Fingers Crossed.

Harry should be getting here any minute, if Amazon is to be trusted (but alas they are not). Meanwhile, I'm listening to Mark's interview on the Bat Segundo show.

http://www.edrants.com/segundo/mark-sarvas-bss-201/

First question: who is this Bat Segundo? What a strange yet wonderful name! Evoking a strange mix of Dracula and Pancho Villa -- like a vampire with a handlebar mustache.

Second question: is this really Mark's voice I am hearing? It's funny, but when I read TEV I have this very different voice in my head. Maybe it´s because he uses the Royal We. I thought he would be more, like ... I don´t know ... detached. Like royalty. But hey -- it's nice to know that he sounds like a real person. I wonder if a guy like Hemingway didn't have the enormous, knee-rattling voice I imagine but one more like Mark's. Who knows? A beard is a powerful thing.

(Anybody know where to find a recording of Hemingway online?)

Finally, I'm struggling to remember the last time I ever looked forward to a book so much. Admission: it wasn't so long ago that a Jon Krakauer book counted as a "serious read" for me, but even with a book like Into the Wild, I didn't take a look at it until my father ordered me to read it all those years ago (I still wonder if he was trying to keep me from running off to the woods like that poor kid -- if he was -- good work, Dad).

I'm wondering if perhaps it's the fact that I discovered TEV which led me to this whole wild literary "scene" -- and has me feeling this intense connection to Harry. Visiting that site just makes the world feel smaller, you know?

Thoughts, readers?

Oh! And an overdue explanation for the poll to the left. A buddy of mine recently suggested I try my hand at writing, considering, he says, "You read like it's going to take you somewhere, Eagle." (He's not much of a reader.) And so ... the gauntlet has been laid.