Caught by the Galley Cat

OK, I know. I said pictures. I'm still away from home, and don't have a good way to connect my camera to this computer. So, in lieu of photos, here is a link to a great article on Galley Cat about Logorrhea.

I love the title of the article: "This Headline Has the Word Autochthonous." This is a play on what I said to Ron Hogan when I was describing how I felt about the sentence when autochthonous was the winning word in 2004. The sentence was: "The autochthonous fauna of Australia is the kangaroo." To which I quipped, "That's like the vocabulary sentence you write in grade school: 'This sentence has the word autochthonous in it.'"

What I Did on My Summer Vacation Part 1

So we've been visiting my parents for a couple days now. It's been very relaxing. In a stressful way. Relaxing because we're just hanging around having fun. Stressful because there's this house we want to move into and we're not there working on it.

We went to a fireworks display on Saturday night. I got some cool photographs of the fireworks. The neighborhood my sister and parents live in hire the people who do the fireworks for all the downtown Milwaukee festivals to do an early display. It's cool because you get to be really close to the fireworks and see an awesome professional show you can walk to. No need to stuggle with parking trouble!

Then we've cooked out and eaten too much food. We made penne with sun-dried tomates, sausage, and artichoke hearts for my parents last night. We could have had my sister's family (and my brother's family if they weren't in Denver) over and still had too much food. For the four-and-a-half of us, it was WAY too much food. But very good.

My wife is keeping wine-bottle corks (she wants to make a trivet or a bulletin board out of them before every winery stops using corks) and we have about seven corks. From three days. And there are at least three more bottles that didn't have corks that we drank as well. And there all reds, which only my dad, my wife, and I drink. Everyone else wants whites and zins. So that's 10 bottles of wine that the three of us drank in three days. Woo-hoo!

Yesterday we went to discount liquor in Waukesha and spent about $300 on wine and other things (they have the largest selection of single malts I've seen outside of Scotland; I bought a nice 12-year-old Macallan). They're going to look into getting Old Monk rum for me (Juliet knows what I'm talking about; we were originally going to run to Madison--where I bought Old Monk recently--since my parents live about forty minutes away, but I don't think that'll be possible). Then we went to Penzey's and bought a bunch of herbs and spices (and a few extracts). And finally off to Sendik's grocery store where we found Bryd's custard powder and long Thai chiles. Yay! Now we can fry up that Halloumi cheese we have at home!

Today is a Brewers game and tail gate party hosted by Badger Mutual. No wine today. Just beer! It should be fun. I've never been to Miller Park and I haven't seen a baseball game in ages. AND, since the Brewers are actually playing well, it should be fun to watch. If the baby doesn't freak out and be bored! We're supposed to meet up with some old college friends who found me via this blog (yay interwebs!) at the .300 Club before the game.

It's been a lot of fun so far. I guess that's good, since the rest of the month we'll be moving, cleaning, and painting. We'll end the vacation going to see the new Pirates movie and going to Summerfest.

Next time: photos!

We Has House

Had the final walk-through this morning, and then went and signed all the closing papers. I is poor. But I own house. So, is good.

And YES Gwenda, I took more pictures of the inside (second floor and basement) that I'll post shortly.

Jeff VanderMeer's Having Ecstatic Days

If you read this blog (or the zine) you know who Jeff VanderMeer is. I 'met' Jeff shortly after I decided to start the zine. Jeff and I were on a small press message board together for a while, and then he brought me over to the Night Shade Message Board.

Jeff has always been very energetic about what he's working on. When he was doing the Thackery Lambshead Disease Guide, Jeff was all over the place doing readings and signings. I think I first met Jeff face-to-face in Washington D.C. for World Fantasy in 2003. He was running guerrillia readings for the guide all over the convention. I even ran a Thackery reading at a Readercon for Jeff since he couldn't make it to Boston. His energy is contagious. It's hard to be in the same room with Jeff and not be excited about whatever he's got going on next.

