J. Scott Savage Twisted Trivia (and Anti-Review)

By Tamra Norton

*Disclaimer: I neglected to approve any of this biographictional information by J. Scott Savage because I was afraid he wouldn't approve. He hates it when family secrets are revealed, but some things just need to be told.

Very few people in the blogosphere know this little tidbit of information, but J. Scott Savage is, in fact, my fraternal twin brother. Here we are at the wee age of 6 months. Scotty (as I've always called him) is the one with the constipated expression--a dilemma that has plagued my twin for life, poor guy. I'm the inquisitive looking one.

Scotty and I were raised in the vast regions of Northern California in a little log cabin surrounded by a Buffalo preserve. Our parents, Zeeke and Penelope Diuguid (pronounced Doo-Good) were the environmentally conscious, thrill-seeking type, so our lives were never dull or wasteful. Even though we are twins, our birthdays are one day apart. Scotty was born January 31st at 11:57 p.m. and I popped out a mere 4 minutes later at 12:01 am, on February 1st. Up until the age of 17 (when Scotty ran off to become a Mouseketeer--something I never forgave him for) we always shared a chocolate-chip cookie cake at midnight with two candles--one pink, and one blue.

Even though Scotty and I are fraternal twins, he's a year older than me. This happened during what Dad calls the Diuguid Space Exploration Debacle. Scotty (always into mischief) neglected to secure his deep-space, sleep module properly (or so he says. I think he snuck out to grab some Pop-Tarts for the ride. Whatever!) so when the rest of us woke a year later from our deep sleep to land at the space station, not only were all the Pop Tarts gone, but so was half of our food supply. During this solitary space time, Scotty fashioned his hair into dreadlocks, penned tattoos of wildlife on his arms with magic markers, and insisted on wearing gold foil stars on his earlobes. He was a restless teenager, and I had to wonder some days if he wasn't going to break our poor mother's heart.

At the age of 22, shortly after he returned from his Himalayan exploration with a group of Bulgarian refugees, Scotty, always a free spirit and definitely the independent and slightly disgruntled type, decided to change his name, once again, breaking our mother's heart. Fed up and embarrassed by always having to pronounce our last name to people, and hearing the response, "Serious?" Scotty legally became J. Scott Savage. And honestly, the name does better suit my brother's uncultivated nature. People are simply drawn to his primeval/salt-of-the-earth/bad-boy/All-American persona. He's a complete package!

After spending so much time traveling the face of the earth as well as space, it's no wonder Scotty came up with the premise to Farworld. Even though he gave us so much grief in the early years, Mom, Dad and I are so proud of him! Way to go, Bro! Stay tuned next week for a full Farworld review. And in the meantime, whoever can guess the correct information in this blog first gets their own autographed copy!

Hint: There are at least 4 full truths and 2 half truths (if you can stretch the imagination) to this biographictional tale.

READFARWORLDREADFARWORL

So I posted the little ditty above about my twin brother, J. Scott Savage, two weeks ago, with the promise to post my review of Farworld soon. Well, "soon" is finally here (a little later than I thought), but I wanted to share with the world how fun, exciting, and wicked sick (in the very best way) I thought this book was (and not just because my "brother" wrote it).

Now I'll be completely honest--really, I WILL this time! I'm an Anti-Reviewer. I hated writing summaries of other people's books while I was in school, I hate writing a synopsis today of my own books, and I hate reading summaries of ANY book! I don't even read the back cover of a book because I don't want ANY PART OF THE STORY given away. Period. For me, it's all about recommendations and a freaking awesome cover. With the two hand in hand, I'll buy just about any book.

Well, you can see the freaking awesome cover to Farworld just above and to the right, and with all my heart (twin or NOT), I recommend this book to readers of every age. This ain't just a kid's book, though I know my crew of fantasy-freak kiddos are gonna love it as much as I do. J. Scott Savage has a way of forcing the reader to rip through the pages at warp speed because you HAVE to find out what happens next, and you want to know yesterday! Scott is the master of cliffhanger chapters, I'll warn you now.

This is a book the whole family can enjoy together. I give it a 5 snake rating! And if you want a free copy, find the truths and half-truths above in the J. Scott Savage Twisted Trivia contest and I promise that someone will be picked for a free copy by the end of next week.