{"id":499163,"date":"2010-04-01T08:03:06","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T12:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kurtisscaletta.com\/home\/?p=2762"},"modified":"2010-04-01T08:03:06","modified_gmt":"2010-04-01T12:03:06","slug":"mambo-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/499163","title":{"rendered":"Mambo Point"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite my best efforts to straighten people out on <a href=\"http:\/\/z.umn.edu\/mambo\">the difference between a mambo and a mamba<\/a>, I still see my book referred to as <em>Mambo Point<\/em>. Instead of fighting this any more, I&#8217;ve decided to give in. Clearly there is a demand for middle grade dance novels, and I&#8217;m not one to stand in the way, or fail to cash in.<\/p>\n<p>So I called my editor and asked if we could make some changes to <em>Mamba Point<\/em> (now to be entitled <em>Mambo Point<\/em>) and she agreed, admitting that she doesn&#8217;t like snakes anyway. Here is the new synopsis:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>When his dad gets a job at the U.S. embassy in <s>Liberia<\/s> Cuba, twelve-year-old Linus Tuttle knows it\u2019s his chance for a fresh start. Instead of being his typical anxious self, from now on he\u2019ll be cooler and bolder: the new Linus.<\/p>\n<p>But as soon as his family gets off the plane, they see a <s>black<\/s> mamb<s>a<\/s>o\u2014one of the deadliest <s>snakes in Africa<\/s> dances in the Carribean. Linus\u2019s parents insist mamb<s>a<\/s>os are rare, but the neighborhood is called Mamb<s>a<\/s>o Point, and Linus is sure the <s>venomous serpents<\/s> high energy musicians are drawn to him\u2014he can barely go outside without tripping over one. Then he hears about kasengs\u2014and the belief that some people have a deep, mysterious connection to certain <s>animals<\/s> dance moves.<\/p>\n<p>Unless Linus wants to hide in his apartment forever (drawing or playing games with the strange kid downstairs while his older brother meets girls and hangs out at the pool), he has to get over his fear of his kaseng <s>animal<\/s> dance. Soon he\u2019s not only keeping a <s>black mamba<\/s> set of timbales in his laundry hamper; he\u2019s also feeling braver than ever before. Is it his resolution to become the new Linus, or does his sudden confidence have something to do with his <s>scaly new friend<\/s> raucous new hobby?<\/p>\n<p>From Kurtis Scaletta comes a humorous and compelling story of a boy learning about himself through unexpected friends, a fascinating place, and an extraordinary <s>animal<\/s> musical sensation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><object width=\"480\" height=\"385\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/N4ULm7ha5pY&#038;hl=en_US&#038;fs=1&#038;rel=0\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/N4ULm7ha5pY&#038;hl=en_US&#038;fs=1&#038;rel=0\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"480\" height=\"385\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>Happy April Fools Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite my best efforts to straighten people out on the difference between a mambo and a mamba, I still see my book referred to as Mambo Point. Instead of fighting this any more, I&#8217;ve decided to give in. Clearly there is a demand for middle grade dance novels, and I&#8217;m not one to stand in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":816,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-499163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/816"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}