Welcome to the Department of Too Much Information. Take a number, please.

Well, all those readers who have always wondered just what the kind of person who generates such drivel as occupies this blog might look like need only check out the sidebar. No, not the best image, but really -- a better image won't improve matters. Sigh. The fact that I'm bearded doesn't show up very well, and neither does my shoulder-length hair. Generally, I think I look like one of the extras from the Rohan scenes of Lord of the Rings. Probably one of the first guys to get eaten by wargs.

Also, in comments below Jason suggested that I put up a picture of my bookshelves, so here is precisely that:



These are not all of my shelves, however: this cluster is flanked by two smaller, three-shelf bookcases, one of which is partly double-stacked. It's hard to tell by this picture, but the walls of this corner form a kind of "stair-step" effect, which yields that nice alcove which is piled with books. Oh, and see that can of compressed air on the top shelf there? If you look on the shelf directly below that can, you can make out a thick stack of papers. This is the original manuscript to The Promised King, Book One: The Welcomer. My copy of the submission manuscript is in a binder next to this computer.

(If you want to peruse a larger version of this picture, here it is -- but I'll be taking it down after a couple of weeks, since it's a pretty large file. You can make out specific book titles in that one, though.)

And here is a picture of my writing desk, which isn't really where I do my writing these days, since I switched from working primarily longhand.



That's me there in the pic, of course, striking my "pretentious guy reading" pose. I think I did pretty well, given that I had about nine seconds before the self-timer on the Polaroid went off. That book in my hand is my one-volume edition of The Lord of the Rings -- the one with paintings by Alan Lee -- and that's my dictionary on the desk, open to somewhere in the letter 'O', I think. You can't tell by this picture, but the top shelf of the bookcase behind me there is my "Bookshelf of High Honor". That's where my Rand-McNally World Atlas, my complete works of Shakespeare, my two copies of LOTR and slipcased copy of The Hobbit, and my collection of Guy Gavriel Kay's novels reside.

That desk belonged to my paternal grandfather, and then my paternal grandmother. (My grandfather had been dead for over twenty years when I was born.) Now, it has come down to me. I dearly love that desk, and I long for the day when I finally own a laptop so I can always write on that surface. Everyone should have something that belonged to their grandparents, I think.

So there you go, more about me than you ever wanted to know. Well, you asked! ("Blaming the readers" always being a great strategy, you know.)