Had a good time at Bouchercon, met some wonderful new entities, reaquainted with others, and cribbed a couple leads on agents. But I've been too sozzled to post until today. I just finished sending a manscript sample to Jah-knows-who, and have other blurbage due by Thursday, so I'll be briefish.While I was traveling, as a mental break from crime fiction and for-review books, I read Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy's Affected Provincial's Companion: Volume 1. I can report with excessive delight that it's elevated, witty, life-altering, and intermittently naughty besides. Read the New York Times review, though it doesn't emphasize enough for me the lovely textural and graphic qualities of the book, from its spring-green and gilded hardcover and slim, pocket-size to the ambitious charting of what some lowly minds might consider undiagrammable concepts. Deliciously coherent in appearance and content, which is sadly a rarity in much of today's book world, Whimsy deserves credit for first self-publishing this opus. (If I may wax blatheriffic, though something exceptional often faces more difficulties in finding a fit perch, I have to believe the vividness of its plumage will inevitably show itself, and it will be regarded as all the more glorious for being uncompromised.) In addition to the obvious fastidiousness in the text's substance and appearance, each internal element from title scrolls to endpapers has been executed with taste and care, like Lord Whimsy's own manifestation, I must assume. Half a year before this release, I discovered him through his blog (general website here), which among other goodies contains PDF instructions for tying various ties and folding pocket squares. That's the charm of his noblesse oblige, 21st century style. Viva Whimsy!
And, via Eric, if you're not feeling particularly erudite, here's a quickie link to MONK-E-mail. It's addictive fun. Send your own monkey today!
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