The latest review of Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom is up at Reading Junky’s Reading Roost. It’s kinda spoilery, so I’ll just quote the important part:
DOC WILDE AND THE FROGS OF DOOM offers non-stop excitement, terrific special effects, and tons of science/geek information.
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Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom came out last Thursday (May 14th).
Reviews continue to be AWESOME.
Friday evening, I did a reading at Glennwood Academy, the local 4th/5th grade school. I used to do a bit of acting, and in my twenties was a semi-pro storyteller for a couple of years, but this was my first public speaking event in years. I was anxious about it. I fumbled a bit. The kids didn’t mind; they were a mass of bubbling enthusiasm. And they loved the book.
Also, a good friend sent a gift with her daughter, who’s a Glennwood student: a package of quite tasty cookies shaped like frogs.
Saturday evening, we had the debut event at Little Shop of Stories, here in Decatur, GA.
At first it seemed the turnout might be small. Heck, at first it seemed there’d be no turnout. The weather was wettish, a good number of the local 4th and 5th graders had already seen me at Glennwood, and as anyone looking at the storefront would know, Rick Riordan (a kids’ book superstar) was gonna be here Monday. If folks were gonna turn out for me and my little first book or him this week, it wasn’t gonna be me. (And, indeed, apparently there were hundreds of people at his signing).
Then people started arriving. And then, we had a fairly good crowd. It was mostly adults, probably an unusual bunch for this store, and they were mostly people who knew about the signing from Facebook or my blog. Many were buying extra copies for kids in their lives, though.
Among the kids was a delightful girl named Emily, who was was there with her parents; she’d won an ARC (advance reading copy) of the book somewhere, and had fallen in love with it. She said she’d have read it in a single sitting except bedtime got in the way (I of course said she should’ve gotten out the flashlight). I’ve now heard from several girls who read and loved the book, which is heartening, because a lot of folks peg it as a boy’s book, but I think it’s great for both.
Emily and her parents
We had one tiny beautiful baby with huge cornflower blue eyes, carried by a couple of old friends. The marvelous writer/artist Elizabeth O. Dulemba was there with her husband. I saw old friends (some I hadn’t seen in years), made several new ones.
The Wilde Bunche
Because I’d been sort of nervous and fumbly at Glennwood, I’d been even more anxious about this event. But this time, once I was introduced and started talking, the stage fright vanished and I was as comfortable as I used to be back in my storytelling days.
"Grab your backpacks," Doc Wilde commanded...
I read the first five chapters and everyone was responsive and enthusiastic. Then I took questions, which took a lot longer than I’d expected because there were a lot of them. It all felt good. Really good.
"I have absolutely no idea where I get my ideas..."
Then we moved to the other end of the room and I signed everyone’s books.
Go Wilde!
A bowl of green gummi frogs was on the table. I’d gotten a rubber-stamp of a wicked looking frog and I stamped its sneaky smirk into each book.
Good times.
The latest review of Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom is from Tia Nevitt at Fantasy Debut (and also has the distinction of being the first actual reader review posted for the book at Amazon, where she gives it 5 stars).
She seems to love it:
The adventure is a blend of Cthulhuian gods and a 10-year-old boy’s passion for all things squishy–like frogs. I mean, who can possibly find a frog anything but harmless? If anything, they’re a bit icky, but they don’t even have claws! They have little suction-cup thingies…kind of cute. . .in an amphibian kind of way.
Not Mr. Byrd’s frogs. They are green menaces! They have claws and gnashing teeth! And tentacles!
It’s fun. It’s also smart. There’s all sorts of interesting stuff in this little novel, like dark matter, nanotechnology (in a rather over-the-top way) and a smattering of Latin…
You can read the rest here.
There’s a good deal more, and she manages to say a lot without spoiling stuff, which I deeply appreciate (as will most readers, I think). I’m also very impressed with Fantasy Debut‘s review format, which includes a block at the start of the review that gives Amazon links for the USA, UK, and Canada, links to both the official Doc Wilde site and the Doc Wilde blog (which is different than this, my personal blog), and a link to the excerpt from the book I’ve made available. They’re really serving their readers well.
