This is Nick Harkaway, bouncing up and down and waving like a ten year old (I actually have kid-hair this morning, so I look like a slightly scary, elongated toddler):
Good Morning, America! By which I mean the continent, not just the United States of. Although as I say that, I realise I mean the people of the continent, not the rocks and trees and so on. Rocks and trees are great, but they don’t use the internet so much.
Aaaaanyway.
Your edition of The Gone-Away World comes out today, which I guess is why you’re here. It’s nice of you to drop in, given that you’ve got plenty on your mind right now. Pull up one of those chairs and have some of this tea.
(I know many of you guys like a cup of coffee in with breakfast, but trust me: properly made tea, which has not been made with warm water drained from the sump of an espresso machine and filtered through sawdust, is a flavour to equal the best coffee on Earth.)
Where was I? Yeah, plenty going on. Gustav at least was less awful than it could have been, which maybe means John McCain will feel able to turn up the volume on the Republican convention. From over here it looks as if he needs to, what with Sarah Palin having been a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, but the view from this side of the pond always makes things look different.
And Canada – you guys appear to be looking at an election, too. So it’s all change everywhere (apart from in the UK, where despite some really disastrous recent goofs by his government, our beloved leader apparently proposes to stay in office until they carry him out by his enormous toes. Of which, sadly, I do not have a picture. I could show you a picture of my own toes and pretend – but you’re better off without that image in your memory, I promise. My toes are not my best feature.)
In any case, thanks for coming by.
Obviously, my time recently has been taken up with watching the entire Atlantic Ocean pour into my basement and tending my collection of completely drenched cheap Moroccan carpets, but I did manage to talk to the Wall Street Journal and the Pittsburgh Tribune Review before my shower room was invaded by lethal and appalling freshwater squid from the undercity and I had to retreat to the upper floors and jam the door to the cellar with a titanium steel broom handle.
Incidentally, Plan A regarding the carpets was to take them outside and let the sun dry them out. I mean, it’s the second day of September, and we often get warm days right through into October. A decade ago, we cooked lunch in the garden on Christmas Eve, and sat in our shirt-sleeves to eat it.
Today… not so much. The carpets are at least getting washed in the waters of England’s rain. They are, however, not getting any drier. In fact, I’d hazard they’re pretty much soaked from warp to weft.
Anyway, that aside: American readers and reviewers at the industry and grass roots level have been enthusiastic about the book so far, and that makes me feel a real sense of anticipation and pleasure at the prospect of the next few weeks. So thanks – and have fun.
(A few nice people who have said stuff:
I’m going to stop there, lest you think I’m blowing my own trumpet. Which I am. But not in a bad way.)
