The Brain Full of Holes by Martin Chatterton - Blog Tour, Review AND Contest!

Hello hello!

Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers!  It's another day another po....wait!  It's not just another post!  It's a 3 for 1 special!  That's right!  Tell them what they won Jonny...  For a limited time not only do you get a review of the title chosen today, but a guest post and a little something more!  What's the something more?  Well, that's for me to know and you to find out at this point, but if you keep reading, I promise you'll get to it before posts end.  *wink*  So, shall we dive right into this barrel of monkeys?  What?  You don't SEE a barrel of monkeys?  Huh...I could have sworn I put it right over there....oh well, we'll have to proceed without them.  Today's book of choice and blog tour guest (thanks to Peachtree Publishers) is....

The Brain Full of Holes

by

Martin Chatterton

What would you say if you were going along and something out of the ordinary happened?  Okay, so probably not much, but let's imagine that you had a VERY inquiring mind (a phrase that brings me back to childhood days) and little things going awry struck you as more than mere coincidence because my dear boy (or girl) there are no such things as coincidences after all...merely fact and fiction....  This is just the sort of situation that Theophilus Nero Hercule Sherlock Wimsey Father Brown Marlowe Spade Christie Edgar Allen Brain (affectionately known as "the Brain"...not to mention much easier to say if playing Red Rover with your friends on the playground), the World's Greatest Detective...lives for.  The current case?  His lunch.  What's for lunch?  (Why are you hungry?  Just kidding....) A cheese sandwich, but not just any cheese...a Swiss cheese sandwich.  But what's this?  By Jove, the holes are GONE! *dun*dun*dunnnnnn*

That's not all that seems to be missing though.  In short order, we move from missing cheese holes to missing parents, missing trucks to mysteriously appearing raisins, crazed cuckoo clocks to the possible sighting of a doppelganger, and ...wait, raisins?  No, that's right...raisins...is that really the only part that caught your eye though?  Didn't think so....I mean there is a serious game a foot here and the Brain must uncover the truth before his whole world becomes one random act of silliness after another.  With the help (and sometimes hindrance) of his trusty sidekick Sheldon, this is one dynamic duo minus the tights that is in for an interesting ride.

What can I say? The Brain strikes again in this wacky but wonderful tale that will have you reaching books end in record time...you won't want to put it down. Filled with the wild imagination of author Martin Chatterton, we have a tale of whodunit with Duzzant Matter and a whole sleuth of outrageous animal creations. From a cow that wants to give her caretaker a bit of his own medicine (Heloise Takes Manhattan, news at ten....) to panthers guarding the power of LURV (lots of puns, gotta LURV the puns...like that one...), it's a surprise a minute (blue chickens anyone?) with smiles to spares. Even a dramatic moment closer to stories end that would have seemed like a cop out in any other tale actually WORKS in this book.  Amazing...simply brilliant.  If you haven't checked out the author's first tale in this delightful series, The Brain Finds a Leg (my review), I highly recommend it followed by a good dose of "holes". Trust me...you don't want to miss it.

Recommended reading for all those who love both Children's and Young Adult Fiction.  It's a fantastical tale of wit, wisdom and a dash of mayhem that combine to provide a wonderfully amusing story.  Special thanks to Erin at Peachtree Publishers for the review copy. (THANKS!) For more on this title and many others, visit their blog, or follow along on Twitter!  Now on to the extra special feature of the day.....

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GUEST POST:

Martin Chatterton

Author

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So sorry but the Brain's pet alligator has returned (you know, from the first book...the one that barks like a dog...) and somehow managed to get ahold of Mr. Chatterton's computer so alas.....teeth marks are currently impeding his progress. Should he be able to piece it back together again, it will be uploaded post haste right here for your viewing pleasure....

Oh, OH...wait a second!  He JUST managed to shut the "little guy" in the bathroom for a second so he could use his back-up computer....here's the post straight from the um...author's mouth....

‘In Defence of Nonsense’


Writing nonsense isn’t quite as easy as it appears from the outside.
Particularly, funny nonsense.

My favourite author, PG Wodehouse, who wrote soufflé-light farces involving chinless members of the English aristocracy, crafted every word with the precision of an Antwerp diamond-cutter. He slaved over each book, constantly refining and polishing plot, character and prose until it was – in my opinion – perfect.

I’ve tried reading books that people say are good for me but, like oatmeal and broccoli, they just don’t taste right. This isn’t to say that the books I prefer are junk food, full of salt and additives. Instead, I’d prefer to think of them as haute cuisine,. It’s the ‘good’ books – or literature, as its mostly called – that have the added fat. Have you tried reading anything that wins the big book prizes? Against the advice of the world’s best physicians I did, last year, and it left me with a blinding headache and the feeling my lower intestine contained a small car. They were too big, too pompous, too self regarding . . . too bloody serious.


