Delivery

Well now.  Here she is.  I don't know that anyone but me has been anticipating her arrival, but now she's here we can all agree, at the least that she looks remarkable good, considering.  A month ago, she was no more than a glimmer in me eye, as they used to say, whoever they were.  There was a fair amount of rather manic scribbling, no little rhyming, and more than a few notes, as it turned out, in the making of her, to say nothing of emails, meetings and giggles.

Meet my first wee book.  Isn't she lovely?

A Is for Auden: an Alphabet of Poets, I should say, by way of introduction, isn't all that and a can of beans.  I drew the first eight pictures in the same day.  That's not bragging, as art goes, because it may explain the hurried quality of the results as much as it might suggest the inspiration of the Muse.  Took me a week or two to decide on and do the rest.  The Muse was not so much fickle then as otherwise engaged a night or two along the way.  I didn't kick.  Nice of her to think of me, frankly.  Still, it all went remarkably fast.  (That's meant to be her, by the way, on the cover there, with the alphabet blocks.  That's my girl, Caliope, the muse of epic poetry, daughter of Zeus, Homer's friend, etc.  That's a joke, you see.  I make a little book of rhymed caricatures, just 49 pages, and call on Homer's girl, daughter of Zeus and so on.  I nicknamed our Espresso Book Machine, Homer, when we first got him.  It was after Homer Price, actually, and his donut machine, but see?  There's another layer to the joke then.  That's okay, nobody's likely to find any of this amusing but me.)

It was all sooooo easy, the actually making, editing and printing of the book, for me I mean.  The woman who runs the EBM, the brilliant and kind Anna, accepted the pages I sent her via email, had a few brief conversations with me as to format and the like, sold me an ISBN, and then made me a copy.  The price was remarkably reasonable per unit as well as for the project as a whole.  (We're selling copies at the bookstore for $5.99.  It is just a little thing, after all, and the delicacy of it really ought not to cost more than that.  It's just a funny little thing, not an epic, despite poor misused Caliope on the cover.)

I will say, none of the content appeared anywhere before now.  I'm thinking I'll post pages here, as a sample, but it will be for the first time.  Everything in the book I made just for it.

Anyway, forgive me for burbling.  I'm just so excited to welcome this new arrival into the world.  It's been a joy.