my son enters the blog world

My son doodles all the time. His art and music are just an extension of his personality like everyone's right? I encouraged him to share his sense of humor with the world and he is now posting, scanning and sharing.


For those of you who have enjoyed my book The Tails Tales of Mr. Murphy, it is this son who illustrated it. You will recognized some similar styles in some of his work.



Please follow his blog, you won't be sorry...


http://radicaltheblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/why.html?showComment=1274287864439_AIe9_BHA15J4URZNZ5TeUYf5oZQ4DxP2SFdTdPPYVAH3pIiJA6NMp3hzODoAQtS6K6XiR6OyUtxZoLFjl-NFtXnmyER7x9hVKwz6zl0MwTfFpzmT81gTjdHIY7PbdNlQVqZqqYlzAN9tybTitw-ae4OWnW1xtTHWLnFbyLsoSBdzj2XesF_LCBflDs_cRTf76ob6w0UrjfhkMP7qtia3zsKiLLm9YDo79w#c5203045298662493415

WHAT PART OF SQUIRREL DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND????

A facebook friend of mine asked me if I would repost this post this entry. She told me of all the things I have written (does that include my books?) that this is by far her favorite and should somehow become a book.

What do you think?

As my trees are so heavy laden with blossoms and I envision a HUGE BUMPER CROP of peaches and apples this year, as long as the squirrels don't interfere, I am wondering if I should again set the trap out there???

The post below was originally put up last summer. The reason I have reprised it is that it has happened again... Who knew raccoons would fight squirrels for a cinnabon? For you, my readers, there is one thing I want to make totally clear; I LOVE ANIMALS and the reason I am trapping is to give them opportunity for a better life (there is an awesome field nearby where the cottonwood trees shade my favorite running path and a creek burbles noisily into a pond all summer long. Food is ample and the opportunity to meet the opposite sex is much better! The digs there are much more squirrel friendly than my back yard. So I carefully move them from my yard to what to a squirrel has to be heaven on earth in my wife's SUV, much to her dismay...

"Why don't you ever use your own for this?"
"Well, your SUV is wider and it is easier to move the trap in and out..."
EYE ROLL, SHOULDER SHRUG, DISMISSIVE LOOK (come on, you know the one my matrimonially embarked friends)

My new neighbors have a BIG, new dog who loves to torment the critters in our adjoining yards (and stomp all over my newly planted seedlings, perhaps I need a bigger trap?) So the mother squirrel (a leftover from last year) protects her next by jumping from tree to tree, chattering angrily and tossing pine cones at his head. He is so enamoured with her that he sticks around, usually long enough to ahem... relieve himself. Did I mention he is a BIG dog? Further reason to simply get the critters that draw him to our yard out of here!

My own Italian Greyhound cannot stand to have the squirrels in our backyard and of course the mother squirrel has built her nest in the pine tree right off of my dog's favorite window so there is no doubt she is moving about back there. I work at home and my dog DRIVES ME CRAZY RUNNING FROM WINDOW TO WINDOW when they move about in the yard. But the BIGGEST reason I simply must move them is my "peach orchard" which is bound to have a bountiful harvest this year (still eating peach smoothies from the peaches I froze last summer). The squirrels have a very annoying habit. I actually wouldn't mind sharing a peach or two with them, we have plenty, but what they do is climb the tree take a bite, toss it down to the lawn, take another bite, toss it down to the lawn. Who wants to eat a peach a squirrel slobbered on?

I think now that I am up to 10 peach trees in my suburban neighborhood, I can call it an orchard, so there must be squirrel memos that go out "PARTY AT THE MATOTT'S! Peaches, all you can eat! Come on by for the open house!"

By the way, I got a postcard from "RICKY", the dude pictured above. He recently honeymooned in Cabo and is looking forward to getting back to the "awesome place I left him" last summer. He will be happy to know he is to be joined by another relocated raccoon today!

We had a bear within a mile of our house yesterday. I wonder if he/she knew about the grill (mentioned within this blog) and was coming back for more. If there are going to be bears in the hood this summer, I better get a bigger trap for sure!

