Last night, I was first in line at Jasper Fforde's book launch at The Sleuth Of Baker Street on Bayview Avenue, clutching my newly-purchased copies of First Among Sequels, latest in his Thursday Next series. Mr. Fforde had the whole rakish Indiana Jones thing going (it worked, at least for me) and was utterly charming, plus I'm a sucker for British accents. But I digress.

He had a collection of rubber stamps which he used for the books he signed (mine read: "QUALITY ACME SERVICE") and he also a postcard into each volume. One of my postcards was a photograph of a Narrative Proximity Device, a reference to his Thursday Next series. The back reads: "Designed by JurisTech, the Narrative Proximity Device alerts a Jurisfiction agent of an approaching reading, in order that they might not be accidentally read."

Each copy of First Among Sequels also included an Upgrade Alert. While doing a bit of online research for this post, by the way, I got way too involved in Jasper Fforde's Web site. If you're considering visiting it as well, be warned that it's a potential HUGE time sink with a ton of pages like this one.

A side note for writers and hopeful writers out there: Jasper Fforde received

76 rejection letters

before he finally got The Eyre Affair published.


The Sleuth Of Baker Street hosted the event. The Sleuth is a wonderful bookstore that specializes in mysteries, crime novels, detective fiction, Sherlockiana, spy and thrillers novels. The store hosts all kinds of interesting author events, so if you're a mystery/crime fan, be sure to check out their Web site.