The First Book of ORE: The Foundry's Edge Author Interview + Giveaway

I first met Cam at a friend's 30th Birthday Party in Joshua Tree.  He was awesome then and is awesome now (Cameron hooked us up with Ashley and Brad, the animators we hired for The Grocery Store) and has worked as an animator and creative genius for many moons. (Cam's past credits include Team America: World Police & SpongeBob Squarepants.) 

Cam and his writing partner, Benny (past credits include a little-known show called The Simpsons), recently wrote a YA book together, the first in a trilogy, and Book One is now available in stores. It's called The First Book of Ore: The Foundry's Edge and here is its blurb: 

Phoebe Plumm has everything in the world except a friend. Her opulent Art Deco metropolis, Albright City, is full of spectacular, gleaming luxuries: rocket-fast Cable Bikes and ZipTrolleys, wondrous Televiewers and Computators, and a never-ending parade of streamlined mechanical innovations. All of it comes from The Foundry, a global corporation with a monopoly on technology where her father, Dr. Jules Plumm is Chief Surveyor. Phoebe's life in Meridian revolves around trading pranks with irksome Micah Tanner but when her father is abducted, Phoebe and Micah find themselves stranded in a stunning yet volatile world of living metal which they discover has been ruthlessly plundered by The Foundry for centuries. In this strange, mysterious and violent realm, Phoebe and Micah must fight to save Dr. Plumm, themselves ... and all creatures of good will. 

And now, without further ado, I am pleased to introduce you to Cam and Benny. This, my friends, is Cam:

And this is Benny who I have not met but hear great things about:

GGC: Congrats on the new book, guys! Can you tell us about it?

Cam & Benny: Thank you! This trilogy is our baby, one we've been developing and nurturing since 2006 - even older than our real and more damp children (Cam has a daughter of two and Benny has a daughter of three and a son of two months!) Our Middle Grade book is about a lonely girl called Phoebe Plumm who has everything in the world she could possibly want - except a friend. Her only companion is her father, who is unexpectedly captured and stolen away. Phoebe goes on a rescue mission to save her father, along with a rowdy servant boy she particularly despises called Micah, but soon the two kids find themselves stranded in a mysterious realm of living metal. As they figure out how to survive together, Phoebe and Micah stumble upon a secret that will change the world.

GGC: I love this. What inspired such a rich idea?

Cam & Benny:  In addition to being debut authors (still getting used to saying that), we are also stop-motion animators, which means we have a unique relationship with inanimate objects. Not like those people who fall in love with pavement or the Eiffel Tower, but more that we spend so much time imbuing pieces of foam and wire with life that we reflexively see a personality in all sorts of objects. Well, we started wondering about the history of the everyday things around us, like cars and phones. Who are they? Where did they come from? And that led to a stranger question still, which was - if these objects had once been alive, then how did they come to be inanimate and sitting on our desks? Out of that egg hatched our story.

GGC: Genius. What was it like writing it together as a team? What was your process like?

Cam & Benny:  Kind of like being married. Our spouses have affectionately dubbed us work-wives. There is a lot of disagreement and plenty of give and take. We make it work because we have compatible strengths as writers - Benny is better at braving the blank page faster and spilling out the first draft, and Cam's strength is in details and meticulous word choice. But where two minds are most valuable is in world-building and solving story problems. We attack each others' ideas to make sure they are watertight, all while trying to not get too precious along the way. Yet as with all relationships, especially creative ones, there are always fights. Our favorite was when we literally argued for twenty minutes about a single period.

GGC:  Which character in the book do you (both) most relate to and why?

Cam & Benny: There are two characters in our trilogy that are partners called Mr. Pynch and the Marquis, and we realized partway through writing them that they were actually us. Mr. Pynch is a squat little curmudgeon who has a good heart but can be a bit "prickly," while the Marquis is something of a busybody / walking slapstick machine. We'll let you decide who is who. And their relationship is eerily similar to ours - bickering and fighting much of the time, but all with a deep respect for one another, which proves them to not only be dependent, but inseparable.

GGC: What are your characters doing right this very second do you think?

Cam & Benny:  After what we put them through? Getting some sleep (which makes us jealous.) And they better rest up, knowing what's in store for them

GCC: I am equally jealous. This is the first book in a trilogy. Are you working on book two? Book three? Can you tell us a little about them or are they top secret?

