Thanks to all those who agreed to read my latest novel. I really appreciate your help with this. I have sent it out to those who made themselves known, with the exception of my classmates, who I won’t bother now with this. Maybe later, if that makes sense.

If you’re just reading this for the first time, however, and are interested, feel free to let me know. The more, the merrier (me, at least).

Thanks.

So the alphabetizing/book shelving was going well. I had to give up hopes of fitting my anthologies on the three large bookcases I was using, but I was looking forward to at least getting everything else up.

I ran out of space after ‘W’. There’s not much that comes after W, of course, but I can’t even get to Zelazny. Perhaps my favorite genre writer ever.

It’s really rather depressing.

I’m now looking at my shelves, trying to figure out a creative way to rearrange what’s already up…

One of the nice things about moving is that it gives me an opportunity to reorganize my books and put them up on my shelves alphabetized and properly placed. I’m amazed at the number of people who look at me funny when I say that I alphabetize my books – it’s just the way that makes sense to me. This way I can find what I’m looking for. And this way there is a kind of order to all the chaos.

Having finished my second bookcase (moving slowly because all of the titles are currently out of order), I realized that I have a lot of Michael Moorcock books. I have not one shelf, not two shelves, but two and a half shelves devoted to his works. Of all my books, his occupy the most space, surpassing even Shakespeare.

This partly makes sense because Moorcock has written a lot of books in his time. But in addition to his recent releases and the nice White Wolf omnibuses that were released in the 90s, I have numerous paperbacks from the man, many of them stories that are duplicated elsewhere, that I’ve picked up in second-hand shops in England. There was a time when no matter what store I would go into, there would be a book of his there, and I would always buy them, hoping to snag up some long out of print gem to add to the canon. And that’s really what it was. Since most of his books are connected, it was like a jigsaw puzzle, filling in the pieces as it were.

This is mostly the fault of my friend Brian (ljuser=”asphalteden”). Thought I’d heard of Moorcock and Elric, it was Brian, himself a huge fan, who turned me on to the man and his works. We even went to see him at a rare appearance at a New York bookstore now long gone. I hadn’t read anything by him when I went to see him, but hearing him talk about the Eternal Champion and of the interconnectedness of his books, I felt a kind of kinship to what I wanted to accomplish one day. Thus began a systematic plan to acquire as much of his work as I could.

Looking at the titles now, I realize there are still many I haven’t read. There never seems to be enough time to read everything. But having them waiting there is like having a shelf (or rather two and a half) full of future possibilities.

Now, to shelve N-Z.

…mostly because it’s on, but I can’t look at the queen without thinking of her as Sarah Connor. That usually doesn’t happen to me.

So I’m currently working on revising my third novel. The first needs serious revision, the second is making the rounds to agents, but this one is nearing completion (I hope).

It started out as an experiment, and turned into a YA fantasy. And since I am soon to be gone for a little while, without time to work on novels, I figured this would be a great time to start sending it to first readers.

So, here I am, seeing who might be interested in helping me out with this. Begging. Because that’s what we do. However, I offer up the following points in my favor:

1. YA novels are shorter than the typical adult fantasy novel – this one clocks in at just about 50K words. That’s practically half a novel. You’d get through that in no time.

2. I am not above compensation for people who read and give me some helpful feedback (I’m hoping for more than a couple of lines in an email). If you drink, I’ll buy you a drink or two. If not, I’m sure I can think of another way to show my gratitude.

3. I will be unable to do anything about this novel until August, so at the minimum, you would have two months to get to this. Probably closer to three. And it’s the summer. Bring it to the beach. Or the lake. Or wherever.

4.  Um, that’s all I have.

Anyway, if you’re interested, comment here or drop me an email or something. I would be extremely grateful. I’ll even make sure to thank you in print if the book ever gets published.

Thanks!