more about Shadows of Dawn:
Check out the game’s Kickstarter page HERE.
And check out the Next Player Games site HERE.
You can explore the Next Player Games linktree HERE.
Here’s a story trailer for Shadows of Dawn. I wrote the script for it. And Ari Kleinberg created all of the artwork. He also animated it:
Here’s a teaser trailer for the game. I didn’t write the script for the teaser, but a while back, I put a very special list in the story bible for the game. It was a list of themes that we should explore in Shadows of Dawn, narratively speaking. And the narration in this teaser trailer is based on that list:
And as I mentioned in my previous blog post: before you go, don’t forget…
