WORLD's WORST TIME MACHINE BLOG TOUR & GIVEAWAY!
Welcome to the
World’s Worst Time Machine
Blog Tour & Giveaway!
Guest Post by Dustin Brady
I am delighted to welcome Dustin Brady to talk about his latest book for kids, World’s Worst Time Machine!
About the Book: From best-selling author, Dustin Brady, comes a new illustrated novel series perfect for fans who love funny, unexpected adventures and wacky plot twists. For kids, life can be boring, but Liam and Elsa know how to create their own fun — or so they think. After finding a $3 time machine at a garage sale, Liam uses the machine to summon Thomas Edison for help with his book report. It's not until the time machine sends a different Thomas Edison from the 1930s that chaos ensues. World's Worst Time Machine is the newest series from best-selling children's book author of the Trapped in a Video Game series, Dustin Brady. Using his signature style, Brady's laugh-out-loud sense of humor and daring adventure will keep even the most reluctant reader wanting to turn the page.Join Dustin’s “Insider Club” for a first look at
new releases and free goodies throughout the year!
Purchase Here.
About the Author:
Dustin Brady writes funny, action-packed books for kids. Although he regularly gets locked out of his own accounts for forgetting passwords, Dustin still remembers the Super Mario Bros. 3 Game Genie code for infinite lives. It’s SLXPLOVS. Dustin lives in Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife, kids, and a small dog
named Nugget.
Guest Post By Dustin Brady:
MY MEETING WITH CREEPY KARPIS
My favorite part of writing the Trapped in a Video Game and Escape from a Video Game series was the research.Oops. I’m sorry. My wife is requesting that I put “research” in quotes. “Research” for those series mostly involved reassuring my wife that I was hard at work on my next book, even though I appeared (to the untrained eye) to be wasting time by playing video games.
My new book World’s Worst Time Machine incorporates real history, which requires a great deal of actual research and almost no “research.” That was a huge bummer to me personally. Do you know how exhilarating it is to write off a video game purchase on your taxes? Now, what was I supposed to write off? History books?! Yuck. I went into this series thinking that history would constrain me—that I’d have to reign in my story to fit historical facts. When I started my research, however, I was delighted to discover the opposite to be true.
World’s Worst Time Machine features Thomas Edison, but not that Thomas Edison. This Thomas Edison is from 1933 and would prefer that you call him “Tommy Twinkles” because he wants to become the greatest gangster in history. I knew early on that I’d need to bring in a real-life gangster to serve as the true villain of the story. My research led me to Alvin Karpis.
Karpis was one of only four men ever given the title “Public Enemy #1” by the FBI. He pulled off the last train heist in American history. He holds the record for the longest time spent at Alcatraz. But the thing that drew me most to Karpis was his nickname. It was “Creepy Karpis.”
I could brainstorm for an entire month and not come up with a better villain name than “Creepy Karpis.” Most people (along with Wikipedia) think Karpis got his nickname because of his creepy smile. But Karpis himself claimed that the nickname came from his ability to elude the police. In contrast to the out-sized personalities of most Depression-era gangsters, Karpis was content to let others have the fame while he “creeped” in the background. This helped him stay one step ahead of the FBI for a long time. It also made him an excellent foe for my story.
A quiet, shrewd gangster who deflected the spotlight wouldn’t have been my first instinct for this story. I would have gone with a character straight out of Bugs Bunny. My villain would have toted a Tommy gun and cracked wise and felt like a hundred gangsters we’ve seen before. By digging past the caricatures and 101 history lessons, I found someone who could bring a level of menace to my story that I would have had a hard time manufacturing on my own.
GIVEAWAY
My favorite story moments are the ones that defy expectations. Fortunately, history is filled with the unexpected.
- One (1) winner will receive a copy of World’s Worst Time Machine
- US/Can only
- Ends 5/14 at 11:59 pm ET
- Enter via the Rafflecopter below
- Visit the other stops on the tour for more chances to win!
Blog Tour Schedule:
May 1st — Imagination Soup
May 2nd — Mrs. Book Dragon
May 3rd – Geo Librarian
May 4th -- Icefairy’s Treasure Chest
May 5th — Pragmatic Mom
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