Authors’ Blog

The return of Lord 6-Rabbit

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:44:38 -0400

Our Publisher asked us to record a video of our school visits. The perfect opportunity was an event at a summer camp in Vermont. The campfire setting created just the right atmosphere. Dustin Schaber played a magnificent Lord 6-Rabbit.

Frog Princes

Fri, 8 May 2009 13:18:58 -0400

Great to see Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry (and all the other famous faces) putting their weight behind a campaign to save the rainforest.

2012 Mania

Thu, 7 May 2009 15:02:57 -0400

We’ve done a lot of middle school visits this year and the kids keep asking us about 2012. They’re very excited about the usual apocalyptic stuff (the end of the world, earth crust displacement, magnetic pole shift, etc). With a 2012 movie coming out later this year, the hysteria is only likely to rise. So we've put together a presentation called Spacemen, skulls & solstices - the truth about 2012 to try and answer all their questions. It’s a wild ride through some of the crack-pot ideas you find on the internet (like the video to the right) and explains what the Maya really thought would happen in December 2012.

Middleworld Read-In

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:34:46 -0400

We spent the day at The Horace Mann School in New York City for their annual “Read In”. The aim was for everyone in the middle school, pupils and teachers, to read the same book: Middleworld. And today every single session, all day long, was related in some way to the book. We taught two classes on writing Maya glyphs, did a talk on 2012 and gave the keynote speech on the Ancient Maya and the rainforest. Teacher Kevin Nichols needed no encouragement to take on the character of the great and fearsome Maya king, Lord 6-Rabbit.

In Mexico

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:32:22 -0500

We had one car, two pith helmets, three kids and just nine days to visit eleven Maya sites across the Mexican states of the Yucatan, Campeche, Chiapas and Quintana Roo. Sheer madness really, but we’re nothing if not intrepid.
We started with an easy one: Chichen Itza (1), home of El Castillo, probably the best known of all Maya pyramids. An hour or so down the road was Izamal (2), where the infamous Friar DeLanda built a monastery directly on top of an ancient Maya temple. The delightfully named pyramid of Kinich Kak Moo (Sun-Eyed Fire Macaw) still towers over this beautiful colonial town where almost every building is painted the same shade of eggy yellow.
After visiting the museum in Merida to check out the Ancient Maya skulls, we headed for Uxmal (3) - an enchanting site built across a series of low hills. Every temple and pyramid in Uxmal is lavishly decorated in mosaic stonework.
From Uxmal it was a long, hot drive down to Palenque (4) fabled city of King Pakal the Great and his mother Lady Sak K’uk’. Like the Romans half a world away, Pakal’s palace had creature comforts like steam baths and flush toilets. His tomb, beneath the Temple of the Inscriptions, was one of the most spectacular discoveries of Maya archeology.
We drove on across the Zapatista heartland to the treacherous Usumacinta river, which marks the border between Mexico and Guatemala. The only way to access the remote site of Yaxchilan (5) is by boat, past freshwater crocodiles and the ruins of a Maya bridge. This lush green city of Yaxchilan is famous for its stone lintels which are some of the most evocative carvings in the Maya world.
Back down the river and through the Lacondan rainforest, we found the tiny site of Bonampak. While there is not much to see architecturally, it is famous for its brightly painted murals which provide a thrilling window into Maya court life.
Our next destination was Calakmul (7), a huge site deep in its own biosphere. From the gateway of the nature reserve, it’s another hour’s drive on a single track road teeming with wildlife to arrive at the ruins of the city. The mind-blowingly massive pyramids (one has a base that covers four acres) rise majestically above the rainforest canopy which spreads out as far as the eye can see.
It was a short drive from Calakmul to the delightful walled city of Becán (8) with its narrow village streets and characteristic double pyramid construction style. Nearby is the small site of Chicanna (9) whose main claim to fame is a well restored temple entered through the open maw of the earth monster.
Continuing northeast toward the Caribbean, we arrived at the city of Cobá. After days when we’d had whole sites to ourselves, it was a surprise to suddenly be surrounded by hordes of tourists (from nearby Cancun). The steps of the highest pyramid were as busy as a New York subway station with bodies making their way up and down. Nestled in the forest was a grove of carved stela, one of which bears the largest number ever conceived by ancient man.
We ended the trip on the coast at the striking seaside city of Tulum. With its city walls and pillars and palm trees, it felt like a Roman trading port on the Mediterranean.
To see more photographs, click on J&Ps travels in Mexico.