And Jeff's supported the zine and my publishing pursuits. He was in issue #2, and was also in my anthology Logorrhea with a tour de force story that uses all the other words the other authors in the anthology had already used. It's quite an accomplishment; a mosiac story of seemingly disparate events, all melded together into one incredible world.

More importantly, Jeff has consolidated his online efforts and launched a new website recently. You can go to:

http://www.jeffvandermeer.com

And check it out for yourself. If for some reason you come here to read what I have to say and you don't know Mr. VanderMeer, please, please, please go to his site and learn a little more about the man. And if you're not sure where to start, dive into the Bantam edition of City of Saints and Madmen, you will not be disappointed.

Free Dr. Black!

UPDATE: That's free as in 'gratis' not in 'rescue'; also, this offer is for NEW subscribers.

The talented Brendan Connell is offering up three copies of his amazing novella Dr. Black and the Guerrillia to the first three people who e-mail him telling that they have subscribed to Electric Velocipede. Huzzah! Thank you Mr. Connell!

I have a copy of Dr. Black and the Guerrillia, it's quite extraordinary. The current issue of Electric Velocipede has a new story featuring Dr. Black: "Dr. Black and the Village of Stones."

You can click on the link above to read about the offer, but I'm going to repeat it here:

Well, issue 12 of Electric Velocipede is out. I just received my copies and it looks very nice indeed. It contains my story Dr. Black and the Village of Stones. This is the 3rd story of mine to appear in EV. It is also the 4th Dr. Black story to be published.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, and lend my support to Electric Velocipede, I would like to extend a special offer.

Here it is:

I have 3 copies of my novella Dr. Black and the Guerrillia to give away to the next three people who take out a one-year subscription to Electric Velocipede. The book is a limited edition (300 copies) signed and illustated hardcover.

Subscriptions to the magazine are 15 bucks I believe. This novella is valued at 20. So, basically, you pay less for the subscription than you would for the novella.

What you have to do:

Just e-mail me and tell me that you are subscribing, and give me your address, and all is done.

My e-mail is: huysmans67 [at] hot mail dot com

The EV site where you can go for your subscription is here:

http://www.electricvelocipede.com/

Remember, this is offer is only good for the first 3 people who e-mail me!

So what are you waiting for?

Jordan Lapp's Not Really Trying

I got a nice little write-up by Jordan Lapp's blog Without Really Trying as part of his markets for new genre writers series. And it's true! I am a market for new writers. As Jordan points out:

As a plus, some big names have been published in the ‘zine, so bragging opportunities abound.

Like who? Jeffrey Ford, Catherynne M. Valente, Jeff VanderMeer, Liz Williams, Marly Youmans, Richard Bowes, Jay Caselberg, Jay Lake, Paul DiFillippo, Hal Duncan, and many others.

Go ahead, send me something. I dare you.

Thank You Thank You!

This is well overdue, but since support is still coming in, I feel a little less guilt in taking so long to acknowledge the support that's been coming in the past few weeks. Back in May, I posted about how I was looking for some help with the zine and that I was doing a subscription drive.

The call was taken up by hordes of people around the globe. I have seen support in ways that I would not have imagined. There have been a lot of people who have taken advantage of the patronage subscription. Saying that it's nice to feel/see the support for what you do in this way doesn't begin to convey how deeply I feel about it. I don't think there's a word for it.

I need to do something more personal to make sure that people know that I appreciate their support. But for now, this is a hearty thank you here from me to you. You should be seeing some exciting things starting this summer from Electric Velocipede and Spilt Milk Press.

Blog Disaster Plan

Via The Librarian in Black (one of my superstar lilbrarian heroes):

So, let's say Blogger eats your blog (note to Blogger: do not eat my blog!), or perhaps WordPress, or God forbid, LiveJournal disappears. What do you do?