The latest review of Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom is from Book Nut:
I needed something, after finishing The Woman in White, that was as far away from Victorian serialized novels as I could get. And, sorting through my piles of stuff, I came across this one. Which screams “not stuffy”. (Also “campy” and “not deep”, among other things.)
First off: how awesome is that title? Just saying it makes me grin… though I have to admit that I tend to say it in that movie-announcer voice: “DOC WILDE and the FROGS of DOOOOOOM!” Honestly: how much better can you get than frogs of doom? Not much.
That said, it totally and completely lived up to my campy expectations…It’s smart, enjoyable, campy fun. Perfect for a hot summer day (or a kid whose tastes tend toward the mutant…).
The full review is here. It’s pretty much a rave, she clearly enjoyed the book and is quite enthusiastic about it. She does use the term “campy” a lot, which hurts my soul a bit because as regular blog readers will know, I tend to not like campy things, and don’t consider Doc Wilde campy.
In my eyes, camp makes fun of its subjects, and I’m very serious (though also very playful) about the Wildes. As Alex Bledsoe at Guys Lit Wire wrote in his review, the book “while light-hearted, never turns to self-referential mockery.” But that’s a semantics issue (and actually a debate I had with my editor, so Melissa’s not alone in her definition of camp), and a minor one since she’s using the term in an enthusiastic way.
She also falls into the same “golden=blonde” trap that Tim Gabor, the cover artist, fell into:
You have a god of a Dad in Doc: a tall, muscular, blonde, intelligent, rich inventor who happens to Love his family and adventures…
Upon seeing the cover art, my son (the inspiration for Doc Wilde’s son, Brian) asked “When did we become blonde?” That’s because I described the Wildes thus:
They were all long-limbed and golden: golden brown hair, golden tans, and large eyes with glittering irises that seemed composed of layered gold leaf…
They have golden brown hair. Gary Chaloner got it right in his depictions of the Wildes, and in the real world, Jessica Alba’s hair and skin are about right for them:
But lots of folks are going to see gold and think yellow, so I figure I’m going to have to get used to that. ;)
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Finally! As of yesterday, Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom is officially published! You can find it in bookstores and on the net.
The book is the first in a series of modern pulp adventures which follow the expoits of Dr. Spartacus Wilde and his swashbuckling kids, Brian and Wren.
If you’re somehow out of the loop, you can find out more about the book at the Doc Wilde web site, http://www.DocWilde.com. Continue reading
…is pretty darn good, thankfully.
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It’s just a few days before the book lands in bookstores (Thursday, May 14th), so I figured I’d post a roster of the reviews it has received thus far for the interested:
“Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom is an adventure yarn in the old tradition. It gets that reading is an intellectual activity, and that an adventure, to be really good, has to engage the reader’s brain. I love a smart book!”
—Daniel Pinkwater, author of
The Neddiad and The Yggyssey
“Written in fast-paced, intelligent prose laced with humor and literary allusions ranging from Dante to Dr. Seuss, the story has all of the fun of old-fashioned pulp adventures. A tale ‘terrifying and dark, of indescribable horrors and eldritch mysteries,’ this is sure to be Wilde-ly popular, and readers will anxiously await future installments.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Tim Byrd’s rollicking Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom is part Jonny Quest, part Doc Savage and all a massive hoot…it’s a balls-out adventure that, while light-hearted, never turns to self-referential mockery…“
—Alex Bledsoe, Guys Lit Wire
Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom is a pulp-pounding ribbiting croaker of a tale!
—Will Murray, author of
seven Doc Savage novels
“Like its spiritual predecessors, the two-fisted adventure novels for boys and grown-up boys, this is a book to be read under the covers, with a flashlight, way past bedtime. It is old-school entertainment and proud of it.”
—Quentin Dodd, author of
Beatnik Rutabagas from Beyond the Stars
Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom is a fun pulp adventure that pays homage to Doc Savage while targeting the tweener crowd. The story line is fast and lighthearted as the heroes battle mutant fogs. With literary quotes ranging from Seuss to Lovecraft and beyond, Tim Byrd avoids dumbing down his novel. Young readers will relish the escapades of the Wilde family and friends as they struggle to save the world one croak at a time.
