Dear Reader, On March 11, 2024, I release not one, but two books. FIELDS: POEMS and QUOZ: A NOVELETTE. Then, after that gurgle zapple, on March 16, I finally catch up with myself at my desk to interview myself. And in keeping with the quirkiness of Xyloquirk Books, following this very brief introduction, no line ends with a full stop. I shall also say, before diving in, that the interviewer (and figment of my imagination, who exists solely on the page) is none other than recumbent bicycle rider Horace Topp.
Horace: Pete?
Pete: Horace?
Horace: How goes it?
Pete: Does it get any better after you publish two books on the same day?
Horace: And what about these books?
Pete: Well, what if I slimmed down ZYGO: A NOVEL and turned it into QUOZ: A NOVELETTE for the Second Edition?
Horace: And why not?
Pete: What will the critics say?
Horace: Or will they hold their peace?
Pete: As for FIELDS, before I say anything else, perhaps I should mention the back cover of the paperback? Is it true cats sell books? And why not these cats, the three on the back cover? The poems are all new, there are some haiku at the end, and it's my first book in a while, for health reasons, but how shall I end this sentence? There's a line in one of the poems, a question in fact, that is this: 'what if time catches on the aortas of mice, potions sedate the warriors, and eyelids spatter starlight on litmus paper?' Do you feel that?
Horace: It's a kind of surprise? And what is your opinion of the books?
Pete: You mean, did I recycle them? Well, when they came, at first I was skeptical or tired, I guess? The next day I loved them, so the fantastico launch, and what more can I say? There's a ghost in one of the poems in FIELDS, some of the poems are stories, and you know how you feel when you finally finish something, when your baby is finally born? And as for QUOZ, have you ever read a story tapestry about a zygoneure hunter? I mean it's life and death, and living in colour, you know?