Though I didn't get comments on this posting last year, I got numerous emails about it, all positive. I hope you enjoy it and LET THIS YEAR'S TRAP TALLY BEGIN!


If you read my earlier blog about catch and release you might not recognize this little guy as the subject I was hoping to catch and release and neither did I. This dude or dudette was apparently hanging out in my backyard, unbeknownst to me likely feeding off my compost pile and decided that he or she would rather enjoy the wonderful toast and peanut butter spread I had left for one of the three million squirrels already taking the peaches off our trees.

I awakened one morning last week earlier than the sun and from my office window, looking out over my back yard, I could tell that the trap had closed during the night. It looked like something larger than a squirrel was in there, but it was too dark to tell. I had visions of SUPER SQUIRREL, a strange thirty pound Guinness World record holder being held captive in my backyard. As the sun came up it became apparent to me that I had likely caught one of my neighbor's cats and not Super Squirrel. I was trying to write a chapter for one of my upcoming chapter books but my curiosity kept my mind wandering. Then when I walked out into the garden realizing simply by the sound coming from the area where the trap was that this was no cat and this was no squirrel. No, this was a hissing, angry raccoon who simply wanted a little PBJ and then was hoping to be on his way... but got caught my amateur trapper-bonehead yours truly.

Having loved where the red fern grows and being permanently scarred by what a raccoon will and can do to a dog or anyone else it decides to have a beef with and having heard stories about how vicious these critters can be when trapped I decided I needed help before I did anything about this predicament. I went to the most reliable source I could find to determine what to do... google.com. As I perused the page, it first said: "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE SHOULD YOU TRAP YOUR OWN RACCOON, HIRE A PROFESSIONAL AND DON'T BE A CHEAPSKATE!" Okay, I wasn't being cheap, I didn't intend to trap this dude. Then the warnings about the likely outcome of letting this angry dude go scared me even more. The website actually tried to tell me the preferred method of relocation would be to heaven. I am NOT going to harm an animal that simply wants to eat a free PBJ and live freely, but that I don't want simply living in my backyard, eating my garden's bounty and my orchard. SO... as I read on, the website chided me further about being a cheapskate (it must have been posted by someone who makes his or her living relocating animals and doesn't like the novice trapper-releaser-relocator) and told me if I insisted on doing this myself I should arm my self well and wish for the best.

After sufficiently feeling belittled and a bit frightened, I headed out into the already 80 degree morning wearing heavy boots and socks, jeans, a flannel shirt, heavy leather work gloves and a bandana tied around my face (to ward off the websites warnings of distemper, plague and many other possibilities if this dude simply coughs in my SUV as I am relocating which can relocate me to heaven). As I lifted the crate, he or she lunged at me, hissing and making sure I understood that once released, he or she was aiming for my carotid artery and I just might be spending my last summer moments on earth.

I carried the cage with a wildly gyrating and noisy raccoon as outstretched from my body as possible and set it gently into the back of my SUV. Did I mention the website also mentioned that it was illegal in most states to relocate a raccoon? SO, here I was setting off to commit a possible felony with a very angry, plague ridden animal in the back of my SUV. I had all the windows down and the back door open so air could flow backwards and keep his plaguey breath away from me. I intended to do only California stops (a potential misdemeanor) so the air couldn't double back and descend upon me in the way plague tends to do, at least in my overactive imagination. I headed to a wonderfully wooded area, near an elementary school where I imagined my angry buddy living the good life and actually appreciating my thoughtfulness. Perhaps he might even send me a Christmas card with a picture of his new wife and family, all thanks to my kind desire to simply relocate him to a place better suited for wildlife.

As I eased my way down in to the elementary school parking lot and readied myself for what was to possibly be the last moments of my life as I knew it, I noticed another car descending into the parking lot too, the difference between that car and mine was that it had sirens and the words SHERIFF on the doors as well as a burly man in a uniform with a "don't mess with me" look on his face. Here I was on an early-getting hotter by the moment-morning, in the outfit I mentioned previously and the bandana now tucked up into my hat to protect not only my airways, but to pull up over my eyes in case this particular varmint preferred eye gouging to simply chewing of skin and arteries. The sheriff pulled around the parking lot and nodded at me like this was something he saw every day. I nodded back and he looked at me like the next move was mine.