—Harriet Klausner, Genre Go Round
I can’t say that all girls will love this series, but I know quite a few who will. Meanwhile, I know for certain that boys, especially those who like Indiana Jones, Jonny Quest and adventure movies like National Treasure and The Mummy will love it!
—Tracy Farnsworth, Roundtable Reviews
Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom doesn’t really have one main character. It’s the story of a family…The basic premise behind the book is very clever, and the quality of the writing is excellent.
—Gail Gauthier,
author of Happy Kid!
Action adventure is just the tip of the iceberg because this book is actually crammed full of interesting and, dare we say it, educational tidbits…Parents, don’t be surprised if you find yourselves enjoying this fun pulp fiction just as much as your kids.
—Sandy Amazeen, Monsters and Critics
I woke up (well, mostly…I’m still working at it) this morning to a new Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom review. It’s notable because it looks like it could well have been my first negative review, but wound up very positive anyway.
It’s by Sondra Eklund at Sonderbooks, and she began like this:
Okay, I admit it. When I read the first chapter of this book, it reminded me way too much of the Spy Kids movie that my children watched until it nauseated me. I wasn’t at all sure I could finish the book.
She also notes:
The book is described as a tribute to the old pulp adventure novels. That is perhaps my problem — I never was a fan of those books.
A clear case of “not every thing is for every one,” right? But then:
However…I began to be intrigued to learn in what over-the-top way Doc Wilde and his children Brian and Wren would get the better of the sinister amazonian frogs of doom. The less I took it seriously, the more fun I had reading it…once I got in the habit, I did find myself coming back for more each night…
I am looking forward to having this book on the library shelves. I think it will be a natural choice for young comic book fans ready for a little more text and a lot of rollicking adventure. The story is indeed over-the-top. Brian and Wren take after their father — tanned, golden-haired, strong, agile, good-looking, and incredibly smart. Throw in being magnificently wealthy with all kinds of high-tech gadgets invented by Doc Wilde himself, and you won’t be surprised when they get out of every life-threatening situation thrown at them. The fun comes in at how they get out of it this time.
And the adventure continues.
And, another review of my novel Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom, this time from Sandy Amazeen at Monsters and Critics:
Rock’em, sock’em cliffhanging adventure…Action adventure is just the tip of the iceberg because this book is actually crammed full of interesting and dare we say it, educational tidbits…Parents, don’t be surprised if you find yourselves enjoying this fun pulp fiction just as much as your kids.
And that, of course, is the idea.
A few days ago, I blogged about the latest review of Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom, from Bruce Grossman at Bookgasm.
I left a comment for him at their site, thanking him for the great review, and received a message back:
You can thank the people of National Grid for such a super fast review. Since last Wednesday night, right as LOST was about to start, power in my neighborhood went out. So I started reading your book by flashlight since it seemed it would pass the time till the power came back on. Throughly loved it as you can see from the review.
Author Quentin Dodd, whose blurb made the cover of the book, wrote that it’s “a book to be read under the covers, with a flashlight, way past bedtime.”
Bruce Grossman may be the reader who has thus far gotten closest to the pure Doc Wilde experience.
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Monday morning, groggy with no coffee in the cupboard, eating my oatmeal without raisins (you may figure out it’s shopping day), checking email and Facebook and Twitter…
And finding the latest review of my book, Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom! It’s by Bruce Grossman at Bookgasm (“Reading material to get excited about”), and it has made up for my caffeine deficiency this morning.
…Growing up, being turned on to a series like Doc Savage opened up a new world to most readers, but the problem is that those books — even reissued so nicely — might not appeal to this new generation. Kids will look at the covers and just go, “Oh, that’s old.”
Byrd has come up with a perfect idea to showcase what pulp reading is all about. He does not hide the fact one bit that he is reworking the Doc Savage template for the character of Doc Wilde. There are so many nods and winks to the old series that we oldsters will enjoy this “ribbiting” read.
