The blog of author Matthew J. Kirby

Category: Miscellaneous

  • The Green Spy

    As I arrived at work the other day, my principal came into my office and asked me if I wanted to do something fun with him. “Sure thing,” I said. “Thanks.  I need to you be the Green Spy,” he said. “The what?” “The Green Spy.” “Okay,” I said.  “What’s the Green Spy?” “You go…

  • Once Was Lost book launch, and Carl Sagan

    On Thursday I attended the book launch for Sara Zarr’s new novel Once Was Lost.  It was a wonderful event, with a reading and a Q&A, and beautiful cookies and a birthday cake.  Afterward, some of us went out to eat and had a really nice time. I was going to do a write-up on…

  • A Rude Awakening

    Several weeks ago, I woke up to the sound of gunshots outside my bedroom window.  I jumped out of bed and peered out the window to see what was going on.  Police vehicles surrounded the house next door, including one of those black SWAT vans, and police in body armor prowled the yard, converging on…

  • A Conversation in Spam

    My blog’s spam filter blocks all kinds of interesting comments, which are typically listed as being authored by an apparently verbal and sometimes intelligent pharmaceutical.  Usually, the comments are along the unintelligible lines of, “qkweyfpewlku…@#$%!34.”  But lately, I’ve had some rather coherent comments that actually started to make my spam queue sound like an online…

  • You laugh now, but wait till the zombie apocalypse!

    A team at the University of Ottawa has contributed a groundbreaking paper to the study of infectious disease: When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection.  Yes, zombie infection. From the abstract: “We introduce a basic model for zombie infection, determine equilibria and their stability, and illustrate the outcome with numerical solutions.…

  • "Zubbles"

    At long last, we can all blow colored bubbles. When I read this I thought to myself, “You mean we couldn’t before?”  But then I thought about it and I realized I’d never actually seen a colored bubble.  It turns out that it’s very difficult to manage without staining whatever the bubbles happen to pop…

  • A book update, sort of, and a funny video just for the heck of it.

    But the book news is more of a tease than a real update.  My editor sent me the “concept” that they’re working on for my book cover (awesome!) as well as the artist they’d like to work with.  They don’t know yet if he’ll be available when they need him, but I really hope he…

  • Movie Adaptations

    I’ve recently been thinking about what makes a good feature-length movie adaptation of a picture book, and what doesn’t.  I’ve decided that I don’t think picture books can be directly adapted for feature films.  At least, not in the sense that a novel can.  Picture books are an art form altogether different from other types…

  • Just so you know…

    I’ll be posting infrequently for a while.  There’s a lot going on and not enough time to do it in.  But I plan to resume regular weekly posting in a few months. Thanks.

  • Here we go…

    Ah, the first blog post.  The one where I feel compelled to announce that this is my first blog post, to acknowledge that this is the beginning, to let you know that you are not walking in on a conversation that was already going before you got here.  Well, consider it acknowledged.  So, here we…