Emerging from limbo briefly…
Yep, still wrapped up in Real World labors — but the end is in sight. When it’s all over, I plan to immerse myself completely in one of my projects, work at it to the exclusion of all else, and hide from anything resembling Real World responsibilities. Just saying.
Meanwhile, news about people who are not me:
I’ve known authors Geary Gravel and Ann Tonsor Zeddies since way back in the previous century, when we three had the same editor at Del Rey Books. It was Shelly Shapiro who introduced me to each of them, and I believe that it was me who later introduced them to each other. And we just fell into a friendship that has lasted all these years.
Geary has been a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs since he was but a wee little tad, and he has read (and reread and reread) Burroughs his whole life.
And now– he’s written a book set in Burroughs’ universe, as part of the expansion officially sanctioned by the Burroughs estate.
The ERB Universe website is urging people to pre-order, as the book will be available in but a few days… but they fail to mention that the ebook version is available right now. If you’re a completest, or a collector, of course you’ll want the hardcover… but I have to admit that the ebook version is much more within my price range.
So I nabbed one.
This promises to be great fun. I’ve only started reading it (do not skip the Forward, for the full effect!), and although I’ve not really been a big Burroughs fan, I’ve always been a Geary Gravel fan. So far, I’m loving his take on Burroughs’ tone and style. (And there’s a little video interview about the book you can watch...)
But, you say, what does this have to do with Ann Tonsor Zeddies?
That’s what.
Each of the new books in the ERB Universe also includes a novella by another ERB author, concerning another protagonist. And Ann got to do this one. It’s Gravel and Zeddies in one volume — that’s never happened before, folks!
Meanwhile —
No, wait; did I forget someone?
Artist Cortney Skinner has been a friend of Geary’s since grade school — and, why, look at that: there he is.
So many friends in one place…
Well. Looks like the torrential rain is over, the tornado warnings have stopped, and the flood emergency alerts on my cellphone have stopped their ear-blasting tones.
Probably safe to go home now…
Catch you on the flip-side.
[Edited later to remove some wonky symbols that got spontaneously inserted when I copy/pasted from MS Word. Serves me right.]
