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I’m not Jewish, but I play one on holidays.

I am a godless heathen, but my wife and her family are Jews, which exposes me to a lot of yiddish words and Jewish traditions. One of those is the Passover Seder, which I had to skip this year to go to NY ComicCon, (Sorry, God!), where the Jewish people give thanks to God for bringing them out of bondage in the land of Egypt and leading them to Israel, the promised land.

One of the Seder traditions is singing the song Dayenu, which translates roughly to “It would have been enough” or “It would have been sufficient”. The song lists the things God did for the Jewish people: freeing them from slavery, punishing their captors, parting the red sea to aid their escape, feeding them in the desert, bringing them to the promised land, etc., and repeats “dayenu” after each one, saying that “if we had only been given this, it would have been sufficient”, but the song goes on for 15 stanzas.

I think that’s a nice tradition, even if some of the stuff God did in those stories was… harsh. It’s important to be thankful for the wonderful things in your life, and to remember to stop and appreciate them, and so I wrote my own version about the last year of my life.

Had I written a book I was proud of, but not gotten an agent,

Dayenu.

Had I gotten an agent, but not sold that book,

Dayenu.

Had I only sold one book, but not three,

Dayenu.

Had I sold three books, but not to a major US publisher,

Dayenu.

Had I only sold to a US publisher, but not in the UK,

Dayenu.

Had I sold in the UK, but not in Germany,

Dayenu.

Had I sold in Germany, but not France,

Dayenu.

Had I sold in France, but not Japan, Greece, or Russia,

Dayenu.

Had I sold in Japan, Greece, and Russia, but not been able to write full time,

Dayenu.

Had I been able to write full time, but not had Terry Boooks read my work,

Dayenu.

Had Terry Brooks read my work, but not called it brilliant,

Dayenu.

Had Terry Brooks called my work brilliant, but my sister not gotten engaged,

Dayenu.

Had my sister gotten engaged, but my two sisters-in-law not become pregnant,

Dayenu.

Had my sisters-in-law become pregnant, but not some of my best friends,

Dayenu,

Had some of my best friends become pregnant, but not my wife,

Dayenu.

But all that did happen.

Day-Dayenu.

Posted on May 8, 2008 at 6:30 pm by PeatB
Filed under Life, Musings, Sales, Writing
1 Comment »

Just got a quote from Terry Brooks for my book jacket:

“I enjoyed THE WARDED MAN immensely. There is much to admire in Peter Brett’s writing, and his concept is brilliant. Action and suspense all the way; he made me care about his characters and want to know what’s going to happen next.”

I will post my reaction soon.

I’ll try to do it without a lot of excited profanity and jumping up and down.

Posted on May 7, 2008 at 5:02 pm by PeatB
Filed under Craft, Life, Musings, Reviews, Writing
4 Comments »

I was walking down the street yesterday and saw a news ticker that said the price of oil was soaring to astronomical rates, hovering near $120 a barrel. I thought about it, and realized something interesting.

Oil is still cheaper than beer.

Wikipedia lists the volume in an oil barrel as 42 gallons, which comes out to about $2.85 a gallon.

Compare that to the price of beer, where a 13 gallon keg of Heineken costs $145, or $11.15 a gallon. Even for a cheaper beer like Bud, where you can get a 15 gallon keg for $95, still comes out to $6.33 a gallon, and no one thinks twice about paying it.

And the worst war beer ever started was a Football riot…

Posted on May 6, 2008 at 8:15 am by PeatB
Filed under Musings
4 Comments »

Maybe Iron Man was the highlight of my day after all, because…

That.

Was.

FUCKING.

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.

Posted on May 2, 2008 at 4:33 pm by PeatB
Filed under Musings
6 Comments »

I am expecting a furniture delivery today between 10 – 3, which is a little inconvenient , as it means I am not only missing yoga, but it drastically reduces my options to see an Iron Man matinee before the nine-too-fivers get out and swarm the theaters.

So I was all excited when the door buzzer rang at 11am. Early delivery means early iron-armored action! I ran down the steps, only to find that it wasn’t my furniture.

It was better.

That’s right, people, my Advance Read Copies (ARCs) have arrived! Two gorgeous copies that culminate a project I have been working on for seven years: The Painted Man. I sold the book almost a year ago, so I’ve known for some time that it would eventually see print, but there is a difference between knowing something in your head and holding it in your hands. When I opened up the envelope and those two pristine galleys slipped out, all was right in the world. Suddenly, all the surreal happenings of the last year solidified into something so awesome I can’t even tell you.

Eeeeeeeeeek!

Here’s me all excited opening the package.

Ahhh! That’s the sugah!

Here are some pictures using a quarter to give it scale:

Check out how fricken’ thick it is! Damn!

And look how fricken’ big my name is!

Jinx got in on the action, checking to make sure the DHL envelope was empty.

It’s a funny thing; I’ve never actually read the book. Oh, I wrote it, sure, and have totally scrutinized every chapter; every paragraph; every sentence; every word. But for all that, I’ve never read it like an actual book, without some ulterior editing motive. That is going to be my gift to myself now. The first nice day that comes along next week, I am taking an apple, a bottle of water, and and ARC and going into the park, where I will sit under a tree and read until it gets dark out.

And to think I thought Iron Man would be the highlight of my day…

Posted on May 2, 2008 at 11:03 am by PeatB
Filed under Craft, Events, Life, Musings, World Traveler, Writing
10 Comments »