Idiot Genius: Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy wins a National Indie Excellence Award for Juvenile Fiction!!!
I can’t believe it! Wow! Thanks NIEA!!!
Willa Snap Just Won a National Indie Excellence Award!!
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Willa Snap Wins an IPPY!
Idiot Genius: Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy just won Independent Publisher Book Award for Juvenile Fiction!
I can’t believe it! I couldn’t more proud!
“Thoroughly engrossing story recommended for young sci-fi and fantasy fans who hold a prior attraction to books such as John Bellairs’ House with a Clock in its Walls.” -D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
Willa always knew one of her mother’s crazy inventions would cause trouble. She just didn’t think it would get the whole family banished to Grandeur, a hidden city of Geniuses deemed too dangerous to remain Outside.
Now, with the help of her cat, the Magnificent Lady Grayson of the Silky White Underbelly, or Just Grayson for Short, Willa and her new friends must scour Grandeur’s strange avenues in search of the Clockwerk Boy. Among her encounters: a curiosity shop run by curiously intelligent cats. Gear Hall, where Clockwerks outnumber humans. And the Jolly Rajah, a man-o’-war o’ pancakes, where your meal of flapjacks and hot chocolate is served with a brace of pistols and side of grappling hooks. Prepare to be boarded!
International Rubery Book Award Shortlist ~ Young Adult
Independent Publisher Book Award Medalist ~ Juvenile Fiction
National Indie Excellence Award ~ Juvenile Fiction
Eric Hoffer Award Category Finalist ~ Young Adult
“It’s unusual to see such sci-fi depth and detail in a title directed to young adults, but this is precisely what makes Idiot Genius: Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy such an appealing production: the characterization is solid while its fantastic setting will intrigue ages well beyond its intended 9-12-year-old audience. Highly recommended for young adults seeking something compellingly different.” -D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
The Clockwerk Dress: Fabrics and Gears and Boots, Oh My!
The Fabrics
The Gears
A few Clockwerk bits . . . tick-tick-tick . . .
Gilting the boots!
Two Willa impersonator’s means two pairs of boots. C is a good bit taller than J. So, one pair of short heels (above) . . . and one pair high (below).
Bringing Willa Snap’s Clockwerk Dress to Life
Once we decided to attend Balticon 52, it was a pretty short jump to: Let’s make Willa’s Clockwerk dress!
But how?*
Well, as luck would have it, we have a costume designer in the family. In fact, Meredith was there from the beginning. After reading an early draft, and after pincushioning me with questions, she dashed off—within minutes—the first design sketch of the dress. She then sat at my side, answering my questions, as I converted her sketch back into words. (Meredith was 14 at the time she drew this sketch. She’s now in her second year at Rutger’s University, pursing a BFA in costume design.)
(please pardon the refrigerator magnets)
Years later, working from a newer draft, Carolyn Arcabascio created a quick napkin sketch, in color, to see if she was on the right track. (She was.)
The dress appears twice in Carolyn’s many illustrations for the book. Once in black and white:
Chapter Twenty-One: Villa da Vinci
And once in color, on the cover:
(detail from the cover)
At this exact second, Meredith is ordering all manner of supplies for the dress, which will be modeled at Balticon this May by two Willa Snap impersonators.
My plan over the next few months is to document Meredith’s progress as she brings Willa Snap’s Clockwerk dress to life. Consider this installment #1. Watch this space.
*All of the above is, of course, complete nonsense. The simple truth is that CeeCee da Vinci swiped the original dress pattern from Clockwerk Couture in the Clockwerk burg, Nimet relayed the pattern to me, and I delivered it to Meredith. There’s a longer version (as you might imagine), involving a midnight burgling, a dozen of Aunt Mila’s Clockwerk cats, a defective Smith & Blazooski mini stun cannon, and the careful deployment of ten balls of yarn (work with what you have). And if Willa ever figures out what we’ve all been up to . . . well, as Nimet would say, “Tanrı yardımcımız olsun” (Heaven help us).
Midwest Book Review
The folks at MBR released a review of Idiot Genius: Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy today! We’re really excited to post it here!