When in Rome...

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:32:04 -0500

As part of our background research, we recently visited Rome. One reason was to experience first hand the labyrinth of tunnels and subterranean temples underneath the city, which remind us so much of the sort of places Max Murphy often seems to find himself in. But the main reason was to explore the many fascinating parallels between the Ancient Maya and the Roman empire.

Both were extremely successful and long lasting civilizations (with the Maya pre-dating and outlasting the Romans). They both created highly evolved cultures, monumental architecture, straight roads to connect their cities, impressive water management systems, rich literary traditions, unique counting systems, beautiful and evocative art, and even their own games and sport. Although the Romans had the edge in metallurgy, the Maya were more advanced in astronomy and mathematics.

The Maya were certainly on our minds when we toured the Roman Colosseum, site of some of the bloodiest spectator sports in history. (It always seems unfair that the civic-minded Maya are remembered for human sacrifice while the bloodthirsty Romans get roads and baths.)

We were excited, on our return, to hear that the experts have just discovered another link between the Maya and the Romans. Dr Marc Zender, a Harvard Lecturer, has deciphered the elusive Jatz’ glyph, which we now know means ‘to strike’. This has helped archeologists understand texts that describe how Maya ball courts were sometimes used for ritualized gladiatorial combat. While Roman gladiators fought solely to entertain the crowds, Maya gladiators fought to encourage rain in times of drought. The Maya believed that by drawing blood from their opponents they would provide vital sustenance for the gods who would in turn send rain. In some modern Maya communities, boxers still dress up as jaguars and fight each other to encourage rain.

Links:

Dr. Marc Zender:
Deciphering Jatz’ and Nahb glyphs.

Archeology magazine:
“Fighting with Jaguars, Bleeding for Rain”

You Tube:
Modern Jaguar fighters.

Meeting a Hero

Tue, 13 May 2008 11:25:09 -0400

World-famous archaeologist, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Curator Emeritus in the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University, prolific author, holder of the prestigious Order of the Quetzal ... Michael D. Coe is to Maya studies what Elvis is to Rock’n’ Roll. So how the College for Lifelong Learning in Lebanon, New Hampshire, managed to lure him up to our little neck of the woods is a mystery to us. But we’re glad they did and we were honored to attend his lecture at the Dartmouth Outing Club. As one of the Mayanists responsible for cracking the code of the Maya glyphs, Dr Coe held the audience spellbound as he told a fascinating story of false starts, academic rivalries, inspired leaps and lucky guesses. It was a true brush with greatness and we were sorely tempted to tie him up and kidnap him and keep him in a closet at home to answer all our questions about the Maya and maybe somehow imbue us with a tiny bit of his genius. Sadly, he made his getaway back to Yale while we were looking for some rope ...

Notes from the road

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:25:10 -0400

Once the snow began to melt in the rest of the country (though not, of course, here in Vermont) we set off on a spring book tour. From upstate New York through Arkansas and Mississippi to the bright lights of Las Vegas, we visited bookstores, schools and book clubs. Wherever we went, we met great kids, hospitable school librarians and sporting teachers and principals who threw themselves with gusto into the role of Lord 6 Rabbit, our Maya King.

There were so many memorable moments. Like when the Greenland Middle School in Arkansas decorated their canteen for us with extraordinary Maya artwork including jaguar heads. and metal work calendar glyphs. Or the magical evening in Oxford, Miss, where Jill Moore of Square Books Jr. had laid out a sumptuous spread (including the tamales from our own recipe in the back of Middleworld) all made by legendary local chef Andy. Or the amazing collection of Maya city-state posters, postcards and letters produced by the students of the Canarelli Middle School in Las Vegas with the help of our lesson plan CD.

So many great days, so many new friends. Who wouldn’t want this job?

Snow days

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:39:12 -0500

We’ve had over 100 inches of snow so far in our little corner of Vermont this winter. When school was cancelled yet again this week, our children were delighted. While the neighborhood kids made snowmen, ours made a Maya pyramid. This family obsession may be getting out of hand.

