Bartography

…and over at Cynsations.

So while you’re waiting for this Saturday’s party at BookPeople, get on over to Cynthia Leitich Smith’s blog and look for the book-giveaway guidelines at the bottom of the interview she conducted with me. (Thanks, Cyn!)

Two announcements today on this, the official publication date for The Day-Glo Brothers: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer’s Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors:

1) I’ve just sent out the first edition of my occasional Bartography Express newsletter. For the next few weeks, you can view it here, and you can always sign up on my home page to have Bartography Express emailed to you directly.

2) If you’ll be in Austin on Saturday, July 11, I hope you’ll join me at BookPeople at 1 p.m. for a celebration of The Day-Glo Brothers, which is my first book for young readers.

It’s an “enlightening story” (says WIRED)…

…”of quintessentially American ingenuity” (Publishers Weekly)…

…with illustrations that are “retro funk, dipped in Day-Glo… guaranteed to suck any kid straight in” (Blue Yonder Ranch).

In honor of The Day-Glo Brothers, we’ll have daylight-fluorescent crafts, prizes*, and activities, including a high-tech viewing station (a cardboard box rigged with black lights). With some assistance from the younger members of the audience, I’ll talk a little about the story and science behind the book.

If you’d like to RSVP on Facebook, go here. If you’d like to learn more about the book, go here.

And if you’ll be in Austin on the 11th, I hope you’ll dress in your Day-Glo best and come join me!

* “Reading, ‘Riting, Researching” kits including a black light, a copy of the book, and some other Day-Glo-hued goodies. Nifty, yes?

Last week’s radio episode of This American Life (“Origin Story”) began by poking holes in what it called “corporate creation myths.” The prototypical one is the story of how Hewlett-Packard was founded — by two guys with a dream and a garage.

Host Ira Glass interviewed Dan Heath, who wrote about this topic in Fast Company a couple of years ago:

[C]ompanies aren’t born in garages. Companies are born in companies.

This reality shouldn’t diminish these monumental achievements. Yet it feels like it does, because all of us crave the excitement of these creation myths. Your startup “emerged from a systematic discussion of market opportunities, conducted at a networking function at the Marriott”? Yawn. Give us the garage. In fact, the story would be even more satisfying if [Apple Computer's founders] had built the garage first. Out of toothpicks, scavenged from local restaurants.

He makes a good point about how the achievements of the HPs and Apples and YouTubes of the world should be enough for us, regardless of whether there’s a great story behind how they came about. That said, I’d just like to point out that the story — which I tell in The Day-Glo Brothers — of how Bob and Joe Switzer got started down the road to inventing daylight-fluorescent colors is no myth at all.

Instead of a garage, it was their family’s basement. And the only company remotely involved was the one Bob had been working for (not named, but identifiable by the shape of the ketchup bottles in a hallucinatory spread wonderfully rendered by Tony Persiani) when he busted his head and got sent to the dark basement to recover.

Another segment of last week’s This American Life episode discussed how difficult it can be to correct an origin story once an inaccurate version of it gets publicized. A few details of Day-Glo’s origins published elsewhere have missed the mark, but I’ll try to keep in check my aspirations for setting the record straight once and for all. Besides, some of those errors were contained in the first article I ever read about Bob and Joe Switzer, which means those mistakes are now part of my book’s own origin story.

Over the years, WIRED magazine has run its share of daylight fluorescent ink, so I guess it’s as fitting as it is thrilling that the July issue includes a little bit of ink about The Day-Glo Brothers.

Coming in at #4 on the monthly Playlist feature, just after Manhattan’s West Side High Line, right before isthisyourluggage.com, and several notches above the new Spinal Tap album, the writeup on page 57 notes how Bob and Joe Switzer’s “enlightening story … shows how basement tinkering can lead to scientific discovery.”

That’s some glowing praise coming from some folks who know what they’re talking about. Thanks, WIRED!

At Blue Yonder Ranch, my friend Stefani has written about her seven-year-old’s response to reading The Day-Glo Brothers. For my money, it’s hard to beat his initial reaction (“Wouldn’t it be so cool if something like that really happened?”), but there’s a lot to be said for how inspired he was after realizing that it did really happen.

Stefani is giving away a signed copy of my book, and that’s hardly the only exciting thing you’ll find at Blue Yonder Ranch. I’m talking about about Stefani’s monthly download, Book of Days, but don’t take my word for it — here’s what a writer at Pioneer Woman had to say about Book of Days:

My kids are pretty creative at kicking off their own daily adventures, but sometimes they require just a bit of prompting, which is why I have really enjoyed the June Edition … Designed to help families find simple ways to slow down, BE together, have fun and learn something new along the way…

Sounds like a book I’d like to read — and I’m just over the moon to be able to say that it’s a book I’ve written.

Here’s some of what Elizabeth Bird had to say about The Day-Glo Brothers over at Goodreads:

Barton brings us what is pretty much the world’s first biography of the inventors of Day-Glo colors. And what better format to use than the picture book? … When you actually see your first appearance of Day-Glo it’s shocking. And the second time when Bob and Joe rediscover it? Persiani has the wherewithal to turn that moment into its own undulating, high-octane, visually blinding two-page spread. … This is Barton’s first work of non-fiction. With his extensive research skills and way with words, I hope that it is safe to say that it won’t be his last.

And here are some equally encouraging words from Dr. Quinn’s Book Blog:

Barton does a fantastic job taking the reader through the life and times of the Switzer brothers. … Persiani’s retro illustrations are “highlighted” with various day-glo colors. Even the end pages use these electric colors to support this fun and informative book. I definitely recommend this book.

Dr. Quinn and Betsy, I’m so glad you both liked the book. Thank you for taking the time to say so.