THE FRIDAY SOCIETY ARCS!

I get back from my trip to London, England, and I find the most glorious welcome home present EVER waiting for me!

Yes, THE FRIDAY SOCIETY ARCs have arrived, and they is soooo pretty!

They made me burst out into song.

For those of you familiar with ALEX AND THE IRONIC GENTLEMAN, said song was "Jack", which as you know is one of the more complex and nuanced of the songs in that book.  Of course, wherever there was a "Jack", I replaced it with "ARC".  Thus:

ARC, ARC, ARC, ARC,
ARC, ARC, ARC, ARC,
ARC, ARC, ARC, ARC,
ARC, ARC, ARC, ARC.

And so on.


I call this new song: ARC.



And now, of course, it's time for show and tell!

Just so you get a sense once again of Greg Stadnyk's fabulous design work, here is the front, spine and back cover for the ARC as seen as one full image:

Isn't it just amazing??  I'm not sure how he managed to compile so many different elements on one cover and not make it look too overwhelmed or busy, but . . . he did.


Next.

Here are all the ARCs together.  You will notice they were tied in a pretty blue ribbon.  Because a pretty blue ribbon makes everything that much more special:

Now here is the back.

And here is the spine.

And here is a peek at the inside . . . Part 1 to be precise. 

 See all those pages???  That's a hefty book my friend.  A hefty book indeed.

Oh are you oh so excited???  Because I am!!!  I use triple question marks AND exclamation marks!!!

As always I have to thank everyone at Dial for their enthusiasm and general awesome-ness in putting together such a gorgeous object with such lovely attention to detail.  Specifically, as ever, my editor Nancy Conescu who just plain rocks.

Also...

YAY!!!!!!!!!

Processed Cheese and a Man Named Fred

I don't often blog about the third personality in my blog title, that is to say, The Temp.  Why?  Well I am not consistently temping, and most of the time there isn't much to tell really.  It's the usual office work, you know how it is.

But yesterday I had such a surreal experience in the guise of something perfectly normal that I felt I would briefly share.


So.

I was called last minute to help put together some packages for a marketing company's mail out.  I went to the mail room and was introduced to Fred, a lovely older gentleman with white hair and glasses, who towards the end of the day announced he'd forgotten to take his arthritis medication.  Fred far prefers theatre over movies, doesn't really read books (though his wife loves them), but does enjoy magazines.  Has been married three times, and is totally in love now.  He hates people who can't own up to their mistakes, and in general dishonesty makes him extremely mad.

I learned all this, you see, after working six hours with him, stuffing test samples of processed cheese into FedEx boxes.  You take one package marked "Try Second", put that in the package, then you put in an ice pack, then the second package marked "Try First".  Then the package is sealed up and slipped into a box with a survey placed on top.  Address labels go on, and then I assume these packages get whisked off across the country.

Yup.  That was my day yesterday.

Or to put it another way:

I spent the day yesterday in the mail room stuffing cheese into FedEx boxes with a guy named Fred.

Seriously.  How ALEX AND THE IRONIC GENTLEMAN is that?

Fred asked me, "Do you ever get inspired by the temping jobs you do?"

Yes Fred, I do.  I certainly do.