Jedediah Berry's Blog

For years I've been meaning to make this bumper sticker and now I have made it:

Inspired, of course, by the classic:

Available now at The Cat & Tonic. (Some items related to The Manual of Detection also available.)

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A few of us have been playing a game of consequences, each contributing a 250-word story that begins with the last sentence of the previous entry. The theme is "Abandoned Landscapes," and my piece is the last of eleven. Here's what came before: 1. Sam J. Miller, 2. Jade Park, 3. Jane Voodikon, 4. Lisa Silverman, 5. Anna Shapiro, 6. Mark Krotov, 7. Wah-Ming Chang, 8. Alex Chee, 9. Viet Dinh,10. Lucas Green.

Especially if the other guy is your son. Especially if the other guy, hangdog and big-eared

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"We now proceed to describe The Halo, or Corona; and similar Appearances. —An Halo is a luminous circle surrounding the sun, moon, planets, or fixed stars. Occasionally these circles are white, and sometimes they are coloured like the rainbow. Sometimes one only is visible, and at others several concentric halos appear at the same time….

Similar, in some respects, to the halo, was the remarkable appearance which M. Bouguer describes, as observed on the top of Mount Pichinca, in the Cordilleras. W

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A mysterious package arrived in the mail recently. It contained nothing but a slim hardcover volume, blue with black lettering: The Blue Book of Crime: Finger Prints, Secret Service, Crime Detection.

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<><>It is, if you will, a kind of Manual of Detection, only it was published in 1936 by the Finger Print Publishing Association, and authored by the esteemed Mr. T. G. Cooke, F.P.E., Director of the Institute of Applied Science, formerly Director and Official Editor of The International Association for I</></></>

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Some weeks ago, Wah-Ming Chang and I started writing a sentence together. We took turns writing it, one word at a time, in the comments section of this post, and completed it yesterday. Here it is:

<><><>Mr. Bluemoon, of that exceptional tribe named for its perpetually growing sense of devotion towards miniature galaxies, never once imagined he himself would stand, with thirteen engines sounding like thirteen ghoulish mourners, aboard the Flying Wastrel, hand flat against the lever that directed heaven</></></>

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<>Among the most treasured works on my reference shelf is the <>Cyclopedia of Wonders and Curiosities of Nature and Art, Science and Literature, Representing Anatomy, Physiology, Phrenology, Astronomy, Botany, Geology, Natural History, Ichthyology, Mythology, Ornithology, Meteorology, Mineralogy, Chemistry, Zoology, Entomology, Biography, etc.; And Containing A Full and Authentic Description of the Most Remarkable and Astonishing Places, Beings, Animals, Customs, Experiments, Phenomena, etc., of bot</></></>

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This weekend will find me at Readercon in Burlington, MA. I first attended this conference in 2007, and it's quickly become one of my favorite annual book events. I'm on two panels this year, and I'll be participating in a reading to celebrate the publication of Conjunctions 52: Betwixt the Between.

My full schedule is below. I will also spend a lot of time at the Small Beer Press table in the stuff-for-sale room, hoping you will come say hello to me.

Friday 12:00 Noon, Vineyard: Group Reading

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I'm currently doing research for a new project—research into trains, specifically—and my friendly local librarian has dug up a real treasure: a book for children called Train Talk: An Illustrated Guide to Lights, Hand Signals, Whistles, and other Languages of Railroading by Roger Yepsen. I would have loved this book when I was eight years old; I love it now.

<>It opens with the story of an Indiana farmer who is struck and killed by a train in 1920. The man turns out to be the author's great-grandfa</>

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