I am writing a series of true story blog posts at the request of an anonymous friend who is being held prisoner at a desolate Agricultural College where, no doubt, fishbowls with strips of paper (see yesterday's true story) are displayed like chalices containing the blackened internal organs of martyred saints upon the daises of echoing, abandoned lecture halls.
It is spring break for all the other future Doctors Moreau.
This, however, is immediately true: ARCs of Passenger, which is the sequel to The Marbury Lens, are arriving today.
I don't know much about it at all.
Well, I mean, I do know about the book since I wrote it and shit like that. It's pretty good. Kind of "out there." Big, big surprises in that story.
You will see.
It was a surprise to me when I came back from my afternoon run in the hills and I saw the email from my editor, telling me about the ARC's impending delivery. It happened very fast -- and the book is not coming out until October. I never even saw the page layout -- the "final pass" pages -- so I am as eager to actually hold and admire this thing as anyone could possibly be.
Liz [chimes!] commented something along the lines of This thing is so thick, will make a good weapon.
Well, it is substantial in content, but I doubt it would offer any significant degree of protection against a chicken the size of a fucking grizzly bear (see yesterday's true story).
So... um... yeah, I am excited.
I am more excited because my son, who is neither imprisoned at an Agricultural College nor a budding blasphemer of evolution, is coming home for spring break from UC Berkeley today. I haven't seen the kid since Christmas.
Anyway, today's immediate and hurried true story.
This photo was taken last Sunday, from my office desk, as the sun came up. I shot it with my new iPad, looking out across my backyard at the hills.
See those hills up there?
That is the Angeles National Forest.
Yesterday, my daughter and I were driving up the winding two-lane road over those hills, through the Angeles National Forest, coming home from THE BIG CITY, when we saw something that made me pull off into the dirt and snap a picture.
You ever notice how long it takes to get your phone out and actually snap a photograph when you see something really cool?
It takes for EVER.
Anyway, this is what we saw:
The reason it is hard to tell what is going on is because time expanded while I was getting out of my car and extracting my cellphone from my pocket.
There was a sheriff's helicopter dipping down into the canyon, right beside the road.
It had a long rope with a basket on it, and inside the basket there was a big pile of plants.
I thought, that was really cool!
My gardener just carries my yard trimmings away in a wheelbarrow.
I want him to start using a fucking helicopter, too!
I suppose this is what keeps Agricultural College kids busy over their spring breaks.