DIGGING DEEPER

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:48:15 -0500

As Middleworld is full of information about the rainforest and the Maya, it’s getting a good reception in schools. It was natural next step to develop a range of cross-curricular lesson plans. So with the help of sister-in-law Christy Voelkel (an extraordinarily gifted middle school teacher who specializes in curriculum development) and Dartmouth grad-student Jessica Carvalho, we’ve produced a CD for teachers called Digging Deeper.

To help us spread the word, we contacted the online newsletter Middleweb. They wrote the short piece on the left and we were immediately inundated with requests. We’ve now sent out over 200 CDs to schools in every state, and to places as far away as Australia and Pakistan.

If you’re a middle school teacher and would like to receive a copy, just email us your name and school address and we’ll send you a free CD.

Book Group

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 14:42:32 -0500

Tonight we donned our safari gear and pith helmets to tramp through the freshly fallen snow to our local library. Together with the general store, the Norwich Public Library is pretty much the center of village life and they always seem to have a fun event on the cards. Tonight a middle school book group were discussing what might happen in The Jaguar Stones - Book Two. We couldn’t resist the opportunity to eavesdrop and got ourselves invited. Fortified with cups of spicy Maya hot chocolate and crunchy cacao-nib cookies we had a fascinating evening – and got some interesting ideas!

Of course, our lips are sealed about what happens in book two, but we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Big Result!

Sat, 1 Dec 2007 13:36:02 -0500

Today we found out that Middleworld has been chosen as a Winter 2007/2008 Book Sense Pick. Every season the Independent Booksellers across the country choose what they think are the best new books to recommend to their customers. Getting picked is a huge vote of confidence by the book trade and has a great impact on sales.

One of the nominating booksellers was Lisa Sharp from Nightbird Books in Fayetteville, AR. She wrote - “In this fast-paced book, the reader is treated to fascinating information about the Maya even as Max overcomes his dislike for his parents' job and saves the world. I'm looking forward to the other books in this trilogy."

Thank you to Lisa - and to everyone else who nominated us!

Our First Book Fair

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:22:06 -0500

When a private school in Manhattan invited us to their “pre-book-fair cocktail party”, it sounded like a very fun way to visit New York City AND sell a lot of books. Since they don’t make sophisticated black pith helmets for cocktail parties, we turned up in our usual khaki safari gear. We’d been warned not to bring even a palm frond in terms of props as space was an issue, so it was also fun to be traveling light for once.

The book fair itself was an incredible sight. It was set up in a small auditorium, stage and backstage and all, that was crammed completely full with tables. And on each table was a vertiginous mountain of books. We now understood the space issue. It was thrilling to see so many books in such a small space - and even more thrilling to know that our book was one of them.

We were squeezed onto a long table with ten other authors. For those of us not on the ends, there was no possibility of moving or getting up. You just sat there behind a pile of your books until someone came up and asked you to sign one. We concentrated on trying to look friendly and approachable, and definitely not needy or desperate. (Trying not to look needy or desperate when you’re wearing a pith helmet at a Manhattan cocktail party takes some doing.) We did a brisk enough trade, but we couldn’t help looking enviously at the well-known cookbook author who signed non-stop all evening until she completely sold out of books.

Ahhh, maybe one day.

Tucson Calling

Mon, 5 Nov 2007 14:16:37 -0500

It was a huge honor, but absolutely terrifying. Middleworld was chosen by the Wakefield Middle School in Tucson to spearhead their school-wide literacy drive. And to launch the scheme, they invited us to come and present to the entire school.

In the week leading up to the event, jungle noises were played over the intercom, intriguing posters were put up in the hallways, the film class made a teaser TV commercial, the librarian produced a chapter by chapter summary in Spanish for the ESL kids, press releases were sent to all the local media and, in a uniquely southwestern maneuver, the school Mariachi band began practicing a welcome song.

When we got there, the library had been transformed into a jungle and the principal, Wade McRea, had gamely volunteered to be our Maya king for the day. In six back-to back presentations we worked our way through the entire student body and Wade, like a trooper, entered on cue every time. Between performances, he kept the costume on as he attended to school duties and that night he was featured in the evening paper and on the TV news.