1. Put your head in your hands and cry
2. Curse the gods/God/namesless ones and start a new blog on a new provider
3. Thank your lucky stars you printed out ever blog post (just like Jay Lake!*) and begin recreating in the blog (and comments)
4. Be happy that you're using a service like Blog Backup Online and restore your blog from its backups (including your images and comments)

The service is easy to set up and use. You can have multiple blogs under one account name if you wish. When you first add a blog, you are prompted to do a full backup. I've been blogging for almost six years and it took about five minutes to back up the whole thing (granted, I have fewer posts than some people who have been blogging for less time than me).

There is one huge limit to the service. The basic account (and I can't find info on anything other than the basic account) only offers 50MB of space for each user. So, if you write several blogs like I do, there's the danger that the space will be taken up rather quickly. Same thing if you post lots of photos (although you can tell the service to ignore images). I'll have to assume there is or will be non-basic accounts which would allow for more storage space. If you have a large blog, it would probably be worth moving into whatever their more advanced accounts are.

That said, my almost 500 posts are using less than 2MB of space. Unless I hit an enormous fit of productivity (and I'll admit I'm posting more often this year than ever before) it will take me some time to fill up the 50MB of space allocated.

But what if Blog Backup Online (henceforth BBO) goes down? Well, you should probably get yourself in the habit of weekly (or at least monthly) downloads of the information from BBO. Just do it the same time you back up your computer.

You are backing up your computer, right?

ACQUIRING: Various books

First, here are some books that I have purchased recently:


THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN by David Goodis, BLACKMAILED by George Axelrod, SONGS OF INNOCENCE by Richard Aleas, SCAR NIGHT by Alan Campbell, BRASYL by Ian McDonald, THE FAERIE QUEENE BOOK TWO by Sir Edmund Spenser, and THE YEAR'S BEST SF #12 edited by David G. Hartwell (which contains a reprint of Edd Vick's story "Moon Does Run" from issue #11 of Electric Velocipede).

Second, I've started doing some freelance work for PS Publishing in the UK. They do some fantastic stuff. Here's a small (blurry) example:


POSTSCRIPTS #10 (this was the giant special edition for the World Horror Convention this year; it's not normally so giant), COLLECTED ED GORMAN volumes I & II, THE FACE OF TWILIGHT by Mark Samuels, STREAKING by Brian Stableford, and THE BUTTERFLIES OF MEMORY by Ian Watson.

MMmmmmm...zines

So about a week ago, my wife and the baby were staying at her sister's (my wife's sister, not the baby's sister) while my wife's parents were in town for my wife's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. Got that?

So this means I was left to my own devices for a few days. In addition to staying up too late and eating out the whole time, this is what else I did while everyone was away:


I took out all my backstock of Electric Velocipede and piled it up on my coffee table. No, this is not some random Scalziness, I was actually taking stock of my...stock. I wanted to see what I had left of particular issues. The photo implies that I have a lot of issue #12 left, but this was before I mailed out any subscriber/contributor copies, so I have significantly fewer copies now. (and yes, some of the copies of #12 are missing the feet of the robot and the hat guy)


And this is a nice stack of Ezra Pines chapbooks. Won't someone give them a nice home? The chapbook features 11 stories (2 new) from Mr. Pines, illustrations by Mark Rich, and an introduction by Hal Duncan. It's quite fantastic if I must say so myself.

Hey LJ Folks!

If you are a LiveJournal person, you may have wondered, do I have to keep checking this guy's blog to read it? No you don't! The Electric Velocipede blog is syndicated in at least two places:

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/electricvelocip/profile

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/elec_veloc/profile

So go ahead and add these syndicated feeds to your profile so that you can read me without having to travel teh intrawebs!

Also, if you are a LJer who reads me already, let other LJers know about me. I mean, hey, this blog is filled with fascinating stuff.