Cam & Benny:  Indeed - we are deep in the mines of book two as we speak, in-between running around town and taking pictures of every copy of our book we can find on shelves. We have a thorough map for the rest of the series, while still leaving room for surprises once we are ready to walk every step of the next journey. But yes, over the next months we will be "crashing" book two, though we prefer the term "Evel Kniveling" since crashing sounds tragic. The books themselves? Actually quite top secret. But we can say that Phoebe and Micah both find themselves in positions they could have never expected, and ones they are certain they are not ready for. Beyond that, we can say that it's gonna get ca-razy… er.

Cam and Benny have three signed copies of their book to give away. To win? Leave a comment below about something adventurous. I'll pick all winners at random next Monday. Good luck!

GGC

LilySarahGrace Fundraiser @ Milk Studios, Los Angeles (Please Come!)

The following is a guest post by my friend, Elizabeth who is once again co-hosting the 2nd Annual LA LilySarahGrace Fundraiser. I wrote about the fundraiser last year and attended with my family and while I won't be able to make it this year (I'll be in an airplane on my way home from Atlanta), I'm hoping that some of you can attend and will help us get the word out. It's an amazing event and a most important cause. With love to you and yours. - Bec

On Christmas Day 2011, in the midst of our pre-dawn Christmas morning mayhem of two young daughters tearing open gifts, a call came. My husband's voice became quiet, his affect and energy shifted so dramatically my stomach sank. I knew something dark had happened. Trying my best to be cheerful with our girls I heard the name Matt and in a matter of seconds I went through a list of possibilities of horrible things that had happened to our old friend, Matt. Never in my darkest thoughts, did it occur to me it was his children. All three girls, Lily 9 and twins Sarah and Grace 7, had been killed that morning by a tragic fire at their Connecticut home.

My friend Jenny and I turned to each other to try to wrap our heads around this incomprehensible tragedy. Jenny, also an old friend of Matt and Madonna Badger, is my soul sister. As moms Jenny and I wept for Madonna. These girls were our girls. How could we support Matt and Madonna through this incredible and unbearable loss? Believing firmly in the concept of taking village to raise a child, the same is true for grieving them.

With the help of trusted friends, Matt started a foundation to establish a legacy for his girls and a new-found purpose from his old life as a commercial director. The LilySarahGrace Fund supports the arts in underserved, underfunded public schools nationwide. Since these early days in 2012 Matt has distributed over 1 million dollars to schools for Arts-Infused projects to more than 1500 classrooms nationwide, affecting over 130,000 students across the U.S.

LSG has made incredible inroads in the CA area, organizing and financing over 400 classroom projects, and affecting more than 25,000 students in CA alone -making a huge difference in the lives of those students. All proceeds from the LA LSG Craft Fair on May 4 will go directly to schools in California.

The fund provides money directly to teachers for creative project based learning. The arts, our universal language, was the language the Badger girls understood best. They loved the arts and it was through the arts that they found a connection with others and equality. All three were dyslexic and they struggled. Through creative projects in the classroom barriers for learning are lifted, academic lessons become accessible and self esteem thrives. Matt knows there are so many kids out there who never have had an opportunity to express themselves creatively, to be understood and to feel equal. With the cuts in art programs in public schools, he felt this was a need his girls would love and so he has thrown his heart and soul into it.

On May 4 my dear friend Jennifer Levy and I will host The 2nd Annual Los Angeles LilySarahGrace Fund Craft Fair at Milk Studios in Hollywood at 844 Cole Ave .The event will take place from 11 am - 4 pm. It is a celebration of the lives of Lily, Sarah and Grace Badger and an opportunity for all of us to celebrate the children in our lives. There will be live music, dancing, food trucks, laughter, joy and vivacious creativity with 20 craft stations; snow globes, print making, spin art, pom-pom making, knitting, beading, glitter name tags and so much more. Amanda Demme, photographer, will be on hand to take portraits of children as Mother's Day gifts.

Ticket price is $35 per person, children under 2 are free. We will always keep Lily, Sarah and Grace Badger in our hearts and their creative vivacious spirits alive. This event is our living prayer for them and our gift to their parents in their memory. If you are in LA on Sunday, May 4th please come join us!!!! (Tickets are for sale, here.) Thanks, everyone!

- Elizabeth -

How About We: Ballet + Bitters

The following post was brought to you by HowAboutWe, a dating site for married people. And also single people. But I am a married person so I took advantage of the married person portion of the website. (HowAboutWe hand selects/plans awesome dates/adventures/experiences for couples to pick and choose from. Genius.)

