Jasper Fforde

See, he's this Oxford-educated guy in Wales who writes brilliantly in this mash-up of fiction genres: very film noir detective novels from the 1950s/names which are silly puns/farce/classic European literature references/nursery rhymes/science fiction/love story and probably a few genres I couldn't think of right this minute. It's crazy but it works.

When I started this blog lo those many months ago, it was mainly to practice writing on a regular basis- my husband's suggestion. The goal is to get better at it, as well as get in the habit, so that at some point, someone might see my blog, like my style, and offer me large sums of cash to do it some more. Or if I got brave enough to seek out publications, online or in print, which accept submissions, then I could refer them to my blog so they could see samples of my writing.

I don't know about you, but when you do things in the arts or creative fields, I think it's very hard to judge your own work subjectively. Some people overestimate their talent, and others underestimate. I always think what I do is crap, but then I figure that someone else might think otherwise. So I decided to go out on a limb and write to my favorite writers, John Hodgman and Jasper FForde, and ask them to have a look and let me know whether I was beating my head against the wall, or if it was worth pursuing.

I didn't expect much, but figured nothing ventured, nothing gained, so what the hell. To my surprise I got personal and very funny e-mails from both!

Sad to say, most people I know have barely heard of either of them, but I highly recommend both writers' work if you have a good sense of humor and at least a pretty good liberal arts education. I've got a hot tip for those of you who actually got one of these degrees: reading guys like this is one of the very few things you can do with it. Another is using the paper your degree is printed on to enhance the bonfire for about 15 seconds while you vainly try to keep warm in the abandoned tenement you're now squatting in, mainly thanks to that fine degree you squandered your hard-earned cash on and now find yourself deep in debt for.

Anyway, when Jasper Fforde kindly wrote me back, he mentioned that he was hard at work on his next novel. I've read everything he's written so far and loved it, so I can't wait for him to finish this next one. See? There WAS a point to all this rambling. Yegads, is that the time? Off to bed, me.