Places Where You Can Get Electric Velocipede

I thought it would be handy to do a rundown of places where you can get Electric Velocipede. With the closure of Clarkesworld and Shocklines, I'm sure a lot of people have felt that the online genre world has taken a big hit. While this is true to some extent--these were big online stores with a lot of experience behind them--there are up-and-coming places that are carrying genre books and magazines. I know a lot of people will question the quality of service from these new people. That's understandable; if you haven't used them, how would you know?

What about the first time you used Clarkesworld or Shocklines? Maybe you came to the online stores by the recommendation of another, or they were already ensconced as a trustworthy source of genre goodness. But I hasten to remind people, there was a point when they were new and you had to take a leap of faith with them.

On to the list:

Preferred:
Of course, you can buy directly from me from the Electric Velocipede website. There is also a printable form you can mail in with a check if you wish.

Physical Stores:
You can buy copies from Quimby's in Chicago, Borderlands Books in San Francisco, or Downtown Books and News in Asheville, NC.

Onlines Stores:
Right now there are only two online stores (besides me) that carry Electric Velocipede: Pulp Source and The Genre Mall.

I'm always looking for more places to carry the zine. You have to be looking for me or the zine to find my website and online store. In the other places, you could be there for something else and find Electric Velocipede, too. If anyone knows of other stores that might be interested (or you are another store) please contact me. You can get my contact e-mail out of my profile on the blog's actual site (for all you feed readers out there; hello!).

LISTENING: Various and Sundry Things

The last two mornings I have woken up with Def Leppard's "Bringing on the Heartbreak" (from their breakthrough High 'n' Dry album) stuck in my head. I find this quite disconcerting. I can't pretend to be a Leppard fan of any sort. I typically find their lyrics stupid to insulting (highlighted by their song "Let's Get Rocked" from their Adrenalize album in which a millionaire rock star from Ireland sings about having his dad want him to mow the lawn). But I'll bite the bullet and admit that I kind of like "Bringing on the Heartbreak." Not great, not terrible. Certainly no worse than a lot of other arena rock music from 1981.

All the same, this was not a song I wanted stuck in my head all day. So yesterday I drowned it out with Lily Allen's fantastic album Alright, Still. I like the juxtaposition of the overly poppy music with Allen's typically acerbic and occasionally offensive lyrics. While I got into Allen's music and this album with the single "Smile" (where she sings about how her former boyfriend's misfortune makes her smile), I'm finding that my favorite song is "Friday Night" (where she sings about going out on Friday night and dealing with all the fools and fakers in the clubs).

It'll be no surprise to people that I'm also currently diggin on Amy Winehouse's album "Back to Black" which also has a combination of musical style and lyrics that wouldn't typically go together. The music is old skool R&B (think Motown before it became MOTOWN) with modern, hard-edged lyrics. While most of you have probably heard the song "Rehab" the stand out track for me is "Tears Dry on Their Own." There's something about Winehouse's smoky voice against the R&B music that I just can't get enough of right now.

Today I went a different direction and used Corrosion of Conformity's America's Volume Dealer to wipe Def Leppard from my head. COC started out as a hardcore punk band that was just as well known for their outspoken politics as their intense musical energy.

Their 1991 album Blind, found the band moving in a different direction musically. The addition of guitarist Pepper Keenan was adding a southern rock feel to much of their sound. The band was still heavy, but the raw punk edge was slowly filtering out of their music.

The southern rock sound became a bigger and bigger influence with each album after Blind, as Keenan took over the vocal duties. Keenan's voice is less hard rock and more something like Lynyrd Skynyrd. The aforementioned America's Volume Dealer album has some southern rock/almost country music on it, particularly the song "Stare Too Long." The southern rock song, and the fact that the political aspects of the band's music were waning, are parts of the reason that AVD was the final record with founding member and drummer Reed Mullin. A series of drummers filled in on tours and subsequent albums, the latest being jazz phenom Stanton Moore.

