Adam-Troy Castro - My Ox Is Broken!: Roadblocks, Detours, Fast Forwards and Other Great Moments from TVs The Amazing Race

PRAISE FOR ADAM-TROY CASTROS WORK

Adam-Troy Castros stories are haunting, visionary, hilarious, demented, acerbic, strange, terrifying, and as full-tilt, whacked-out gonzo as anything Ive ever seen.

ALLEN STEELE, author of Orbital Decay

His plots make you shake your head and wonder why nobody thought of this before. His characters are refreshingly real. His prose is readable without sacrificing complexity. He is, quite simply, one of the finest writers working today.

KEITH R. A. DECANDIDO, author of Venoms Wrath

Adam-Troy Castro provides some extra brain stimulation. Heavy energy sparks across the synapses in reaction to his brain-tickling prose. Neurons may well overheat. Its good to see a writer who jumps on the back of wild ideas, gives them a taste of his spurs, hangs on for dear life, and lets the ideas take himand the readerinto new territory.

ERNEST HOGAN, Science Fiction Weekly

Castros vivid ideas and accomplished storytelling are a pleasure to read.

CATHERINE ASARO, Hugo-nominated author of The Phoenix Code

Lost in Booth Nine

X-Men/Spider-Man: Times Arrow Book 2, The Present
(with Tom DeFalco)

Spider-Man: The Gathering of the Sinister Six

An Alien Darkness

A Desperate Decaying Darkness

Spider-Man: The Revenge of the Sinister Six

Spider-Man: The Secret of the Sinister Six

Vossoff and Nimmitz: Just a Couple of Idiots
Reupholstering Space and Time

Tangled Strings

With the Stars in their Eyes
(with Jerry Oltion)

The Shallow End of the Pool

Roadblocks, Detours, Fast Forwards,
and Other Great Moments from TVs

The Amazing Race

BENBELLA BOOKS, INC.
Dallas, Texas

This publication has not been prepared, approved, or licensed by any entity that created or produced the popular television program The Amazing Race.

Copyright 2006 by Adam-Troy Castro

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

BenBella Books, Inc.

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EISBN: 978-1-941631-45-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Castro, Adam-Troy.

My ox is broken! : roadblocks, detours, fast forwards, and other great moments from TVs The amazing race / Adam-Troy Castro.

p. cm.

ISBN 1-932100-91-1

1. Amazing race (Television program) I. Title.

PN1992.77.A5533C37 2006

791.45'72dc22

2006014200

Proofreading by Rebecca Green, Jennifer Thomason, and Stacia Seaman

Cover design by Todd Michael Bushman

Text design and composition by John Reinhardt Book Design

Printed by Victor Graphics, Inc.

Distributed by Perseus Distribution

www.perseusdistribution.com

To place orders through Perseus Distribution:

Tel: (800) 343-4499

Fax: (800) 351-5073

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This ones for Bill Wilson,
whos run an amazing race.

Billy and Carissa Gaghan

Adam-Troy Castro

BILLY

The Amazing Race is such a great show because it brings people all around the world to learn about other peoples culture and how they live their life. Also, it is a very competitive game and so you work harder and also learn about different attributes that you never knew you had before. But since the game is so competitive, you never really get to look around to see how truly amazing the place that youre in is. The places that you go to on The Amazing Race all have something in common, that they are famous like the Delaware River or cool like the WORLDS BIGGEST OFFICE CHAIR (in Alabama). The Amazing Race is a great show and if you think you can do it and you want to do it, do it.

I like The Amazing Race because it is a reality TV show and so the game is not a fixed race and so they dont pick a team and let them win. In The Amazing Race you have to work hard or youre not going to make it that far. Also the people behind the scenes, like the security guys, were really great guys. And the camera and sound guys were really friendly too. The Amazing Race is a truly amazing show that takes people around the world and those people realize how good they have it in America. Also, all of the other people on The Amazing Race 8 were really great people even though some looked bad on the show.

Being a kid on The Amazing Race was awesome because a kid has a different perspective than an adult and because you have more energy to use than an adult. In Costa Rica, at the time I did not sleep for the past three days and I wasnt tired, but some of the others were dead asleep and me and my sister Carissa had a lot of caffeine and adrenaline running through us so we were able to run one mile at 2 oclock in the morning. But in the Race that we were on, there were no kid challenges or specifically challenges meant for kids. When we went on the show, we though that there would be families with kids, but it was just us and the Black Family. I had a great time any way.

CARISSA

Kids being on The Amazing Race was a very good idea. The Amazing Race can help people learn about other peoples culture and language. Also, it helps people go to other places that they would never go to. Being a kid on The Amazing Race was awesome! When you are on The Amazing Race, you can do things that you could never do before in your life! Amazing Race is one of the best reality shows on TV because on The Amazing Race you can learn something new every day until your time is up.

Also the challenges (Roadblocks, Detours and Route Info) were awesome because after you finish one you never know what you are going to go to next, like a Pitstop.

Pitstops can be scary (if you are last) or they can be very exciting (if you are first)! If you are lucky, you may not be eliminated. If you see a Fast Forward and no one took it and you are last, then you should take it. The only problem about taking the Fast Forward is that you can only use it once and that you could come in last place (if you get lost). If you are on The Amazing Race, you get to have camera and sound guys follow you around. They are fun to do things with. You can do fun things like play cards with other teams and camera and sound guys.

In Detours, you can switch them if you can not do them (like the first one is the mud bog and you cant do it, then you can go to another one like de-heading shrimp). In Roadblocks, only one person can do it (two people for the Family Edition). The bad thing about Roadblocks is that you cant switch people and if you decide to do a penalty (decide to quit) then you will have to wait 4 hours. Route Infos are when you have to go some place else. Like if you are in Washington and you might get a Route Info to make you go to Florida. Some Route Info can make you go farther than other Route Info.