Greg Fishbone makes stuff up at his blog, which, dontcha know it, is titled I Make Stuff Up!
But he doesn’t, really. He coins witty terms and then defines them with true trivia, factoids and news items.
Check out this take called ‘Eternal Dog,’ which he defines as "a supreme being worshipped by dyslexics" before telling us about a type of canine cancer that lives on:
Anyone who’s ever owned a dog knows that they don’t live forever.
Usually. But Zhou-Zhou’s owners probably wished their dog would never
die. Because Zhou-Zhou was such a good boy, yes he was! And when you
wish for something hard enough and often enough, sometimes your wish
comes true. That’s just playing the odds.Sometime during his life, Zhou-Zhou got a little sick. One of the
cells in his immune system became cancerous and grew into a tumor the
size of a grapefruit. After a few months the tumor went away, and
Zhou-Zhou was healthy again. So healthy that he had become
immortal…in a way.
You can also sense his dismay at product placement in teen novels, as in this riff on product placement:
It’s not surprising that product placement is finally hitting the
field of literature, just surprising that it’s taken this long. Once
Cheerios came out with a picture book, was it really so much of a
stretch that books for older children and adults would be targeted
next? Actually, I’m amazed it’s taken so long. That Cheerios book came
out in 1998!I’m also amazed at the harsh backlash from consumer groups like
Commercial Alert, which is involved in the struggle to limit
advertising to the traditional venues where it is becoming less and
less effective. Commercial Alert went so far as to email hundreds of
book reviewers, asking them not to review the book. In the process,
they’ve raised the profile of the book, drawn attention to it, and
quite likely increased the sales of it.
Greg’s also one of the founders of the 2k7 site, a resource and showcase for first-time authors whose books come out in the coming year.
He answered a few questions for us:
Q. Blogging since:
A. 2001
Q. Category you’re judging:
A. Science Fiction and Fantasy
Q. Favorite book that didn’t make the shortlist:
A.Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Thanks, Greg, for your hard work on Cybils and for the 2yk authors.