I just ordered Moore's new album III this morning. Most of you probably don't know this, but music like Moore's III, or Charlie Hunter's Bing! Bing! Bing! (and their side project Garage a Trois; BTW, someone could buy me the Garage a Trois albums if they wanted to) are really my favorite style of music. When I hear this music, I just want to get up and dance. There's just this groove about it that I can't resist.

What moves you? Anyone else waking up with an unwanted song in their head?

Hat. Haah-Tuh. Hat.

For those of who have not met my daughter, the title of this post is a converstion she and I had as she leaned how to pronounce the word 'hat.' It's almost two syllables when she says it.

[INTERIOR. BABY'S BEDROOM. FATHER AND BABY READING A BOOK (Jamberry to be precise)]

[baby points at the head of the bear in book who is helping pick berries]

Me: That's his hat.

Baby: Hah [pause] Tuh.

Me: Yes that's right: hat.

Baby: Hah [pause] Tuh.

Me: Yes. Hat.

Baby: Hah [pause] Tuh.

Me: Hat.

Baby: Hah [pause] Tuh.

[father tries to move to the next page where there's elephants ice skating on a strawberry pond]

Baby: Tooooessss. [points to bear's toes]

Me: Yes. Toes

Baby: Tooooessss. [points to bear's toes]

Me: Yes. Those are his toes. Very good.

Baby: Tooooessss. [points to bear's toes]

And on and on. We (and when I say 'we' I mean Aubrey) also growl at the bear ('arrrr'), point out the fireworks explosions ('boom'), point out the bear's eyes ('eye [pause] sss'), point at the band ('oom [pause] pah, oom [pause] pah'), and generally be very cute. And if there's something we (again, Aubrey, not me) don't know the word to, we (yes, I should stop referring to 'we' when I don't mean 'we') say 'wass'm' (what's that, which has become what's them).

In the end, I think I would like to get a hat. A real hat. Not a baseball cap. Not something I bought for $20 at a fair. A real hat. Properly sized. Fashionable.

But here's the conundrum. What type of hat do you put on a noggin the size of mine? What the heck would look good on my head?

Suggestions in the comments please.

The Sopranos

Normally I don't post about popular media here. I do that at one of my other blogs. But I decided to post my thoughts about the Sopranos finale here. I won't pretend that I had any real idea how the series was going to end, but last night's episode was just about what I expected.

Maybe that's why--unlike many other people--I'm not pissed about the ending. Yes, I thought my television broke, or the cable went out, or something along those lines. Once I realized what had happened, I laughed my way through the final credits.

If you really thought that anything was going to get wrapped up in the series finale, then you haven't been watching for the past six seasons. Chase has said in interviews (I'm going to paraphrase here) recently that he gets angry when fans want to have things wrapped up nicely. He claims that was never the intent of the show. It wasn't supposed to be like other Hollywood/American entertainment where there's a nice conclusion where everyone knows things at the end. Chase said that life isn't like that. Life doesn't tie itself up nicely in a bow and be finished.

After an interview earlier this year in Entertainment Weekly, Chase said many of those things. He pointed out the Russian subplot as being something that people constantly ask him about. In his mind, that story was dead. He wasn't revisiting it. Viewers wanted it to be closed off. Life doesn't work that way. When I finished the interview, I was certain that the series would end with nothing being resolved.

And it did.

I'm sure all sorts of people assume that this means the series could come back, or that there's movies in the making. Maybe. Who cares? Chase has said both that he was done with the Sopranos and that he never completely closes a door behind him.

So people froth at the mouth at the idea that they may get to see future Sopranos stuff. Again, who cares? What if you never get to see new Sopranos material? It's like Seinfeld. That ending was disappointing. But what else do you do? Have Jerry marry Elaine? That doesn't make sense in the context of the story.

