I have of late been making the closer acquaintance of my garden fork, also known as a digging fork, which is most certainly the use I have been making of it. I hatched a plot over winter to turn an overgrown section of lawnish area (presently hidden from the house by a derelict shed) into a vegetable garden.
The patch started out looking like this:
Derelict shed to the right, with detached pieces of itself leaning against it drunkenly.
Observant gardeners among you will have noted that the section or plot in question appears to be mainly growing nasturtium. Appearances can be deceptive. Under what one might call the canopy of nasturtium lurks all manner of things, most notably mint.
I’ve been sitting on an idea for some time, like a hen on an egg, and I’d like to hear your views on it. (Addled, or ready to hatch?)
I’ve trawled through the first seven years of the archives of this blog, cherry-picking all the really good bits. The idea is to compile them into an ebook – with some extra material – and make it available to the public at a minimal price.
The questions are as follows:
One: do you think this is a good idea (i.e. do you think there’s a market for it)?
Two: do you have any suggestions as to the title? I’ve had ideas including:
Eccentric Ethic & Aesthetic (a former tag-line for the blog)
Unconventional and Slightly Strange (the definition of eccentric)
Old-Fashioned Fruitcake (the present tag-line of the blog)
Sinistra Inksteyne: The First Seven Years (fairly self-explanatory, though Sinistra Inksteyne isn’t the site name any more and there’s always a problem with misdirecting people to the old site which still has that in the url)
Some of these might need a subtitle explaining what the book is (truth in advertising!). The possible BISAC codes include Humor/Form/Essays, and Literary Collections/Essays – or possibly even Literary Collections/Women Authors (though I don’t know if I qualify for the latter, being woman singular).
The overall feeling is one of light-hearted amusingness and oddity with the occasional more serious post for a bit of chiaroscuro. Rather like the blog as a whole, but more so – the cream of the jest scooped off the top, as it were.
Funny and cute? Or creepy?
Three: do you have any suggestions for the cover? The above looks fun (or is it creepy?), but a lot also depends on the title.
So there are my three questions, and I’d love to hear what you think about any or all of them – or anything else that strikes you as relevant.
BISAC codes, as I discovered while preparing to publish Restoration Day, are basically subdivisions of genre. And sub-subdivisions, and so forth. Not content with classifying a book as Fiction, they will go further and classify it as, say, Mystery & Detective. And then break it down further: Hard-Boiled? Or is it Cozy? And if Cozy, then Cats & Dogs, Crafts, Culinary, or General?