SO I waited a sufficient amount of time since our last eye-lock and started my engine slowly easing my way out of the parking lot, having pulled the bandana down as though just a neck decoration and holding my breath for somewhere around ten minutes, he pulled up and stopped near the exit to the parking lot and as I glided past him, back doors of the SUV open, a chattering, banging raccoon giving my stereo a run for its money, I gave him the "guy nod" and started into a neighborhood, where I figured at the next vacant stop sign I would gift these people's pesky squirrels with a little buddy to play with. It seemed like every four way stop sign had four way busyness to keep me from exporting my little friend so I drove on for what seemed like hours, sticking my head out the window every time I inhaled through my bandana, taking huge gulps of fresh, non plague or distemper tainted air.

Finally I came to a HUGE open space with a running stream, lots of tall trees and what seemed like the perfect place to let this dude out. Did I mention that during this entire episode, the little guy was banging, bending and screaming at ever increasing in volume intervals? I pulled over, checked my mirrors and backed into a little dirt drive. I went to the back, pulled the cage out, while holding the clawed garden hoe that was to be my defense against the raccoon's attack. He was hissing, jumping, banging and screaming at me. I got into the back of my SUV and pulled the door as closed as I could in this awkward position, sticking the hoe out through the few inches of open door and imagined him running around the side of the vehicle and leaping into one of the open windows, thus trapping me inside for my flesh tearing session. I grabbed the catch that holds the trap shut with the hoe from inside the SUV and pulled back, it went up about three inches and then crashed down loudly clanging further enraging the possibly rabid raccoon, who must have thought I was just toying with him.

Thoughts of bullfighters and viciously angry bulls came to mind and how a trapped bull will turn on the matador and then gore him, throwing him ten feet into the air. Suddenly it seemed that this large cat-sized raccoon could do just that. I pulled with all my might holding the cage door open and he just sat there. I waited for what seemed like an hour, my arms falling asleep, my heart beating so loud he must have heard it, reminding me of the things I had heard about animals sensing fear and capitalizing on it by tearing their captors in two.

Then I did what anyone would do that wanted the raccoon to be calm when he finally emerged from the trap, I began screaming at the top of my lungs, "GO YOU BIG DUMMY, MOVE! GET OUT OF THERE!" Suddenly, he sprang into action, he began to scurry out of the trap like a bat out of H-E-Double-Toothpicks! A sense of relief overtook me as he emerged and ran the opposite way of my SUV. Then just as I thought this little mistaken episode was over, he stopped and turned, his yellow fangs glinting in the sunlight and looked right into my eyes, which were just slits behind the bandana. Did I mention I was drenched in sweat from the heat, now approaching 110 degrees in the SUV covered by more clammy sweat from sheer ice cold fear?

He looked at me with intent. Suddenly I saw his little masked face and couldn't help but think that he was awful darn cute. He nodded up and down as though to say "Hey thanks a lot dude, this place is SWEET!"

He jumped down the little concrete curb and scurried off into the tall grass, his funny little body bumping up and down heading across the field headed right for the tall cottonwood trees I had intended for him to find. I pulled the bandana off my face and jumped out of the SUV and shouted HAVE FUN DUDE! Then I stripped off the flannel shirt, pulled off my boots and socks and headed for home (driving barefoot is at least a misdemeanor).

That night I had about three hundred dreams that the raccoon was on my front porch, back porch, garage, bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and pretty much everywhere else I frequented including my regular Starbucks! Believe it or not, he was behind the counter waiting in cahoots with my regular barista to size up my tip and attitude deciding if it was going to be the carotid or the face that got attacked first.

Several days passed and no signs of him returning, but alas, I thought, another squirrel was in there that I would have to find a new home for (this is getting old) No, not a squirrel, I awakened to something strange in the cage. Sitting there staring at me in my office was a huge black bird, trapped by my peanut butter treat. That relocation was the easiest; I opened the cage, the bird flew away and all I lost in the deal was some bread. Come to find out, it didn't like the peanut butter after all.

