Join the Ups & Downs Mailing List
If you didn’t get an e-mail from us yesterday, that means you’re not on our mailing list! Oh, unhappy days! To join and get regular (once-a-month-ish) updates in the world of Ups & Downs, send an e-mail to upsanddowns@fried.cc. We’ll have a more sophisticated way to do that in the near future, but for now, that’ll work.
August 12, 2009 at 4:22 pm David Kassin Fried Leave a comment
Radio Interview on August 12th
Ups & Downs co-author David Kassin Fried will be appearing on Inner Views with Abigail Mahnke on Wednesday, August 12th.
Inner Views is a weekly live radio show in Austin, TX featuring everyday people with extraordinary stories. David will be interviewed about the two-month Alpine journey with his father, which culminated in the hilarious travel memoir, Ups & Downs.
The interview will air live on Wednesday, August 12th, 1:00–1:30 pm CT, on KOOP 91.7 FM. You can listen to KOOP 91.7 FM live on the Web here.
Learn more about Inner Views here.
New Excerpts Posted
For those of you who have spent the last 4 months staring at the Coming Soon section of our Excerpts page, wait no longer! The 10th and 11th chapters of Ups & Downs have been posted.
In Chapter 10, Is that an Apple on Your Head? we enter Altdorf, the crossroads of Switzerland, and by some measure its birthplace. It was up the hill in Burglen where William Tell refused to bow to the bailiff’s hat, thus launching the chain of events that would ultimately lead to Frankenstein’s downfall. (That doesn’t sound right … I think I’m mixing up my stories here.)
Chapter 11, Rover, Wanderer, Nomad, Vagabond, provides the first of two daydream sequences offered by David, as he imagines himself in a life of mountaineering. Whimsical albeit ridiculous, this one is not to be missed!
Tour de France Retraces U&D Route
This afternoon the Tour de France retraced one of the routes that David & Don Fried took during their two-month trek through the Alps. On pages 134-135 of Ups & Downs, David & Don describe their trip from Vers l’Eglise to Aigle, in which Don planted his trekking pole in the side of a car that sped past him with 12 inches to spare. This same section of road made up a tiny portion of Stage 15 of the Tour de France, from Pontarlier to Verbier. Read the excerpt from Ups & Downs here.
Who knew when we started this journey that we would be influencing one of the great athletic events of all time?
Rebecca’s Reads Posts Glowing Review
Melissa Koltes of Rebecca’s Reads posted a review of Ups & Downs. She had the following to say:
I do not typically laugh out loud as I am reading. But this book made me LOL more times than I can count. … The authors do a fantastic job of giving a visual account of the uniqueness of the towns-people, the villages, the countries and the cultures. The beauty of the landscape, the difficulty of the journey and the individual experiences that each narrate is awe inspiring, incredibly amusing, and greatly entertaining.
Ups & Downs: Midwest Book Review’s “Reviewer’s Choice”
Ups & Downs is a Reviewer’s Choice for the Midwest Book Review’s March edition of Small Press Bookwatch.
Every month, Midwest Book Review publishes its Small Press Bookwatch, “dedicated to showcasing reviews for fiction and non-fiction books that are self-published, small press published, or Print-On-Demand (POD) published titles.” Of the 70ish titles showcased in the March edition, Ups & Downs was one of the four books selected for Reviewer’s Choice. MBR had the following to say about us:
What happens when you stick two Americans into the Swiss Alps? “Ups and Downs: The Misadventures of a Crusty Old Fart and his Bouncy Son as they Trek Through the Alps” is the story of a father and son as they hike through the famous Swiss Alps. Written in two distinct but fascinating voices, they offer a cross-generational look at Europe and have an adventure that is fascinating to read. “Ups and Downs” is a fine choice for true adventure fans, highly recommended.
MBR also posted its review on our Amazon.com page, giving us five stars.
March 16, 2009 at 2:42 pm David Kassin Fried Leave a comment
Book Launch Update
On Sunday, Don had a release event at the Mary Miller Theater in Lafayette, CO, and on Monday David released the book with a signing at BookPeople in Austin, TX. Thanks to everyone who attended and made these events a success!
Buy Ups & Downs at Amazon.com today.
March 11, 2009 at 8:50 pm David Kassin Fried Leave a comment
3…2…1…Liftoff!
Last night was the Colorado launch and tonight at 7 pm is the book launch and signing at BookPeople in Austin. We’re busy Facebooking and updating and calling people, so we’ll update you tomorrow on how it all went.
Only One Week to Launch!
It’s been an interesting few weeks … Many people have been telling us that they’ve been getting our e-mails, Facebook messages, Twitters, and so forth, and that they’re looking forward to coming. Others say they’re sorry they missed it and ask how it went. At which point we take great pleasure in telling them that they haven’t, in fact, missed anything, and they can still totally come!
It’s one week to launch. NOW’S THE TIME TO TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS!!!!
Here’s an exercise. It’ll only take about 30 seconds. Open up a Word document, notepad file, physical notebook, palm pilot, or whatever else you use to keep things in existence, and then spend 30 seconds writing down the names of 5 people you know. Special bonus points if they’re hikers, campers, travel enthusiasts, or Europeans.
***Cue Jeopardy! music as 30 seconds pass***
Now, just talk to them some time in the next three or four days and tell them about this awesome book that’s just up their alley and pretty please come buy it. Not because you’re calling in a favor, but because it’s HILARIOUS and INTERESTING and ENTERTAINING and OH SO MOVING and they just have to buy it because what would their life be like if they looked back on this opportunity 5 years from now and said, “I once had the opportunity to meet Don/David (circle one) Fried and get a signed copy of his book … and I blew it … and now all I have is this UNSIGNED hilarious, interesting, entertaining, and oh-so-moving book.
We’re thinking about offering up a prize to the person who brings the most people. Here are a few of the prizes we’ve considered:
- A free book
- A heart-shaped box of Ferrero Rochers purchased the day after Valentine’s Day for 80% off.
- A job. We hear those are in high demand right now.
- A copy of the Carcassonne board game. Don’t know what that is? Read the book and find out!
Thanks to everyone for your support. We’ll see you there!
Article in Boulder Camera about Colorado Launch
There’s some nice coverage about next Sunday’s Colorado Launch of Ups & Downs and Don’s playwriting activities in today’s Boulder Camera.
