Virgen: Lupica candid in Newport Beach
Sometimes honesty can be the best way to make a sell. When Mike Lupica came to the Newport Beach Library on Sept. 18 mostly everyone knew he was there to plug his new book, Fantasy League.
He didn’t hold back when a kid asked him what book he’d recommend to buy. Honesty is the best policy?
Lupica told the kid to buy his newest novel because he has four kids of his own, well three who are now men in their 20s and one 15-year old daughter.
“I’d like you to buy Fantasy League,” Lupica told the boy in a playful tone. “I have four children. I have no other skills to fall back on. It’s extremely important for me to have you buy the new book because I have a daughter in high school.”
Lupica, the well-known sportswriter from New York who also works for ESPN, used honesty and he continued with bluntness throughout his Q&A program and book signing. Maybe that’s why the audience, many of whom were children, were so drawn to him.
He certainly caught my attention and I believed him when his voice slightly cracked with emotion while describing his love for books and his craft. This all couldn’t be about selling a book? Could it?
No way.
Lupica, who was a guest on the Today Show earlier in the day, shared a story about his strong affection for Rick Brant Science Adventures books. He said he ordered the books online and the feeling of his youth returned when the books came to his house.
“The logo for the Rick Brant Science Adventures was a lightning bolt on the binding,” Lupica said. “When I ran my hand over the lightning bolt 40 years of my life ran back to me. I was as excited to be holding that book in my hand as I had been when I was 10.
“When I see boys and girls come to these talks and they are holding the books I wrote the way I used to hold on to that Rick Brant book, I know that I have the best job in the world. I will make one deal with the young readers in this room. If you continue to read these books I will continue to write them.”
Lupica also shared that one of the greatest compliments he receives is when parents tell him that their child had not wanted to learn how to read until they read one of his books.
“This has been the greatest adventure of my life,” he said.
Lupica’s latest book is about a boy’s dream come true as he becomes a general manager of a football team through the success of his fantasy football team and connections to a new team in Los Angeles.
“All you people in Southern California, you’re welcome,” Lupica joked about his book. “I bring the NFL back to L.A.”
Lupica didn’t really talk much about his new book, but he did explain some of the central themes his books carry.
“There’s one thing that runs through my books,” Lupica said of his books that are typically for middle-school readers. “Anybody can get knocked down. It requires no talent, no spirit, no heart and no imagination. Anybody in this room can be a champion at getting knocked down. But it’s how you get back up that’s a measure of all your character. That’s how you show the world who you are.”
Lupica also said he has seen how important sports can be to children because he coached his own kids in different sports.
“I have seen how sports bring them together and it makes them reach for the sky and it makes them search for the best in themselves,” he said. “This is what my books are about.”
Lupica said he grew up with a strong passion for books, taking on the “stacks at the Oneida Library.”
Lupica, 62, reminded his audience that there wasn’t any Internet, texting, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter in his day.
He just loved to read. And now he loves to write.
“We all love good stories,” he said. “Yet with all the technology there’s no greater magic than page one, chapter one of a book you want to read. Because once you read that book you are entering a world that you would not have otherwise have entered unless you read it. And whether it’s 200 pages or 300 pages you get swept away. That’s the magic of books. That’s the beauty of my writing. It’s a great adventure with these books.”