SO, the current backyard count is 4 squirrels, 1 raccoon and 1 bird all happily living elsewhere. My next door neighbor, amused at my early morning Daniel Boone forays, said something yesterday that terrified me, "What are you going to do if you catch a skunk?"

Do skunks like peanut butter? Back to google, I'll let you know. Oh and by the way, after further research I have found out that I wasn't breaking any laws, Colorado is one state where you can, by law, relocate a racoon, but not a fox? And that thing about driving barefoot. I don't know if that is urban legend or if you really have to have shoes on to drive a car.

Did I mention that a few years back a black bear disassembled my backyard grill partially? Then she left her footprints in my next door neighbor's kid's sandbox. How did I know she was a she? She was on the news. She had fallen asleep in a tree a few miles away. Perhaps the heavy grease from the drippings in my grill made her tired. I just hope her babies don't like peanut butter.

Some great comments from friends at Flynn!

There are many choices for schools when it comes to authors, illustrators and presenters. I have really enjoyed the visits I have done over the past years to hundreds and hundreds of schools. I thought it was time to share impressions others have of my visits.

There are two reasons I am not getting my chapters finished...

SPRING HAS SPRUNG! It is my favorite season as it is many peoples. Colorado in springtime is just a cul de sac from Heaven!

The robins are busily tending to their young hatchlings. The other birds are singing merrily in all of my trees. The bees are gathering pollen from the wonderfully flowered out fruit trees and lilacs. The sun is shining and warming the earth. The dandelions are popping up in assorted polka dots across my otherwise beautifully greening lawn. The mountains to the west, just outside my office window are snow-capped and beautiful and the air is perfumed with the essence of new life!

Ahhh... it is perfect... almost, with the exception of my new adult onset allergies... mating, noisy, destructive woodpeckers who have an affinity for the wood around my chimneys, Mama raccoon foraging in my yard (I compost) for goodies, and the doggone squirrels who seem to love to ravage my vegetable garden, steal the bird seed in the feeders, make weird screeching sounds in the trees just outside my bedroom, run and play noisily on the warm roof tiles and DRIVE MY DOG ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!!!

My dog, Tootsie aka Batman, is going nuts again! Some of you who have followed my blog in the past have read about my squirrel situation. I have many, many peach, apple, ash, fir, pine, crabapple, aspen and other assorted trees in my yard which is a lovely playground for pesky varmints like these two. In the past I have had a pretty good relocation plan for them, moving them to nicer habitats where they can run free and not worry about my dog constantly running from door to window to door to window to door to window to door to window to door to window to door to window to door to window to door to window door to window to door to window to door to window to door to window door to window to door to window to door to window to door to window door to window to door to window to door to window to door to window, well you get the idea. Tootsie aka Batman is already high strung because of her Italian Greyhound background. My Italian friends talk with their hands, Tootsie talks with her entire being. Squirrels are her nemesis. Just the mention of the word SQUIRREL (dog gone it, just typing it made her spring off the couch in my office and run from door to window to door to window to door to window to door to window door to window to door to window to door to window to door to window door to window to door to window to door to window to door to window door to window to door to window to door to window to door to window door to window to door to window to door to window to door to window, well you get the idea. It's funny, even the word girl or any other word that rhymes somewhat with squirrel, there she goes again, will make her spring to attention, stick both ears straight in the air and ruffle her spine "fur". After talking to others who have relocated the squirrels like me, I have found now that it is true. If you move them, others will come to take his or her place. SO, what are Tootsie and I going to do to make peace here? SUGGESTIONS?

Other than her manic behavior about those furry, brown creatures in the yard, Tootsie is a good girl, NO! NO! BATMAN, I SAID GIRL!

