BOOKS: Shameless self-promotion, or, I, author

BOOKS: Shameless self-promotion, or, I, author

…So yeah, what with the 6,000-mile move overseas, quitting job, planning mega-road trip vacation, lunatic toddler, etc., I really should have enough to fill my time these days. But obviously not, so I wrote a book. Ta-dah!

"Spatula Forum: Greatest Hits 1994-2004" isn't actually an entirely NEW book, really – it's a collection of 130+ of the newspaper columns I've written in the last decade for papers in Mississippi, Nevada, California and Oregon. I've been wanting to do this for a while, gather my pre-blog rantings and ramblings in a more permanent form, but it wasn't until I discovered Lulu.com that it became feasible to do a print-on-demand version of my book. Basically, I slapped this together for myself and my family so we'd have something a bit more permanent than yellowing newspaper clippings, rather than with the intent of making a million bucks with it. (And thanks to Dave for helping walk me through using Lulu, which is a pretty nifty place for anyone who wants to publish their own book without spending a zillion bucks, and to Michelle for shooting a cover photo after I spent weeks agonizing on what to do for one.)

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with it. Got my proof copy in the mail Saturday and it looks nifty enough, 206 pages of shiny Nik-sculpted words and punctuation. As a souvenir of my so-called career, it'll do. I've written a couple hundred newspaper columns since I first got the itch as a college senior back in '94, and culled what I thought were the "best" of 'em into this tome. Everything from thoughts on Elvis, Hunter S. Thompson and my cat to travels to New Zealand, Alaska and Washington to drunken rambles to memories of friends, foes and more. Sometimes I was funny, sometimes serious, sometimes funny when attempting to be serious. Heck, some of you folks I've known for many moons might even pop up in the book (Note: I cannot be sued for libel).

So if you want a piece of the Spatula Forum, pop on over to my Lulu page and order a copy (I kept it fairly reasonable for a 200-page large-format paperback) or a download if you aren't into paper. Heck, if you're on the fence you can even read a 10-page preview of it online. I hope you dig it! (Edit: If the shipping costs seem extreme, for some reason they default to the most costly option - you can choose cheaper shipping by selecting other options.)