GORDON KORMAN :: A MESSAGE FROM GORDON KORMAN

Gordon Korman

#1 New York Times bestselling author of the Swindle mysteries, The Hypnotist, and The 39 Clues.

A Message From Gordon Korman

"I guess I knew writing was the career for me in my senior year in high school. By then, I had finished four books and was working on a fifth."

I wrote The 6th Grade Nickname Game because grade six was the only year I had a cool nickname. Face it, there aren't a lot of good nicknames for Gordon. People usually called me Gordie or Gord-o. One very long semester I remember answering to Corny Korman. (That's not my favourite memory.)

But in grade six, I was the G-Man. I loved it! I've spent twenty-three years waiting to get another nickname that cool.

So when I came up with the idea of super-nicknamers Wiley and Jeff. I instantly put them in the sixth grade. They nickname everybody - Christie Jones is Krusty Bones; the class burp-aholic is called Gasbag; the teacher with the four-inch high-heeled shoes is known as Skywalker. Even Old Orchard Public School gets a nickname: OOPS - its initials.

Mr. Hughes, their teacher, is an ex-football coach - 280 pounds of pure muscle and brawn. It takes about five seconds for Wiley and Jeff to give him his new title - Mr. Huge!

There's always a little bit of real life behind my storylines. Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire was based on me. I wasn't a liar, exactly - but I was the world's greatest inventor of excuses.

As for The Chicken Doesn't Skate, let's just say I visited a middle school with a very strange idea of how a chicken fits into a science experiment. And hey, it's a hockey book, and I'm a hockey nut. You can't go wrong when you write about what you love! Did you know I was named after Gordie Howe, the old-time hockey star? No lie!

Anyway, keep on reading! I know I'll keep on writing.

Sincerely,
The G-Man (also known as Gordon Korman)