I have been unable to interest any literary agents in my novel Anti-X.  Perhaps I just don’t know how to write query letters, or else the book is just not right for anyone to represent.  I have had a couple of requests for sample chapters, but nothing more beyond that.  So I am putting the novel up at HarperCollins’ Authonomy website.  You can find the book here.

Anyone who stumbles across this post can read a free book by following that link.  Additionally, anyone who wants to can register at the site and vote for the book; once a month the top five rated books are read by HarperCollins editors themselves.  This is no guarantee of publication, but I thought it’s worth a shot.  So, the book has been set free; read or not, as you choose.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X Malcolm X & Alex Haley

Oishinbo A la Carte: Ramen & Gyoza Tetsu Kariya & Akira Hanasaki

High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed Michael Kodas

One Ring Circus: Dispatches from the World of Boxing Katherine Dunn

Shot in the Heart Mikal Gilmore

First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History Colin G. Calloway

A History of Rome Marcel Le Glay et al

Roman Warfare Adrian Goldsworthy

So for my recent birthday, Mrs The Fyd got me a great present: an iPhone.  This very cleverly turned out to be good for her, since naturally she got one too.  Anyway this thing is absorbing, given the number of apps available.  While browsing through them the other day I saw that there was a free I Ching app.  Now I don’t credit such superstition, but I had to have it.  Why?  Because Marîd Audran, in the late, great, George Alec Effinger’s Budayeen novels, had an electronic I Ching.  Yes, I rate accessories depending on whether they have belonged to favorite fictional characters.

Audran also had a brain modification plug-in that allowed him to assume the persona of Nero Wolfe.  Perhaps when they develop the technology I’ll get the moddy that plugs in Audran plugging in Wolfe.

More books read recently:

The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection ed. Gardner Dozois

Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain

The Souls of Black Folk W. E. B. Du Bois

Ancient Greece Sarah Pomeroy et al.

To Make Our World Anew, Vol. II: A History of African Americans from 1880 ed. Robin D. G. Kelley & Earl Lewis

Invisible Man Ralph Ellison

Matter by Iain M. Banks

Poison Sleep by T.A. Pratt

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Tick-Tock by Dean Koontz

To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans to 1880 ed. Robin D.G. Kelley and Earl Lewis

Race And Revolution by Gary B. Nash

The phrase “second chance” occurs four times in this article.  How many second chances did Vick ever give any of those dogs he tortured to death?

Nancy Rommelmann writes about tragedy with great skill, in this piece that explores where the latter exploits the former.  Do read it.

I may have offended Asparagus, our most gregarious cat.  I’ve no doubt I’ll be held accountable for this, but hot jasus if it’s been 106 that day there’s going to be a reaction if you insist on plopping your fat furry body right up next to mine when I go to bed.  That reaction might end up with you bouncing off the floor.

The newspaper predicts a high of 107 today.  Asparagus, you’ve been warned.

Earlier this month I visited San Francisco with my father for a couple of days.  Among other things we visited the De Young museum.  There I was struck by this photograph, and on inspection, recognized the name of the artist, Imogen Cunningham.  Not because I have any especial knowledge of 20th century female American photographers, but because in googling my first name she pops up in the results because she named her first son Gryffyd.  A younger son was called Padraic, and since this was my older brother’s name, this was apparently my mother’s inspiration.  I’ll have to verify it.  You’d think the history of our naming would be a minor bit of family lore, but it has not become so established.  I pointed out the picture to my father and related the information about Imogen’s sons, but her name and story and likely influence on my mother were not familiar to him; he offered no alternative, however.

When I was gathering the links above, I came across a reference to Imogen having been born here in Portland.  I don’t think I knew that before.

Selected Short Stories William Faulkner

Watchmen Allan Moore & Dave Gibbons

Topics in Contemporary Mathematics Ignacio Bello et al

Shadow Divers Robert Kurson

The Assassins Joyce Carol Oates

The Darkest Evening of the Year Dean Koontz

The Lost Spy: An American in Stalin’s Secret Service Andrew Meier

The Fortress of Solitude Jonathan Lethem

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume III Edward Gibbon

Broken Angels Richard K Morgan

Western Civilization: Volume II: Since 1500 Jackson J Spielvogel