If I see on the jacket of a book the words ‘searing prose’, ‘languid’, ‘a writer who goes to the heart of’, or any one of a thousand other creepy platitudes reserved for ‘literature’ I immediately opt to NEVER READ THE THING. I know this isn’t the attitude to pass along to our kids (children are the future etc) but luckily for me, I don’t care. I’m not a liberal you see, so I simply choose not to read boring books. Someone else can look after the next generation while I’m laughing myself silly, or turning the pages feverishly to find out exactly when the nuclear bomb is going to incinerate the trapped submariners while a polar bear is loose somewhere onboard (I actually considered writing this book recently).


So when I write myself, it’s usually not about Afghani orphans (‘searing prose’), or an eighteenth century Irishwoman’s voyage of self-discovery during the Potato Famine (‘really goes to the heart of…’), or life amongst an order of Inuit monks (‘written with a languid pace’). Instead, I write about nonsense: two-headed butlers, carnivorous cuckoo-clocks, undersea clinics, fossilised trucks, black holes, alligators who think they’re dogs, human limbs discovered in creeks, Hispanic talking panthers, and more. There are plenty of tense cliffhangers, lots of snappy dialogue – at least I consider it reasonably snappy – and (as mentioned above) a superabundance of far flung ideas and silly
wordplay.


In my latest book, ‘The Brain Full of Holes’, the second in the series featuring thirteen year-old Theo Brain the self-styled, ‘World’s Greatest Detective’, I had a lot of fun with particle physics. Theo and his trusty, but not particularly sharp sidekick, Sheldon McGlone, leave Australia (where the first book, “the Brain Finds A Leg’ takes place) for Switzerland. Once there, it doesn’t take long for them to become embroiled in a mystery that threatens the very existence of the universe. Without giving the game away, it’s fairly safe to let slip that they do save the day (not to mention the universe), but not before a great deal of Grade-A fol-de-rol and brouhaha takes place. Of course, not everything I write about is complete nonsense. There is a fair amount of actual science in there. Honestly. Sometimes it’s buried so deep you’d need to drill for it, but it is in there somewhere. Most of my suggested nonsense has its roots in the possible. I think its important when writing nonsense that it does have some semblance of possibility. I’m not a fan of whimsy, and try very hard to avoid the writing straying into that area. Of course, only you can be the judge of whether or not I’ve succeeded – preferably after you’ve purchased at least one copy of each of ‘The Brain’ books, and a couple more for your friends – but I like to think you may be converted to the pursuit and enjoyment of nonsense.

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For more information on this whimsical author's wild adventures, he has a smattering of places to be found online.  Visit his site, Facebook page, or follow along on Twitter!

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Now, wasn't that fun?  A little review, a little something special from the author, I bet you're all set for the day, right?  What could possibly make you enjoy this post any more than you already do... *ponders*

Oh, I know!  How about a contest?  That's right!  Thanks to the fabulous folks at Peachtree Publishers (yay, Erin!), I am pleased behind belief to offer you the chance to win a copy of this crazily fun tale to call your own!  (...and if you actually call it "your own", no worries...I won't tell.)  Now despite the fact that it is number two in the series, you needn't have read the first book in order to enjoy this second installment.  True, it introduces you to the Brain and Sheldon on a more personal level, but you won't be lost in this book if you read it first.  Now on to the details...

The prize:

(1) hardback copy of The Brain Full of Holes by Martin Chatterton

How to enter:

Fill out this FORM.

(Click on the word form above.)

The rules:

*Open to US/Canada mailing addresses only!  No P. O. Boxes please.

* Entries will be accepted from Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 through Saturday, July 10th, 2010 at midnight CST.  The entries will be tallied and entered into the random.org randomizer, after which a random number will be picked by their number generator.  (This way all the entries are mixed up nicely.)

* All entries must be submitted using the form accessible through this post.  You MUST include your email address in order to be counted as well as contacted should you be chosen as the winner!

*The winner will be announced and contacted via email by Monday, July 12th, 2010 and will have 48 hours to respond with their mailing address.  Should they fail to respond in the given time, a new winner will be chosen.

*Winners name and address will be forward to Erin at Peachtree Publishers for prize send out only and then discarded.

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That's all she wrote, or rather I wrote...entries are now being accepted!

What are you waiting for?  Do I need to get a multi-universal zapper and come over there personally?  Uh-huh, that's what I thought....

Until next time...and happy reading!