www.richardscarsbrook.com
Richard Scarsbrook is a Toronto-based fiction writer and poet. During the day, he teaches high school, and by night, he writes and edits new stories and poems, acts in and directs theatre productions, plays the drums and harmonica, sings, teaches creative writing courses at George Brown College and Humber College, and occasionally sleeps. He also plays with a rock band called The Nerve.
Richard's short stories and poems have been published widely in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies, and he has won a number of prizes and awards. His first book,
Cheeseburger Subversive, is a funny, moving, must-read young adult novel. Released in May 2003, it is now in its fourth printing.
Featherless Bipeds is the exciting rock`n`roll sequel to
Cheeseburger Subversive, and was short-listed for the 2007 Young Adult Book Award by the Canadian Library Association and is a 2008/2009 Stellar Book Award nominee, British Columbia’s Teen Readers’ Choice Award.
Works on Offer:
The Indifference League
The Indifference League is the sexy, racy, hilarious, and ultimately moving story of the obsessions and fears of the New Lost Generation.
Each chapter begins with a classic superhero quote; Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and other “Superfriends” voice the selfless and optimistic ideals of the Greatest Generation and their progeny. Then The Indifference League—The Statistician, Hippie Avenger, SuperKen, SuperBarbie, Miss Demeanour, Mr. Nice Guy, The Drifter, and The Stunner, all archetypes of Generations X and Y—show us just how much things have changed.
Sex and love. Religion and politics. Left and Right. Right and Wrong. Can anyone be a hero in an age where the lines are so blurred? The members of The Indifference League will fight to find out. Or not.
Manuscript available
Rights: World
Young Adult Works:
The Monkeyface Chronicles
Thistledown Press, forthcoming 2010
“The boy they called Monkeyface will return to Faireville with a new face and a new identity, seeking revenge….”
Philip Skyler is born with a severe facial deformity. Scientists call it Van der Woude Syndrome; Philip’s classmates at Faireville Elementary just call him Monkeyface. Philip suffers a vicious schoolyard beating at the hands of identical-twin bullies Graham and Grant Brush, the notorious Grum and Grunt, and vows that he will become stronger and smarter than any of his aggressors.
As he enters high school, Philip will stand up for the bullied and the outcast. He will surpass his non-identical, “normal” twin brother in everything but looks and popularity. He will muscle and score his way onto the local hockey team. He will help his truest friend escape a cult. He will find real love.
Then it will all be ripped away.
As he loses his one true love, and discovers terrible truths about his reclusive scientist father, his beloved ex-mayor grandfather and his rebellious older brother, Philip will be involved in a horrible accident. The boy they called Monkeyface will return to Faireville with a new face and a new identity, seeking revenge. Can it lead to redemption?
Manuscript available
Rights: Thistledown Press has world, HSW Literary Agency is selling
Featherless Bipeds
Thistledown Press, 2006
“…small, soul-destroying bars will attract those boys who think their future is there. …”
Featherless Bipeds is the exciting rock`n`roll sequel to Cheeseburger Subversive, with sales of 1,150 copies to date. It has been shortlisted for the 2007 Young Adult Book Award by the Canadian Library Association.
The protagonist, Dak, composes the simple repetitive lyrics that complement typical rock and roll. Scarsbrook's descriptions of small, soul-destroying bars will attract those boys who think their future is there. Fans of live pop music will enjoy his wonderful evocations of the characters, venues, trials, and successes of such a career, as well as the experience of making music, both onstage and off.
Rights: World, excluding Canada
Cheeseburger Subversive
Thistledown Press, 2003
“…the girl of his dreams always seems to be one step ahead of him…”
Richard Scarsbrook’s first novel, Cheeseburger Subversive follows Dak Sifter from grade seven to university, as he deals with his parents, his precocious sister, dirtbike-riding bullies, frenzied school bus riders, snarling attack dogs, a menacing pickle-factory foreman, a kid who thinks he’s in contact with aliens, a religious-fanatic con-man, a manipulative used-car salesman, an ex-hippie English teacher, a control-freak art gallery curator, a spiteful McDonald’s counter-boy, an obsessive-compulsive
roommate and a bunch of drunken engineering students in Hugh Hefner costumes, all while doggedly pursuing Zoe Perry, the girl of his dreams, who always seems to be one step ahead of him.
Cheeseburger Subversive is a funny, moving, must-read young adult novel. Released in May, 2003, it is now in its fourth printing and has sold almost 5,000 copies. It was short-listed for the Canadian Library Association 2004 Book of the Year Award, the 2005 Ontario Library Association White Pine Award, and the 2005 Stellar Award.
Rights: World, excluding Canada
Praise for Cheeseburger Subversive:
“Cheeseburger Subversive brims with well-realized and poignant scenes, keenly observed details, and light-handed humour…”
-- Quill & Quire
“Cheeseburger Subversive is a coming of age story written with humor and panache…. Scarsbrook has a special eye for the absurd, a wonderful way of looking at the world that turns tragedy into humor…. Every situation is easy to identify with for most of us have been there and done that. A very funny and heart-warming debut.”
-- W.P. Kinsella, Books in Canada
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