It's strawberry season in Australian supermarkets now, and this year the trend continues—not just bigger but grosser, redder, shinier, pitted with blackheads.
They're very fragrant, and though they have no taste of their own, it's a jolly thing that finally the public appreciates such ugliness, and won't settle for less.
That's Pyrotechnicon written and illustrated by Adam Browne, published by Coeur de Lion Press and now available in both printed book and ebook form from this excellent press's online store. I have praised Browne's stories and his marvelous illustrations before, because I love his ability to immerse himself in a different place, time, and mindset, and yet produce something that is inimitably his own.
Pyrotechnicon would be a splendid present for a loved one—and as we all have been taught in our modern world, to love others properly you must first love yourself.
i reproduced this post on facebook, and John Dixon responded:
ReplyDeleteGreat! Anna is a genius -- and how fitting, the food launch of PYROTECHNICON!
John,
ReplyDeleteYou're so kind, but genius, never! Perhaps you mean genus?
As for the food launch, yes yes yes! De rigueur finger food: Les Marzipan noses!
you are, I'm afraid, Anna, you'd better just accept it (have you read, by the way, about the evolutionary reasons behind depression? - its relation to fixity of thought and purpose? - makes me think about the humours, how it was understood that melancholy is the creative humour...)
ReplyDeleteAnd yes to the food launch! I pick the marzipan nose!
so good to see you there, Anna!
ReplyDeletei posted some of Cat's pictures to Facebook, and many of the responses were about how wonderful you are - i'm not being effusive - that's the word people choose to use when talking about you
And for the noses, again, thanks
Adam,
ReplyDeleteIt was a treat to finally meet you in the flesh, though I should rip your posting fingers off, and (the delightful) Cat's clicking fingers for — what news reports say. "A warning: there are graphic images." (as opposed to ungraphic) At the next gathering of humans close enough to smell and see, I'll just wear that Virginia Woolf profile, perhaps adding a fascinator and fangs.
But for physical presence, I cannot but effuse about Pyrotechnicon, and the publisher. Words, meaning, text, paper, cover, the quality of the quality illustrations — an orgy in heaven.
And your bookplate is another playful element that makes this book something quite special.
Of course, that would all be like a frosted cardboard box if the cake you made weren't so good that it could be eaten dry (I can't say 'and stale' because your cakes won't stalify).
So making noses for you was a privilege, and a delight. Remember, however, that the noses with the broken blood vessels and the mo were the ones that I made, but all those pink flushed noses that had epics behind them and writers who they needed as scribes, were made by the multi-talentedTalie Helene, who is, in addition to being a writer and musician, is a sculptor of things other than noses (as if there could be 'things other', I hear a nose say).