And neither does wrapping up the Sopranos nicely. We ended the season as we ended every season: the family sitting down to dinner. It had a sense of malice to it, and I think that was because Chase was fucking with us. He built up the tension and sense of foreboding, knowing that everyone watching would buy into it and then *click* it was done. It was a nice insight into how Tony's life is every day.

That's how I read that final scene. This is the way that Tony lives all the time. Every moment of his life he has to wonder who's coming through the door next, is his family safe, etc. He never gets a chance to relax...just like the viewer felt for only ten minutes at the end of the episode.

My favorite interpretation came from the HBO message boards (via Best Week Ever). The person posited the idea that the cat in the episode represented Schroedinger's cat. To quote:

The idea that the cat is a symbol for Schrodinger’s Cat is really fascinating...here's a bit of info on the theory:

The observer cannot know whether or not an atom of the substance has decayed, and consequently, cannot know whether the vial has been broken, the hydrocyanic acid released, and the cat killed. Since we cannot know, the cat is both dead and alive according to quantum law, in a superposition of states. It is only when we break open the box and learn the condition of the cat that the superposition is lost, and the cat becomes one or the other (dead or alive).

So does the final of the Sopranos represent a Schrodinger's episode? Since we've not seen incontrovertibly otherwise, Tony exists both alive and dead forever?

All Podcasty and Such Like

The fabulous folks over at the Dragon Page interviewed me a few weeks ago for their 'Cover to Cover' show. Well, they've finally edited down all my drivel into something consumable by humans, and it's now online.

At this point, I have not listened to it. As soon as I'm at a computer with a sound card, I will take a listen. For those of you who have listened to it, what do you think?

Skillz to Pay Billz Meme

OK, this is not really a meme and it doesn't have the horrible title I've given it. Tough. I want to see if I can create a windstorm of people copying me. Nyah.

My blog is worth $18,629.82.
How much is your blog worth?

So c'mon people, let's see who's got the most bloggin skillz.

Shipped!

Well, at least the subscribers and pre-orders have shipped. They went out on last Friday (June 8), so if you don't have your copy by the end of next week (perhaps a little longer for foreign orders), let me know. I'll get retailer and contributor copies out soon. I'm in the midst of setting up my business in IA and getting bank accounts ready, so it might be a little longer. There are a few people who ordered multiple copies or multiple issues, and I just bought envelopes to ship those so it will be a few days before those go out.

We were out of town for the weekend for my wife's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. We celebrated our 11th anniversary on Friday, so that was very cool, too! It was nice to have a big cookout and dance (the 60th anniversary celebration) so that you had some partying to do on your anniversary without the work. :)

In related news, I'm a bachelor until Wednesday. My wife and the baby are staying with her sister's family and then coming home with her parents (who are in town from AZ). So...party at my house!

Because I Can't...u know...Relax, That's Why

Another World Fantasy post. (for those of you who don't know, World Fantasy is in November, yeah THAT November, the one that's 5 months from now or 21 weeks from now or 146 days from now....) I think partly it's that I have things on my brain that I want to do at World Fantasy or for World Fantasy so I'd rather strike now than wait and not be able to do them.

Also, we'll be closing on our house in 15 days and then packing, painting, moving, unpacking, partying, etc. and all the things that go into moving shortly after that.

So, in a few weeks I might not have time for much other than home stuff, and then I don't know when the home stuff will stop and I'll have time again.

Anyway, I was going to talk about World Fantasy. I'm going to host an event at World Fantasy, so I need to rent one of the suites. However, I only need the suite for the afternoon and then it will sit empty for the evening. Any other small/independent press people want to split the room with me? Anyone planning on throwing a party who would need a room anyway and now could reduce their costs?

I'll post this request again as we draw closer. I know most people aren't necessarily thinking this far ahead yet.

A Real Blog Post

So it's 1AM, and I feel too alert to try to go to sleep. I almost wish there was someone to talk to (of course, I could turn on my IM and see...nope everyone's either signed off or asleep), but I think I wouldn't be great conversation.

I'm alert and tired.