Ten years ago, this week, Hal and I made out for the first time. That is the G rated version of what went down. We had met earlier in the month but I had a boyfriend and frankly, I hated Hal's guts. No offense to him because he didn't like me either. Our disdain for each other upon first meeting is as close as I've ever come to love at first sight because the feelings we had? Were strong. What started as mutual hatred however, soon blossomed into friendship which then blossomed into a sexually tense friendship which them blossomed into a friends-with-benefits type of situation which then, well... I wrote a whole book about the unexpected pregnancy that resulted in... everything that now matters in my life. 

Hal and I never really dated. When we met, Hal lived in his friends' kitchen pantry and was working odd jobs to afford his rent/car payment/ramen noodles/cigarettes. In fact, the only date he ever took me on was to the 99 Cent Store to buy us each a bottle of Captain Morgan malt liquor and a DVD called "Six Lucky Ninja Kids" about, well, six lucky ninja kids. The day set us back a grand total of three dollars and was the most fun I had ever had on a "date" in my life. 

Screw the wine + dine. Here's a man who makes me roar with laughter. And then I was pregnant and it was like, well? At the very least, we will laugh a lot in this life. 

And we have. 

We do. 

We may not connect all of our dots all of the time but we are funny together. We make each other LOL a L-O-T.

Anyway. I was looking forward to this HowAboutWe for Couples post/experience because dating is something we seldom do. We are notorious for planning dates and then canceling them last minute because we have too much work to do and/or we are tired and the thought of getting dressed up and going to a place and sitting in a place is, like, UGH, you know? Which is terrible because we are desperately in need of some alone time. Ahem.

So, from the menu of potential dates in the HowAboutWe for Couples DateBook I chose the one that seemed the most... romantic. The one we would have likely never done if it wasn't for this post. And so? Earlier this month, Hal and I hit up the American Contemporary Ballet to watch a presentation on Dance, Choreography and Storytelling through movement which was not only romantic but fascinating and completely amazing, which made me realize that we need to go out more and when we do, plan dates OUTSIDE of our usual dinner + drinks + movie + band + play. There is so much to do in this city and so many things I want to learn more about.

And while we know pretty much everything there is to know about family activities, we know zilch about adult activities. We certainly knew nothing of the American Contemporary Ballet until now. And it's located blocks from our house, I MEAN!?

(Other dates that look awesome include this Absinthe Cocktails at Writers Room situation, a True Crime City Tour and Yoga Paddleboard class which is the most LA thing I have ever heard of in my life. In a good way. I love this town like a sister.)

Anyway… About our date...

I wasn't able to get any photos of the dancers themselves  (no photography allowed) but here's a nice Prom Pose of the happy couple before the show:

Photo by: Tamara who kindly snapped a few photos of us before the big dance

And here's Hal looking dapper, exploring a list of things "to do" and not "to do." Slurp is a curious choice but a welcome one, I suppose. Slurping's pretty cool. 

And here are the original performances of the dances we watched and learned about during the performance/lecture. (I've always been a huge Astaire fan and recently purchased tap shoes because I am a closeted aspiring tap dancer.)

And here's the DVD we got to take home as a souvenir of the lecture + dance. 

That was only part one of our date night extravaganza. Part two involves me not knowing anything there is to know about drink mixology and us in our pajamas experiencing an at-home Make Your Own Bitters date. I *thought* that we would make the bitters and then be able to drink them all in one night which was (ahem) NOT the case. SO. We did the first step, which was crushing, cooking and mixing the bitters and we have been doing the NEXT step for the past few weeks AKA shaking the mason jar once a day and placing it back in the cupboard. 

We came up with our own concoction for our Halbecca mixture and it included vanilla, ground nutmeg and ground almonds...

And then I poured/measured/sealed...

And Hal shook, shook, shook.

In a few more weeks, we will be able to finish our bitters and then, soon after, taste them, which I realize now is all part of the magic of the thing. Patience is a virtue. Time is part of the recipe along with the mixing-it-up and the shakeshakeshake and the grind. I hear that metaphor. Roger that, How About We. Roger that. 

Looking to get your date night on? HowAboutWe for Couples is in five cities so far: LA, NYC, San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle. It’s free to join and you can get $50 off your first date by clicking here. And if you’re not in any of those five cities, there’s a national version with at-home dates, too (including the bitters date above… though the Halbecca recipe is all ours).

GGC