"Yes, and... : a Great American Novelty"

White caps broke against the ice floes on the horizon. All around was little but chop and tiny bergs. The only exception being one small point in the distance. One blessed tiny piece of creation which was neither heaving nor smashing. Surely this was a great new island as the ship had long passed Greenland some hours ago. Upon the rearcastle Captain Martin Frobisher lowered his spyglass and looked to the men on deck scraping rime from the planks as they had since crossing into this hellish latitude.
"Make our course 20 degrees north by northwest." He bellowed, "land ho!" The captain closed his eyes to enjoy the well trained response of his men.
"Aye, glorious commander of the seas!" the chorus returned. He opened his eyes and turned to the man at his shoulder, "Best, you have the helm. I am going below to put on my conquering suit."
Frobisher, high admiral in the New World and to his thinking national hero of England descended the ladder to the deck and with his characteristic codpiece leading the way, strode into the cabin.
Within the blessed dimness of the small room was all that truly mattered. His charts, his journals and his wealth. He had come on this voyage not just to open the vault of gold which waited in the mouth of the straight named for him but also to trade with far Cathay. All of the fine English wool and other trade goods would make him a rich man when he found his way through the ice choked passages to the far side of the world.
He tugged the golden yellow jerkin over his leather doublet and changed into a matching codpiece before reaching for the Italian prepared charts so that he might record the discovery. Upon removing the fresh parchments he discovered a small weathered packet folded within their oilskins.
Setting the charts off to the side he opened the packet, folding it open to reveal a letter rendered in tiny spidery handwriting. He set the letter to the side in favor or the set of thin papers closed within. They seemed to be plans for some piece of construction. Ah, the plans for my pinnace, he thought, knowing that he was to build a new long boat for navigating the tight passage leading to the Frobisher straight.
With that the mighty captain hefted the flagpole which he kept by the door for just such occasions and strode back into the frigid air on deck.
"Hauser!" he bellowed. From behind him came a ready reply.
"Aoye Cap'n. Have you need of me services oar not? Get it? Oar..." with an earnest cast he held up the oar he carried habitually for the captain's benefit.
"Yes, yes I have. Put that thing back in the dinghy. I need you and Bob to get started on my pinnace."
"All due respect Cap'n but neither Bob or me goes that way. I c'n get cabin boy for ye."
"No, you fool! The pinnace, to be the largest ever built for exploring the tight passages to come."
"That's nice and all..." the sailor began, looking embarrassed.
"Look, here are the plans. Just get to building if thou ever wish to see thy own pinnace again."
"Aye, cap'n." Hauser finally replied taking the papers and heading to the forecastle. With that Frobisher once more mounted the rearcastle once more. The wind caught in the flag and whipped it out straight behind the captain as he turned behind to the fleet which followed and signaled them onward to the horizon and the immortality it promised.

So that's part 1. Obviously I have not had the time to do any edits and I feel as though much of this project will be first draft quality at best. If it is worth re-working that will happen when it is all said an done. Thank you so much to everyone who made suggestions. for part one and also to those for part two. I am taking submissions via twitter, facebook and in the comment feed of the actual blog page.

For part 2 I need suggestions for an historic figure and an artifact. I will begin tomorrow morning so you have until then to make your suggestions. Remember, this is the Internet. Make your vote count even if it's for something silly.

Improv Novel

Those who follow me on twitter may already have gotten the scoop but for those who like to get their info in long form I have a new project which I hope will distract from the increasing wedding planning fervor. I have decided in a last minute sort or way to participate in the national novel writing month. This means I have done no planning and as such will need to make it up as I go along. This made me think of how much I love doing improv shows. So I am going to do this novel in the style of those games. For the rest the month or until you all lose interest and abandon me I will post topics for suggestions from the audience. The next morning I will post what I have written based on your suggestions. My one caveat, I am not signing up for the official site and am not trying for their word count goal. That's the trick with improv, knowing when to cut the gag.

So, for day one I need audience suggestions for a title, genre and location. Here goes nothing.

As it turns out I can blog from my phone. This breaks down yet another of the mental blocks which wad serving me to separate my phone from my computer. It may also improve the frequency or my posting.

On the wedding front things have been continuing as they ought. We remain ahead if schedule and really are down to assembly of elements and obtaining the favors. Could be much worse!

The Future!

I know, it is hard to believe that a man who seems constitutionally incapable of blogging more than once in a three month period should discuss the future but it seems like a good idea for a number of reasons. First off I have a number of projects to which I would like to direct everyone's attention and secondly I would hope to address some of my plans for my own future. Hopefully as things progress this will help in the interpretation my twitter feeds even if I cannot manage to blog again before the wedding.

First off I want to direct everyone's attention to a project from Crowdsourcing which expands the one city one book concept which we have embraced here in Chicago. It takes this great idea to all of our beloved twitteurs and, in fact, everyone on the internet. The result of everyone reading the same book at roughly the same time will be that, according to Jeff Howe of Crowdsourcing in the Huffington Post, "a wildly diverse group of people would suddenly have at least one thing in common". Think about this on a worldwide scale for a second.
I simply had to get involved so I am plugging it to all of you. Making the matter even better is that the book chosen by the denizens of the internet through informal voting is American Gods by Neil Gaiman. So go snag your copy off of the shelf, borrow it from a library if any copies are left or buy one of your own and get ready because the reading schedule should post in the next few weeks.

I also want to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about the radio play project I have been working on for about half a year now. Our Fair City is a radio play set in a distopic future with all the trimmings. General mismanagement of natural and human resources has resulted in a barren world inhabited in subterranean-corporate-city-states. I know this may sound like something you've already seen. Trust me, this is special. Our Fair City focuses on the characters within the city. People fighting to make their way in an unfair world. Using the lens of the individual we give you interesting perspectives of the inner workings of the world. This first episode focuses on how the denizens of HartLife deal with mortality. Bear with us as we get everything up to speed.

As for myself outside of the internet plans for the wedding have sped along apace. We are still about four months ahead of schedule for the big things. We have a lot of tiny things to worry about and financing to obsess about. Otherwise all is in order and we have begun populating the address list for the save the dates. After the wedding I hope to start classes at Columbia's Center for Book and Paper Arts. After about a year and a half I should be able to make more decisions regarding my professional path. I venerate, once more, Giselle Simon of the Newberry Library for her excellent career advice. From the center I will look at conservatory for book making or a degree program in Library Science.

I'm also thinking I might take a summer course at the Newberry. Because I'm not stupid busy enough already, right? I will probably end up giving it a pass but for those of y'all in Chicago I recommend giving the program site a look. You can thank me later.

As for the immediate future it looks likely that I will remain at MSI for the foreseeable future. Tomorrow will mark the one year anniversary of my employ at that fine institution and I quite enjoy being able to educate hundreds of people every day about such a historically interesting artifact as the U505.

I leave you today with a less prescient note. I have just made "overkilli" chili for tonight's repast. Sadly I may have made it too spicy to be palatable for the girls so I'm hoping for the magic of sour cream to save my chili reputation. Keep an eye on twitter to see how it goes.