The New Frontier... Author + School visits = School Fun

When I was a schoolboy, like every other schoolboy and girl, I was subject to numerous assemblies. We would all line up, (in kindergarten holding hands with a girl and then in sixth grade wishing we still held hands with the girls) and with "our best behavior" we would find our way down to the gym, where someone would either entertain and educate or frankly they wouldn't. The truth is, most of those assemblies I saw were boring and forgettable, but two of them stand out in my mind to this day and in their own ways those assemblies formed, shaped and changed a part of my direction and path. One was actually an author who was funny and made me want to read (soon after I began my first chapter book series with excitement and have never stopped reading them) and the other a group of prisoners who came and told us their personal and raw stories of what drugs did to lead them each down the wrong path. I remember one man, who looked a bit like my dad catching my attention because of the likeness (envisioning perhaps what my dad, an accomplished English Professor might have been if he had chosen this man's direction) and then holding my attention with his stories of horror and sadness and lost potential. That was in sixth grade and the next year as I entered the "scary world" of Junior High I was given several opportunities to partake in illegal substances and because of that assembly alone I refused. I have been to hundreds and hundreds of schools sharing my stories and whenever I prepare to visit a school, as I pull up into the parking lot I remember those two assemblies that made a difference and an impact on me and I set my mind on one goal for that day; LEAVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT AND GOOD BEHIND!

In my quest to spread encouragement, fun and lots and lots of stories I have begun to ask teachers to video her or his impressions of what I do for other educators to evaluate, who might be considering a visit from me. After all, it is what THEY think about my impact that matters. With two main goals in mind presently (anti bullying story and getting those hard to reach non readers to read) I am planning a coast to coast reader-writer-nomorebullies-thon by doing school visits). My books Go Ask Mom and the sequels are my tools to make the stories last and to further the impression.

This past week I had an AWESOME time in a school in Colorado Springs called Frontier Elementary School. I spent the day with the K-5 storytelling and doing creative writing workshops with them. Then I stayed for their evening event with other artists, parents, kiddoes and told more stories, trying to encourage the parents to share their own life stories with there children. It was a fun day and we agreed that I WILL BE BACK! These video clips and photos chronicle one of my favorite school days!

The two women in the videos in front of the "tree" are lovely, gracious, hospitable fourth grade teachers who made me feel very welcome while visiting Frontier.

Then I asked the Principal and Vice Principal if they would lend their voices and they did! Great people all of them!

The Gabriel World Book of Records, coming this summer!

Justin Matott has teamed up with David Schiedt again (previously collaborated on Drinking Fountain Joe) http://busteryork.com for the third book in the Go Ask Mom series! With a new vision for design and illustration, it seems Gabriel had taken the reins here and through Mr. Schiedt is drawing us in to the new book. There will be 6 books ...in the series and a comic book series as well, based on Glenn The Sea Monkey, who makes his first appearance in the third book titled The Gabriel World Book of Records - Stories from the tree house. If you haven't read the first two, it will make for great summer reading as a family or for those young uns.

The books will and are available on line at www.justinmatott.com

My son and his buddies in their new video: If guys were like girls...

My son is a broadcast journalism major at CU and spends a lot of his time in front and behind the camera. His friends first put together this video to assist Freshmen in learning the wonders of the ladies... The video is entertaining and well produced. (My son, Ethan, is the one who first introduces the video from under his SUV and then later in a plaid shirt.) Please forward the youtube to your friends on both of these videos. The race is on. Who will get on Ellen first, me or them?

How to get girls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2paLkR6KEZc&feature=watch_response

Then they put together this tongue in cheek look at what it would be like if guys were like girls. (My son is in the bright blue shirt.) It was posted on youtube.com about a week ago and within days was a featured video on the front page and is now heading toward half a million views and beyond.

This is true viral video. Who knows where it goes next. I just keep thinking that Justin Bieber (now a household name) was picked up by Usher because of a youtube video he made for his grandma. Perhaps my son and the 835 Crew are headed toward fame? You watch and decide. And before anyone calls a foul for potential "sexism", please remember the girls from their youth group at CU made 'If Girls were like guys'!



