Other than a brief flurry of activity last night at our unofficial family book launch (which consisted of a feast of tacos followed by an alarming rapid-pace series of tequila shots and then a jaunt to a local church basement to drink beer and listen to a klezmer band -- another sentence I never thought I'd write), I've been confining myself to rest and quiet -- inasmuch as such as thing is possible in the insane asylum I call my house so that I can get over a nasty cold in time for a couple of interviews on Tuesday.
I'm now starting to feel as though if I don't soon get out of this big fat comfy chair and seek out some grand isovists, though, I'm going to expire. So I'm taking my little dog off to the park or something. He and I are going to hash out some ideas for book 2 (and no it's not another dog obedience book -- I've a colleague who has this territory covered nicely and he can keep it!). Now that you have all the news you don't need, here's a bit of news you may care slightly more about.
First, the results from the last quiz. Following complaints from some players that I was making life too easy, I did my best to do something a bit more challenging. The quiz began with a bit of strange looking text:
The text is a string of Klingon which, when translated, will take you here. Some people, feeling quite pleased with themselves for getting this far (including one great fan and player who, with the help of her extremely handsome and intelligent 10 year old son, solved the puzzle using some string analysis without even knowing it was Klingon!), were quite put off by the fact that they had no clue who was pictured, nor why he had a number hanging from his lower lip. Much chasing down blind alleys for actors who had been connected in any way with the Klingon empire, including some fascinating coincidences involving lives and deaths in the year 1986. But very few players kept in mind the fact that the answer would likely be a PLACE rather than a person and that the gameplay would have something to do with the themes of my book. Some guessed as well that the person might be a writer, perhaps an architect. Turns out he's both. Witold Rybczinski wrote a book called "Home" in 1986. It did pretty well, too. It's a book that is close to my heart because, when I was writing my book, special agent Bukowski recommended that I take a look at Rybczinski's book as a model of how to write engaging literary non-fiction. And it should be obvious that there are thematic connections between Rybczinski's book and mine. But alas not quite home yet, because the puzzle is only a good one if it ties everything together. What's the connection between the Klingon text and the book? The correct answer to the quiz, and the only one to win a book, is Qo'nos, home planet of the Klingons. The person who figured this out is not only already due for a free book, but his name is in the book as well -- acknowledging the interesting conversations we've had over the past few years: Justin Perdue. So I'm not giving Justin a book (which means there are still lots to give away). I'll give him something else instead. Haven't decided what yet. Incidentally, when I was designing this puzzle, I was at one point thinking of adding a couple of extra steps, one of them involving translation of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and galactic coordinates to bring the chase to a particular location on the surface of Earth. It was somewhere in Texas. Maybe another time.
I've also selected a winner for the previous contest -- the one where I asked readers to submit stories about their having become lost. But I need to go off to the park now. Oh, and cough a bit as well.
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