Byrd’s writing never talks down to its young readers, and all his characters are well-defined, not relying on the old stereotype of children who constantly fall into danger. The kids in this book come off as little adventurers who are ready for action and smart enough to quote H.P. Lovecraft, while Wilde is a second-generation adventurer totally in the Savage vein. Wilde’s father is a version of Doc most of us read growing up, still living at the Empire State Building on the 86th floor…
I love it that people are really getting what I tried to do, and enjoying it. Read the whole review here.
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Children’s author Gail Gauthier read Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom and offered up some interesting thoughts about it on her blog. She seems to have had trouble pigeonholing it as she read the first part of the story: Continue reading
Earlier, I told you folks that the Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom official debut event was to be held on Friday, May 15th. That is no longer the case.
Instead, it will be held the next evening:
The Day: Saturday, May 16, 2009
The Time: 7 pm
The Place: Little Shop of Stories in beautiful downtown Decatur, GA.
Little Shop is one of the finest bookstores in the Atlanta area. It lives next to the Starbucks in Decatur, GA., and is mostly dedicated to books for young people, but also has a smart selection of grown-up fare for grown up kids.
It’s one of those small bookstores that springs from a place of obvious vision and love, with a warm, knowledgeable staff and comfy couches. They’re very active in the community, working with schools and literacy programs as well as helping organize the famous Decatur Book Festival. And so much stellar talent has passed through that the wall behind the counter is like a museum, covered with wonderful sketches and notes from writers and artists who have visited.
I’m thrilled and proud to be officially debuting the Wilde’s adventures at Little Shop, and hope to see you there!
I was slated to be on Alpha Waves, the Internet science fiction radio show tonight, one of three guests discussing pulp fiction, as I mentioned in this post. But I realized that I’d agreed to it without remembering that tonight was also the debut event of my friend Terra Elan McVoy’s first novel, Pure. I checked with the guys at Alpha Waves, and they cheerfully agreed to prerecord my segment. Thanks for the flexibility, guys.
So, this morning I called in via Skype and host Nick Chase and I discussed Doc Wilde and pulp fiction for a while, and it was a good time, even though it was my first time doing this sort of thing. I just listened to the full show with my son, and I have to hand it to the hosts, they do a great job. Eric Mona of Planet Stories and writer Gareth Michael Skarka were interviewed in the segments before mine, and were both very informative and entertaining, leaving me wondering if we’d get to my bit and I’d be all like “Uhhhh…dopey me…” in comparison.
Well, I’m pleased with the way it turned out. That being the case, I’m actually going to tell you where you can find it if you want to listen to it:
The latest review (I started to say latest good review, but so far they’re all good!) of Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom is from Tracy Farnsworth at Roundtable Reviews:
To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. I did find it reminiscent of old Johnny Quest with the snappy dialog, unusual foes and general camaraderie between the kids, their father and their father’s assistants.
I can’t say that all girls will love this series, but I know quite a few who will. Meanwhile, I know for certain that boys, especially those who like Indiana Jones, Johnny Quest and adventure movies like National Treasure and The Mummy will love it!
I’m glad she made a point of saying that quite a few girls will love the Wildes, because it’s very easy for folks to slot the book into a “boys’ book” category, when actually it’s good for both genders by design. Wren Wilde is as involved and smart and capable as her older brother, Grandma Wilde is a strong and powerful woman (though exactly how strong and powerful will be revealed in later tales), and female readers thus far have enjoyed the wit and action of the book, but also the closeness and warmth of the Wilde family.
Additionally, it’s written to be sophisticated enough for adult readers, operating on multiple levels the way something like The Incredibles does, so it’s meant for everybody who can read.
The rest of the review is here.
This coming Friday, April 17th, I will be on the Internet radio show Alpha Waves talking about pulp fiction and Doc Wilde:
You’ve been to Airlock Alpha, the best science-fiction news Web site on the Internet. Now listen to the online radio show that comes with it, featuring hosts Wayne Hall and Nick Chase along with great guests from all over science-fiction. Alpha Waves airs every Friday at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on BlogTalkRadio!
