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Emm Oh

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://www.emmoh.com

Genre

Suspense, Thriller, Fiction

Influences

Irving, Vonnegut, Grisham

Member Since

July 2014

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When I was a kid, my mother took book donations for the annual Christmas bazaar. Each summer our barn would fill up with old books of every description: pocket series, high lit, self-help, biography, and more than a little of the soft porn known as "romance." I was lucky enough to get first pick of the books before they were sent off to be sold at the Christmas market to support the arts center in town. To keep things on the up-and-up, I had to find 25-cents out of my piggy bank for each book to help support the cause.

The pulp-lit world back then was very healthy, and the pile of paperbacks collected each summer looked very similar to the e-lit offerings on the web today: a mix of safe formula, sturdy epics, brilliant literature, and atroci When I was a kid, my mother took book donations for the annual Christmas bazaar. Each summer our barn would fill up with old books of every description: pocket series, high lit, self-help, biography, and more than a little of the soft porn known as "romance." I was lucky enough to get first pick of the books before they were sent off to be sold at the Christmas market to support the arts center in town. To keep things on the up-and-up, I had to find 25-cents out of my piggy bank for each book to help support the cause.

The pulp-lit world back then was very healthy, and the pile of paperbacks collected each summer looked very similar to the e-lit offerings on the web today: a mix of safe formula, sturdy epics, brilliant literature, and atrocities best left unread.

Today I'm lucky to be able to write on long summer days, and I am inspired every moment by the memory of discovering new worlds and ideas in those musty, yellowing, dog-earred barn stall books.

"The Spies of Thurber Hall" springs from the familiar team-of-three action/adventure formula, but it is informed by more than a little modern government surveillance angst. I would characterize this series (Book Two is in progress) as "George Orwell Meets Woody Allen" ... where Orwell predicts doom in a world run by an all-seeing government, but Allen finds that same government overwhelmed by terabytes of intel that proves to be mostly idle table talk and lonely people trying to get their cats to flush the toilet for Facebook videos.

I also have too much fun here with the idea of young and somewhat reckless spies running wild on a large college campus with unchecked access to CIA resources. There is a Walter Mitty-ish element to that circumstance, and that together with the setting mints the title of this series.

In other words, yes, this is a book about spies ... but a number of other themes from a youth spent reading an endless supply of literary barn stall fodder got in.

Thanks very much for your interest in The Spies of Thurber Hall.

Emm Oh
emmoh.com
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The Spies of Thurber Hall: BOD Squad 17: Non-Company Business

it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2014 — 2 editions

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9 posts
Emm Oh's Blog: Do Monkeys Lie?

Director No

The Guardian reports that Agent 007 was subject to an FBI background check in 1964. He flunked, as far as getting any G-Man Cross-branding Love.

When the feds received a request for FBI equipment cameos from Goldfinger producer Harry Saltzman, the movie script was passed to the FBI for closer scrutiny. Background checks were run on Saltzman, author Ian Fleming, and the script writer, Richard Malbau Read more of this blog post »

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Published on December 10, 2014 10:45

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Quotes by Emm Oh (?)

“Rad drew in a breath of the universe, which was like root beer poured over vanilla ice cream. Rad exhaled all time, space, and matter in a great burp, expelling the carbonation of the cosmos through his nose.”
― Emm Oh, The Spies of Thurber Hall: BOD Squad 17: Non-Company Business

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“In Skipping Christmas, first Luther Krank was going to celebrate Christmas and then he wasn’t going to celebrate Christmas, but in the end he did celebrate Christmas. I hope you don’t mind that this is a short report, but that's what the book was about.”
― Emm Oh, The Spies of Thurber Hall: BOD Squad 17: Non-Company Business

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“Rad had written a two-sentence response for his comparison/contrast between Moby Dick and The Old Man and the Sea:

“The fishermen lost their fish, and that was IT. Nothing to write books about, and the ‘literary devices’ you want listed are nothing but made-up complications for a useless major.”
― Emm Oh, The Spies of Thurber Hall: BOD Squad 17: Non-Company Business

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Emm’s Quotes

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

tags: action, attitude, choice, imagination, inspiration, life, pretend

18016 likes

“Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

tags: humour, telekinetics

10120 likes

“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano

7562 likes

“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan

tags: life, love

3753 likes

“The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon.”
― Kurt Vonnegut