Adam Selzer

Adam Selzer (born July 13, 1980, in Des Moines, Iowa) is a critically acclaimed author, primarily of young adult and middle grade novels. His first novel was "How To Get Suspended and Influence People", a 2007 Random House novel which was included on the Chicago Public Schools 2007 Summer Reading List. [http://www.cps.k12.il.us/aboutcps/departments/libraries/pdf/2007_Summer_Reading_List.pdf] It was also nominated for a Cybils 2007 Young Adult Fiction award. [ [http://dadtalk.typepad.com/cybils/2007/10/young-adult-fic.html Cybils: 2007 Nominations Young Adult Fiction ] ] It was followed in 2008 by another book, "Pirates of the Retail Wasteland", which teenspace calleld "as invigorating and smoothly satisfying as a good caffe latte." [ [http://teenspace.cincinnatilibrary.org/books/newstuff.asp?title=9948 Teenspace - Books & Reading - New Stuff ] ] . To promote the book, there was a "Be a Pirate Contest" that promoted the book as an underground hit. The irony was not lost on Adam, who said "I never had a record deal, but no one called me an indie rocker. Now I DO have a book deal, but I'm an indie writer. Don't ask ME how the economy works." [ [http://www.adamselzer.com/contest.html AVAST! ] ] . Like his previous book, it was named a Book Sense Pick for summer, 2008.

In September, 2008, Random House pubu "I Put a Spell On You" [ [http://www.randomhouse.ca/author/results.pperl?authorid=72089 RandomHouse.ca | Author Spotlight: Adam Selzer ] ] , which is about a spelling bee, but is based on Watergate. The Horn Book called it "scathingly funny.," and The Bulletin of Children's Books compared Selzer to Andre Clements and Gordon Korman [http://www.adamselzer.com/spellreviews.html] . Selzer excerpted several chapters on his web-page prior to publication.

His next nonfiction book will be "Your Neighborhood Gives Me the Creeps: True Tales of an Accidental Ghost Hunter;" it will be a nonfiction memoir of his work in the ghost investigation industry that will be published by Llewellyn in 2009. It will be followed in 2010 by The Smart Aleck's Guide to U.S. History, which will be published by Delacorte, like his fiction books.

Most of his books (and many of his songs) take place in Cornersville Trace, a fictional suburb of an unnamed midwestern city [http://www.adamselzer.com/cornersville.html] . Many of his characters and places are named after polka bands, such as Whoopee Norm Eddlebeck and the Dairyland Dutchmen, Myron Floren, and The Van den Berg Orchestra, among others. [ [http://www.polkacatalog.com Polka Catalog ] ]

In addition to his fiction work, Adam works as a historian, tour guide and ghost investigator for Weird Chicago Tours, which he founded in 2006 with Troy Taylor and Ken Melvoin-Berg. [ [http://weirdchicago.com/guides.html Weird Chicago Tours: Your Weird Guides! ] ] . The three of them collaborated on the Weird Chicago book pubished by White Chapel Press in 2008.

List of works

*"How to Get Suspended and Influence People", Delacorte Press, 2007 [ISBN 978-0-385-73369-4]
*"Pirates of the Retail Wasteland", Delacorte Press, 2008 [ISBN 978-0-385-73482-0]
*"I Put a Spell On You", Delacorte Press, 2008 [ISBN 978-0-385-90498-8]
*"Weird Chicago: The Book" (with Troy Taylor and Ken Melvoin-Berg), Whitechapel Press, 2008 [ISBN 978-1-892523-59-4]
*"Weird Chicago Presents: The Murder Castle of H.H. Holmes" (mini ebook) (editor), Whitechapel Press, 2008 [ [http://weirdchicago.blogspot.com/2008/03/hh-holmes-murder-castle-ebook.html Weird Chicago: H.H. Holmes Murder Castle Ebook! ] ]
*"Your Neighborhood Gives Me the Creeps: True Tales of an Accidental Ghost Hunter", Llewellyn Press, 2009 (tentative title)
*"I Put a Spell On You, Also", Delacorte Press, 2010
*"The Smart Aleck's Guide to U.S. History", Delacorte Press 2010
*"Andrew North Blows Up the World", Delacorte Press, 2009 (tentative title)
*"Andrew North" sequel Delacorte Press, 2011

References

External links

* [http://www.adamselzer.com/ Adam Selzer's Website]
* [http://www.weirdchicagoblog.com/ Adam Selzer's Weird Chicago Blog]