Today is the 252nd anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns. People all over the world will be reciting his poetry, eating haggis, and all that. I'll be eating chocolates--wee bonbons and truffles made with single malt whiskeys: Talisker, Lagavulin, Macallan, Glenfarclas and more.
I'm lucky enough to be in this position because Kelley a) is talented enough to have written a brilliant novel, b) smart enough to have found a publisher who treats her well, c) generous enough to share the result. Which is just a complicated way of saying that the publisher of Solitaire, Small Beer Press, sent her a box of L.A. Burdick's Robert Burns Scotch Whiskey Assortment--handmade chocolates--and Kelley has found the perfect way to get what she wants by doling out delicious dollops as incentives for good behaviour.
So, hey, I'm behaving, and enjoying every minute of it. Yum! You can't have any of the chocolates (have you behaved? no, didn't think so), but I'll leave you with this poem:
To a Louse, on Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!
Ah, but just to really torment you, here's a description of the chocolate I'm about to eat right this minute: Glenfarcas--Dark chocolate bonbon made from Glenfarcas whiskey and figs. Mmmmmn.