Idiot Genius: Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy pairs lovely illustrations by Carolyn Arcabascio with the first book in a satisfyingly original, compelling series for ages 9-12, introducing Willamina Gilbert Snap, an eleven-year-old who discovers there’s a force keeping the world from destruction – and that force is comprised of Idiots.
She should know: she’s apparently one herself, and her destiny is to never see home again – among other things.
Idiot Genius: Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy represents Willa’s “first highly illegal memoir” and details her venture into Grandeur, a city of time-traveling dragons, talkative cats, and scientific discoveries unknown to Outside.
There’s a lot to relish about Idiot Genius: Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy; not the least of which is an approach that offers much food for thought about the structure of Willa’s world and the science and psychology behind it: “The problem is that geniuses – both capital G and small g – either think you understand everything they’ve said as perfectly as they do, or that you’re as dumb as dirt. It’s one of their biggest flaws.”
From the baristas’ strange brewed creatures (“a hermit crab the size of a basketball, a foxlike cashier wearing a hat and vest, and a small winged dragon perched in a cage, preening its bright green feathers“) to devices that rent unused brain space, Willa sweeps readers along. Sentient Clockwerks, a cat-run curiosity shop, and steam-powered rhino cabs coexist in a setting the author describes as “polypunk.”
It’s unusual to see such sci-fi depth and detail in a title directed to young adults, but this is precisely what makes Idiot Genius: Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy such an appealing production: the characterization is solid while its fantastic setting will intrigue ages well beyond its intended 9-12-year-old audience.
Time vortexes, ghosts, and the costs of navigating this odd world make for a complex but thoroughly engrossing story recommended for young sci-fi and fantasy fans who hold a prior attraction to books such as John Bellairs’ House with a Clock in its Walls. From its engaging drawings to its powerful message, Idiot Genius will leave readers musing about Willa Snap’s adventures long after the winding story concludes. It is highly recommended for young adults seeking something compellingly different in tone, approach, and perspective.
Jaja Toosk
This is Jaja Toosk, bio-engineered pigmy elefantkin and short order cook at the Jolly Rajah Man-o’-War o’ Pancakes. (Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner; open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).
Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy, by Richard Due, illustrated by Carolyn Arcabascio. Coming Dec 2017.
Don’t Mess with the Fez!
Don’t mess with the fez!
The Magnificent Lady Grayson of the Silky White Underbelly, or Just Grayson for Short
The Magnificent Lady Grayson of the Silky White
Underbelly, or Just Grayson for Short
We were due at the hall in less than an hour, and my cat, The Magnificent Lady Grayson of the Silky White Underbelly, or Just Grayson for Short, was mixing up my mother’s speaking notes by employing her claws to simulate a Cuisinart. Shredded papers were flying everywhere.
Excerpt from Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy, by Richard Due, illustrations by Carolyn Arcabascio Illustration. (Coming Dec 2017.)
Grimalkin
Grimalkin
In the very back, a little higher than everyone else, sat the largest and oldest cat I’d ever seen. He’d been white once, maybe. His ears were tattered and a single snaggletooth protruded past his raggedy cheek.
Excerpt from Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy, by Richard Due, illustrations by Carolyn Arcabascio Illustration. (Coming Dec 2017.)
Professor Farsical
Professor Farsical
Standing in the hallway was a man enveloped in steam. I say man, but honestly, that was up for debate. His leather coat seemed normal enough, but the cloak draped over his shoulders was studded with small steam pipes puffing away at regular intervals. WAS THIS GUY STEAM POWERED? In one hand he gripped a brass-topped cane, in the other, a clipboard covered with gears. Perched on his head was a top hat mounted with aviator goggles. A monocle—a monocle!—adorned his left eye. He must have had a good twenty pounds of brass gadgets strapped to him. And I couldn’t have told you what a single one of them did.
Excerpt from Idiot Genius: Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy, by Richard Due. Illustrations by Carolyn Arcabascio. (Coming Dec 2017.)
Idiot Genius: Willa Snap and the Clockwerk Boy 