Fellow Comics Experience member Shaun Manning has been named a semi-finalist and has the chance to write a comic with Stan Lee. 

Shaun was picked as  one of the top 20 writing submissions by the MTV Comics editorial staff. You can go to the MTV web site and download each treatment and script and cast your vote for the writer you'd like to see bring Stan Lee's The Seekers to life!

The top 5 vote-getters will be sent on to Stan to hand pick the winner. Polls close Friday, September 30th at 3pm ET. It's really easy to vote.  You just need to go to http://www.mtv.com/geek/comics/vote/best-writer/ and click Shaun's name.

Shaun is a great guy, his treatment is awesome, and you should vote for it. It only takes a second.

And, in case you are curious, I also pitched and, obviously, didn't make it. Hopefully, I'll be able to live vicariously through Shaun Manning.  But, only if you vote for him. ;-)

Congrats to Shaun and all the other semi-finalists!

The Baltimore Book Festival features hundreds of author appearances and book signings, 100+ exhibitors and booksellers, non-stop readings on multiple stages, cooking demos by celebrity chefs, poetry readings and workshops, panel discussions, walking tours, storytellers and hands-on projects for kids, street theater, live music, and a delicious variety of food, beer and wine.

I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in this year’s festival. 

I will be there on Saturday, September 24 from Noon to 8pm and will have copies of all of my books, including Sky Girl, Great Zombies in History and Armed & Fabulous.  In addition, you can come by for your free Official Sky Girl Superheroic Certificate (at least until they run out).

The festival is located at Mt. Vernon Place, centered on 600 North Charles St, in Baltimore MD 21201.

More information and a complete schedule of events can be found at http://www.baltimorebookfestival.com/  (did I mention they are all free)

Come by and say hi.

Today is my daughter's first day of First grade. I can't believe it has been a year since I posted about her going to kindergarten. At the risk of repetition, I'm going to repeat some of that post since you never realize how these little little ones work their way into your heart as you grow up.  (just watch all those parents balling in Toy Story 3).  It is surprisingly emotion to see your little girl get on that bus whether it be for the first time or going off to college. 

But, don't take my word for it.  Here is a great poem that they read each year on our local radio station that sums up my, and many parent's, feelings. I believe the author is anonymous.  If you are not crying by the end, congratulations, you have passed the Vulcan ritual of Kolinahr.

A poem for the first day of school
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Dear World,

I bequeath to you today one little girl in a crispy blue dress with two blue eyes and a happy laugh that ripples all day long and a flash of light blonde hair that  bounces in the sunlight when she runs.

I trust you'll treat her well. She's slipping out of the backyard of my heart  this morning and skipping off down the street to her first day of school.  Never again will she be completely mine. Prim and proper, she'll wave a young independent hand this morning and say "goodbye", and walk with little lady steps to the schoolhouse.

Now, she'll learn to stand in lines and wait by the alphabet for her name to be called. She'll learn to tune her ears for sounds of school bells and
deadlines, and she'll learn to giggle, and gossip, and look at the ceiling
in a disinterested way, and she'll learn to be jealous.

Now she'll learn how not to cry. No longer will she have time to sit on
the front porch on a hot summer day and watch an ant scurry across a crack in the sidewalk. Nor will she have time to pop out of bed with the dawn to kiss lilac blossoms in the morning dew.

No...now she'll worry about important things like grades and which dress to wear and whose best friend is whose. She'll forget her blocks and dolls, and now she'll find new heroes. For five full years now, I've been her sage and Santa Claus, pal and playmate, Father and friend.

Now she'll learn to share her worship with her teachers, which is only right.  But, no longer will I be the smartest, greatest man in the whole world.

 Today, when that school bell rings for the first time, she'll learn what
 it means to be a member of the group, with all its privileges and its
 disadvantages, too. She'll learn in time that proper ladies do not laugh
out loud or kiss dogs or keep frogs in pickle jars in bedrooms, or even watch  ants scurry across cracks in the summer sidewalk.

 Today, she'll learn for the first time that all who smile at her are not her friends, and I'll stand on the front porch and watch her start out on the long lonely journey to becoming a woman.

So world, I bequeath to you today, one little girl in a crispy blue dress
 with two blue eyes and a happy laugh that ripples all day long, and a flash of blonde hair that bounces in the sunlight when she runs.

I trust you will treat her well.