Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing

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Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp Publication Day!

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It’s publication day for Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp! The trilogy is now officially complete. Wow!

Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow
Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe
Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp

I started writing Jacob Wonderbar in the fall of 2008 with barely a notion that it would turn into anything, and four and a half years later, after many, many hours of writing and working on this series it’s finally complete and out there in the world.

Please check out all three whether you’re eight years old or ninety-eight or anything in between or even older. There’s something in there for everyone.

And if you don’t believe me, here’s Kirkus:

Wonderbar #1
Wonderbar #2
Wonderbar #3

Meanwhile, we’re having ourselves quite a first paragraph contest!! There’s still time to enter, so come on down with your first paragraph and enter the contest! The winner will have their manuscript considered by superstar agent Catherine Drayton. If you don’t have a paragraph handy: write one!

And in keeping with all of the themes of this post, I thought I’d post the first paragraph from each book in the Jacob Wonderbar series:

Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow

Each type of substitute teacher had its own special weakness, and Jacob Wonderbar knew every possible trick to distract them. Male substitutes with long hair and women in tie-dyed skirts often had a guitar stashed nearby and were just waiting for an excuse to ditch the lesson plan and play a song. The mousy ones who spoke softly and tentatively when they introduced themselves would patiently answer every absurd question Jacob asked them and would be confronting a classroom gone wild within minutes.


Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe

Jacob slammed the door to his mom’s car and stomped through the supermarket parking lot. “Jacob,” his mom called after him. “I can understand if you don’t want to talk about it but please don’t take it out on my car.”


Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp

[Oops I can’t share this one because it has spoilers!! Sorry!]

Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. Anna Roberts Moore says

    "many, many hours of writing and working"

    That's an understatement, right?

    I started reading your blog in 2009 (have just recently started commenting because of a recent post). So, congratulations on alllllll your hard work, and I'm looking forward to reading all three of them.

  5. Fred says

    Congrats, Nathan. I can't believe you've already come out with 3 books. Been following you since your agent days, and I'm still on my first. I feel like such a slug. If it's as good as the first two, you should do well.

  11. Anonymous says

    ******
    My critique group meets at the local library and when they silently read my chapter for 15 minutes, I always leave the room. This week as I passed the MG section to wander the bookshelves, your Space Kapow was displayed on the top shelve. I don't usually read MG, but sat down, read about 4 pages and was hooked. I checked out the book and I'm about half-way through. To support you since I've followed you for about 5 years and gotten lots of good advice, I plan to buy the sequels.

    What's next on the horizon?

    (Oh,once I turn in the book, every Tues. I plan to always make sure it's displayed on the top shelf with the cover showing. How's that for a fan?)

    LLBurk
    ******

  18. Pamala Knight says

    Congratulations Nathan! My son's copy arrived in the mail yesterday and he was delighted to see it. Here's wishing you many sales and many more adventures 😉

  20. Anonymous says

    I am excited for these. I want to get them on my Kobo, but they're still too pricey for me….I know, i'm cheap…but the only way for me to justify buying books is if they are significantly good deals.

    I'd love to ask you a question about the Institute of Children's Literature. I'm thinking of doing it because I feel I need some kind of course that can organize my writing and immerse me into that world (discipline). Thoughts on whether this might be a good one to take? Thanks for any feedback! Would ICL really help to organize one who is overwhelmed and wants to take the baby steps from A to Z? And would it be fine for me if Im still not sure if I fit into YA, childrens , or adult? (but middle grade and YA my bigger interests).

  24. Mira says

    Bought it. Downloaded it. Got the first two from archives so I can read the whole trilogy through at once.

    Got my comfy chair. I'm all set. 😀

    Can't wait. I love your "voice", Nathan. Funny, witty, perceptive.

    Nice Kirkus review, too!

    Congratulations on the launch! 😀

  25. sri says

    Hi Nathan,
    First off, Congrats. You have a winner here.

    Secondly I missed your contest because I open this particular mail only on Friday. Here I go – Just by chance, if you wish to consider my pitch.

    She pirouetted on the floor. The knee length skirt ploughed above her thundering thighs, revealing the now moist cleft in her red panties. Swirl…. Skirt…… Red panties…. all orchestrated to bring you tantalizingly close. But never close enough. The great Indian rope trick. Get them gaping, drooling and wanting more. He wasn’t complaining considering that he should have been behind bars and rapidly transiting towards the gallows by now. Or waiting to be injected with a fatal dose of drugs. Much better than getting beheaded which they claim could turn out to be quite painful. They still do such terrible stuff in some parts of the world. Thack- chop- thunk. Away flies the head. Here, in the United States, people are more considerate. They have found better ways to put a man to death. Talk of refinement? Even when snuffing out a dear old life. They don’t treat you like cattle. God bless. At least he had a choice. He could opt for the lethal injection. For a murder he was not really sure he had committed. He doubted it. Others didn’t. By now a whole horde of lynch men were on his trail. Of course it was his mistake. He had learned too late. Isn’t it always too late for most of us? Who wouldn't like to live life all over again? If asked now, he would advise you to call the cops first – if you happened to wake up with a dead man beside you on the bed. Instead he had run away from the scene of crime. That obviously made him a prime suspect. Now they wanted to nail him to the cross. Who says that the meek shall inherit the earth?

  27. sri says

    Hi Nathan,

    I would be grateful if you can consider my late entry for 'The 5th Sort-of-Annual Stupendously Ultimate First Paragraph Challenge!'

    She pirouetted on the floor. The knee length skirt ploughed above her thundering thighs, revealing the now moist cleft in her red panties. Swirl…. Skirt…… Red panties…. all orchestrated to bring you tantalizingly close. But never close enough. The great Indian rope trick. Get them gaping, drooling and wanting more. He wasn’t complaining considering that he should have been behind bars and rapidly transiting towards the gallows by now. Or waiting to be injected with a fatal dose of drugs. Much better than getting beheaded which they claim could turn out to be quite painful. They still do such terrible stuff in some parts of the world. Thack- chop- thunk. Away flies the head. Here, in the United States, people are more considerate. They have found better ways to put a man to death. Talk of refinement? Even when snuffing out a dear old life. They don’t treat you like cattle. God bless. At least he had a choice. He could opt for the lethal injection. For a murder he was not really sure he had committed. He doubted it. Others didn’t. By now a whole horde of lynch men were on his trail. Of course it was his mistake. He had learned too late. Isn’t it always too late for most of us? Who wouldn't like to live life all over again? If asked now, he would advise you to call the cops first – if you happened to wake up with a dead man beside you on the bed. Instead he had run away from the scene of crime. That obviously made him a prime suspect. Now they wanted to nail him to the cross. Who says that the meek shall inherit the earth?

  28. wendy says

    I love Kirkus' opening paragraph:

    'Bransford’s debut and the first of a series is an outer-space comedy of errors.'

    You're up there with the likes of Oscar Wilde now, Nathan. You know, because of the comedy of errors description…. *ahem*

    The books sound brilliant, and although I haven't read them yet, I must and I will as an 'outer-space comedy of errors' is def. up my reading/entertainment alley. 🙂

  30. wendy says

    In an effort to be congratulatory, hilarious and complimentary at the same time, I have a funny feeling my post missed the mark on all three. *embarrassed and apologetic*
    I've also tried ordering through Amazon's quick click and struck out there, too. sheesh What a day!