The theme of the evening is pulp, and other guests will be Erik Mona of Planet Stories (a publisher of classic science fiction and pulp), and writer Gareth Michael Skarka, whose love of pulp fiction resulted in the roleplaying games Thrilling Tales and Mars (which recreates old-fashioned sword & planet adventures ala Edgar Rice Burroughs’s John Carter of Mars tales), as well as the pulp anthology also called Thrilling Tales (which features a new adventure of classic serial hero Commando Cody, precursor to The Rocketeer). Gareth’s also a friend.
So if you want to listen and see if I can actually converse in an intelligent manner, remember: Friday, April 17th, 8 pm EST, at this link. [NOTE: As I write this, the listing on their site has me as “Tim Boyd.” But really, honest, it’s supposed to be me, Tim Byrd. I’m only known as Tim Boyd in Brooklyn. I’ve emailed them to let ’em know.]
Uber-reviewer Harriet Klausner has posted a review of my novel Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom. The first part of it is a plot summary that contains some major spoilers, but the meat of the review is all good:
DOC WILDE AND THE FROGS OF DOOM is a fun pulp adventure that pays homage to Doc Savage while targeting the tweener crowd. The story line is fast and lighthearted as the heroes battle mutant frogs. With literary quotes ranging from Seuss to Lovecraft and beyond, Tim Byrd avoids dumbing down his novel. Young readers will relish the escapades of the Wilde family and friends as they struggle to save the world one croak at a time.
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Another rave review for my book, Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom, this time from Barry Hunter at The Baryon Review. Here’s a taste:
If you remember the pulps and Doc Savage, you need to pick this one up. It’s a true delight and will be something your children will enjoy as well…
[Tim] Byrd has taken Doc Savage, added in a pinch of Robert E. Howard, a liberal dose of H.P. Lovecraft, and mixed it all together in a well done, enchanting pastiche of the pulps that will appeal to the adult audience as well as the young adult readers. It is over the top, at times, rip roaring adventure that returns us to the days of yesteryear and leaves us wanting more. I hope to see more from Tim Byrd and Doc Wilde in the future.
The rest is here.
Got an actual copy of the book yesterday, a great review today…feeling pretty good.
…and my day is made.
An unexpected delivery this morning, and suddenly I have in my hands a hardcover copy of my novel, Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom, with a very nice note from my editor.
It’s beautiful, and I’m looking forward to seeing stacks and stacks of them once they start hitting bookstores. And it came at a really great time: my son (who the book was written for, and is dedicated to) has his birthday next Monday, so along with the other gifts I’ll be giving him, I can give him the first actual signed copy of the book.
I can’t wait.
My post about optimism and action, pulp heroes, and the roleplaying game Spirit of the Century has proven to be one of the most popular posts I’ve ever written. It seems to have become a small-scale meme, bouncing around from reader to reader, echoing in other blogs, other places…
One place it echoed was on the gaming podcast Canon Puncture (if you don’t want to listen to the whole thing, the pertinent segment begins right around time-mark 24:34):
I really enjoyed these guys’ comments.
Many of you know I have a book about to come out (Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom) chronicling Doctor Spartacus Wilde’s dire battle with mutated eldritch amphibians in the jungles of South America.
Not to spoil anything, but the Wildes saved the day, as is their wont. But you know that already, because the earth still exists, and you’re reading this.
The threat may not be over, however. Scientists recently discovered a tiny beast, the smallest frog known in the world, in the Peruvian Andes (perhaps not far from the area of the Wildes’ final battle with the Frogs of Doom).
What evil lurks in the heart of this frog?
From National Geographic:
…But scientists searching the Andes mountains’ upper Cosnipata Valley in southern Peru, near Cusco, spotted the coin-size creature–a member of the Noblella genus–in the leaf litter of a cloud forest between 9,925 and 10,466 feet…
“The most distinctive character of the new species,” scientists write in the February issue of the journal Copeia, “is its diminutive size.” Females grow to 0.49 inch (12.4 millimeters) at most. Males make it to only 0.44 inch (11.1 millimeters).
What’s most surprising is that the frog lives at such high elevations…In general, larger animals are found at greater heights.
Yes, in general. But if these tiny monsters are indeed another variety of the Frogs of Doom, perhaps they are arcanely adapted to the higher elevation.
And if so…what sinister purpose do they have in our world?
Under An Outlaw Moon 