What an amazing day. What an amazing school, amazing teachers, amazing kids. Thank you so much, Wakefield for a day we will never forget. And thank you, too, to the Vail Middle School and the Wildcat Charter School, who also made us very welcome on our flying visit to Arizona.

Flight Case

Fri, 2 Nov 2007 14:06:49 -0400

Over time, our presentation has accumulated a motley assortment of props... pith helmets, safari gear, a full sized mannequin, boxes of fried mealworm larva and dried crickets, an elaborate Maya King costume with a three foot tall headdress, a life-sized stand-up cardboard cutout, an authentic seven foot long South American blowpipe, jaguar tablecloth, jungle plants, LCD projector, screen, speakers, laptop, etc. It’s starting to look like a touring production of Indiana Jones. We can just about squeeze it all into our car to visit schools and bookstores in New England. But with some trips across the country looming, we’ve been wondering how we were going to get it all on a plane?

Ok, so we could lose the jungle plants. And the mannequin could be reduced to a torso. But even with everything else crammed into an embarrassingly large collection of suitcases and bags, there was one item that defied us – the Maya headdress. It’s fragile, and it’s huge. There wasn’t a case anywhere that was big enough to hold it, while meeting airline size and weight restrictions. Two days before our first flight, we stumbled on the solution: a dog carrier. Heaven only knows what homeland security make of it, as it gets opened and inspected every time.

The Big Launch

Fri, 5 Oct 2007 10:55:45 -0400

So today was the day we’d been looking forward to and dreading. Our big launch in New York City. We did a practice run-through on Wednesday for the party guests of our friends, Cee Greene and Paul Verbinnen, in their amazing apartment on Central Park West. Of course, that night, our Maya king was still in the Barnes & Noble window. Luckily, our niece Nicole, who made the costume and who’d joined us in NY for the launch, improvised the part and became a completely terrifying Maya king dressed in a jaguar-pattern tablecloth and brandishing the 8ft long blowgun that Jon’s dad had just brought back from Colombia. (But that’s another story.) At Barnes & Noble today, we yanked the costume out of the window and it was worn with panache by ‘Big Guy’ – alias student teacher, Andrew Marsiglio. Our audience at B&N consisted of about seventy 7th and 8th graders bussed in from local schools, a few homeschoolers, a few tourists, a few street people, Cee Greene and – drumroll, please – all the way from London, England, our former partner and managing director from our advertising days, David Watson. It went well. It went very well. And the best news of all? B&N have just extended the king’s engagement in their window for the whole of October. That’s got to sell some books, wouldn’t you think?

The King on Broadway...

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 10:46:11 -0400

We left the NEIBA conference early to drive our Maya king mannequin down to New York, where he’ll be holding court in the window of Barnes & Noble, on the corner of Broadway and 66th St – right opposite the Lincoln Center - for the next two weeks. Even if we do say it ourselves, he looks amazing…

A Providential Weekend

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:23:55 -0400

The last stop on our pre-launch trail was the New England Independent Booksellers Association trade show in Providence, Rhode Island. While the publisher took orders, we enjoyed meeting local booksellers and arranging more signing events at stores, libraries and schools. We were also extremely happy to hear that ‘Middleworld’ had made it onto their children’s fall review list of recommended books.

Back to School...

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 09:57:29 -0400

For the rest of September, we took our BBQ mealworms around Vermont schools to hone our presentation, ready for New York. We also did our first ever live radio interview. It was a morning chat show on a local station and, apart from the fact that they got both our names wrong and called the book “The Jugular Stones”, it went reasonably well - for the first five minutes until Jon blurted out “Testicles!” (The host had read about his eating monkey stew on this website and was pressing him to name other disgusting things he’d eaten.) Luckily for us, the signal went down, so hopefully they had a chance to edit it before it eventually aired…

Old Home Day...

Sat, 8 Sep 2007 00:11:57 -0400

Today we festooned the Jeep in jungle foliage and lured Donald Kreis back into his Maya king garb, to join the Norwich Old Home day parade. At the last minute, we discovered that the theme of the parade was, inconveniently for us, “Pirates”. Thinking quickly, we recruited a gang of sixth-grade girls to dress as swashbuckling buccaneers and pursue the jeep, waving their swords and shouting, “Give us yer treasure, arrrrrrrgh.” It made sense at the time.