I just read through more than 100 submissions for the OWW Editor's Choice chapter that I do every month. I usually try to narrow it down to about 10 chapters to really go over. (you see, I get an e-mail of an excerpt whenever someone posts a new chapter) This month, more than half of the chapters that I wanted to take a further look at had been deleted/removed by the user when I went to grab them.

That's just frustrating. But, that's not anything I can worry about. I now have less to read, and those authors are missing out on having me consider their chapter.

To be fair, the workshop limits users to three items online at a given point, so there are some people who post often enough that what I was looking for had been bumped off the front of their list. They didn't try to have the chapter I was going to look at disappear; that's just the way the system works.

In a few cases I grabbed a more recent chapter from the same book to consider.

In other cases, they have nothing currently posted, so I couldn't consider them at all.

c'est la vie, no?

I called this 'a real blog post' because it was going to be thoughtless meanderings and I was trying to be ironic and poke fun at myself for posting a worthless entry.

And then I go an make a post about writing and publishing.

Focus people! It's all about focus!

Maybe I Should...oh i don't know...Relax?

Am I the only one who's concerned about getting organized and planned for World Fantasy?

And I Am Back From the Dead

I had food today. Yum! It stayed inside me! Even better! My little girl was sick and vomiting on Wednesday, and then Friday night it struck all the adults in the household. I won't get too graphic, but it wasn't pretty.

Saturday was no fun as mom and dad rolled around hoping to stop hurting (it was like a bunch of hooligans had beaten me with broomsticks) and the baby wanted someone to play with. If there had been a grandma nearby, we would've shipped the kid off.

I think it's been literally decades since I was this sick. I felt better when I had pneumonia and mono (two separate occasions). And I don't count any self-induced illness, for those of you who remember the first Mardi Gras party we threw in NJ. That was my own fault.

I'm still sore today. Nothing sounds especially good to eat. But, things can only get better, right?

It Will be Silent Here for a Little

I haven't been able to keep any food or liquid in my body since noon on Friday. Now it feels like I've been rolled out by a giant rolling pin. Even typing hurts.

S-E-R-R-E-F-I-N-E

serrefine - n. - A small spring forceps used for approximating the edges of a wound, or for temporarily closing an artery during surgery.

Another word that I don't think I'll be able to use in every day conversation. Other than today, when I can say things like, "Did you see Evan O'Dorney win the Scripps National Spelling Bee last night with the word 'serrefine'?" Ah, the spelling bee. The inspiration for my anthology Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories. It's now become a standard at the end of May for my household to watch the bee.

My wife and I shout at the kids who keep asking for definitions and alternate pronounciations. Sometimes I feel bad for the kids, though. You can tell they're trying to suss out the spelling, and they're just asking questions without thinking about them so they don't feel the pressure of silence. Like the one boy, Prateek Kohli, who got a word (oberek) for which the definition was "a Polish folk dance" and then he asked the country of origin. Not surprisingly it was Polish. Without the pressure of the spelling bee, I suspect that Mr. Kohli doesn't ask that question.

Nice things said about Logorrhea:

"Delightful.... A treat for dictionary hounds and vocabulary-challenged word lovers everywhere."—Booklist

"This book is a logophile's dream—a left-field collection of stories inspired by winning words from the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Anyone who has ever spent an hour or two happily browsing the pages of a dictionary will find something to love here."—Kevin Brockmeier, author of A Brief History of the Dead

"Your book pays a beautiful tribute to the beauty, potential, versatility and history that lie within so many words and the English language as a whole. In other words, it encapsulates what it was that drove my competition in spelling bees and what drives my passion for language today."-Nupur Lala, winner of the 1999 National Spelling Bee (winning word: logorrhea)

"Buy it immediately."-The Agony Column

"Logorrhea is a fine anthology, weird and versatile, a wonderful concept rewardingly realized."-Locus

"A delightful anthology."-Locus