If Guys were like girls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ6WpVSutrM

Ludy & Matott work together at Flynn Elementary

I visited Flynn Elementary for my third time this week. It is a school with a delightful library, because the librarian is delightful and committed to making it a central hub for the students and staff. It is a comfortable and inviting place. I have enjoyed visiting Flynn over the past few years, but never as much as yesterday with Mark Ludy, one of the most talented humans I know.
Mark Ludy (illustrator extraordinaire) and I visited Flynn Elementary to share our love for creating stories in four workshops throughout the day. We worked with students from kindergarten to fifth grade, building the elements of WHO, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, WHAT and created the prompt for a picture book with the students throwing out his or her ideas in each session. It is amazing to see children's creativity when given the chance to explore the "wilder" side of writing.
The students are called upon to help build the blocks to creating the story, beginning with character development. I tell them the ideas must be "school appropriate", meaning they should be able to read our story to a kindergartner and to their principal. They usually come up with something to do with bodily functions, butt (sic) hey, they are kids after all. The fun begins with eager hands reaching up and ideas pouring out of them. The teachers are also fun to watch as they see students participating gleefully.
Next, we must put these characters into a setting, so we come up with the WHERE and the WHEN. Once that is established we come up with the WHY. Why we are writing about this and what we want our audience to experience, be it humor, scary, romance or whatever, then we commit to our main idea and carry it through the story. Once we have all that we then can add the WHAT, the plot lines, what our characters will do where we place them. (NOTE: the first item in the setting was volunteered by none other than the Librarian's grandson).
Now we are ready to rock and roll! The students break in to groups of four or five and go to work on the verb bank to bring tons of action to the story! Meanwhile, I begin a prompt while Mr. Ludy draws from our session.


The end result is that the students see the blank paper turned into the makings of a great story and they see the characters Mr. Ludy has prepared for them in the setting. WHAT A GREAT DAY FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED!


Mark Ludy and I both visit schools independently all over the country, but if you really want to make it something special, please have us visit your school together. You will not be dissappointed, just ask the schools that have us back again and again... We both simply love kids and love working with them to hone that creative gift!


If you would like to explore the possibilities for your school, please contact me at justin@justinmatott.com

If you'd like to learn more about Mr. Ludy and his books, please visit his website:
http://www.markludy.com/The_Loodalicious_Cafe/The_Books.html

March is such a great research month!

This world of ours is so incredible! There is so much beauty it is almost indescribable, even for someone who perhaps talks too much and works with words all day.

This month I have been traveling and am beginning to forget what my home office looks like. I fell deeply in love with the ocean when I was eight years old and have longed to live near one ever since. Swaying palm trees, the sound of the waves lapping against the shore, seagulls complaining in the distance, the surfers catching air on temporal waves and the murmur of white noise in the sea breeze strangely feel like home for this landlocked Colorado native.

Yesterday I went on a five hour hike into the back country of Kauai and swam in an icy pool fed by one of the most incredible waterfalls I have ever been up close to. For those of you who watch LOST it was like being on the set of the show. I expected Hurley to pop out at any moment. My ankles and knees have never been so sore, but it was so totally worth it!

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to scuba dive on a liveaboard boat in the Bahamas. We did 24 dives in 6 days, including reef, drift, night, wrecks, shark and other dive styles! It was wonderful on on of the wreck dives to have an EPIPHANY about a picture book I am working on titled; There's A School In The Pool! about an elementary school at the bottom of the ocean. The book deals with fears and cliques and just great oceanic fun, but for some reason I was stuck on the setting. I kept visualizing the school in a cave, but it never worked well. THEN, I was diving a wreck and looked into the hull into what once was a living quarters and it became clear! Sitting at the bottom of the room was a giant lobster who was a bit irritated at me for shining my light in his face. I suddenly saw the whole thing. A cruise ship with many, many rooms for classrooms that had sunk at the bottom of the ocean. The Principal with the spiny personality and it all came together. That one dive made the whole trip worthwhile, even though I would never question the validity of the whole experience. It was awesome! Now I am sitting on the island of Kauai as I write this and a whole new book is forming here in the Pacific in my mind. From Atlantic to Pacific and I just got an invite to go to the Solomon Islands, which might provide even more inspiration. When kids ask me in almost every school I visit, "What is the coolest part about being an author?" I think I just might have a new answer!

Sometimes you just have to "be there" to get it right. As I drive by houses here on the island I look at them as potential places for my new home office. It's snowing back home. I don't miss it.

REVISE TO BE WISE

So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads. -Dr. Seuss