Woke up 15 minutes ago. Getting coffee soon. Pack up toiletries. Last-minute check of everything. Taxicab will pick us up at 10:30.

Thanks to everyone who entered the Twelve Collections Collections Contest. The grand prize goes to the_red_shoes, for her varied collection of regrets and failures. After she sends me her address, I'll mail the book to her when I return. Congrats!

Zoran Zivkovic's newest book is Twelve Collections and The Teashop (read an excerpt). Here's the description from PS Publishing, who will be publishing the book sometime early next year:

What lies behind the human urge to collect things? What is the true psychology of the kleptomaniac? These questions bear on all of us; within every person there lurks a fanatical philatelist or a monomaniacal lepidopterist, just waiting to burst forth. In his new story cycle, Twelve Collections, Zoran Zivkovic, the master of mind-bending surreal fantasy, applies his fertile mind to this problem.

Some of Zivkovic's characters are lonely eccentrics, driven to gather unusual objects by quirks of temperament or fate; others are the victims of metaphysical collectors from Beyond, entities eager to snap up memories, emotions, and other loose fragments of the soul. In these pages are explained the profound karmic consequences of photographic narcissism, insane record-keeping, the archiving of one's nail clippings, and the infinite savoring of words; here also are exemplary warnings against surrendering hope, living without creativity, accepting too blithe a Heaven, and answering the phone in the middle of a dream-haunted night. Of course, even with such sage counsel, life remains uncertain and perilous; but even if ultimate answers can never be found, a Zivkovic collection is always eminently collectable . . .

Also in this volume: "The Teashop," a superb new novelette about storytelling and the miraculous weavings of Fate.

Zoran always publishes his books through Polaris Press in Belgrade as definitive first editions, in both Serbian and English. These beautiful little books are trade paperbacks which measure 4-3/4" x 6-5/8", the perfect size to fit in your pocket. He contracts with translators and printers privately, and though he used to sell these Polaris editions, he is no longer doing this but instead providing reading copies to possibly interested foreign publishers. I'm extremely honored and lucky to have a complete collection of the Polaris editions of his books; they reside in a place of honor in my home office, and I often pick them up and thumb through them.

Recently, he sent me a the Polaris edition of Twelve Collections (which I devoured in two days), and apparently he forgot that he did so because he sent another one. Which means I have an extra.

Therefore, I propose a contest, to go until Wednesday, October 5 (which happens to be Zoran's birthday). In the comments of this entry, tell me about your collections. What do you collect, and why do those objects have such special meaning for you? What drives you to keep collecting? The person with the most creative and interesting collection will receive as their prize my extra Polaris copy of Twelve Collections. Instead of waiting until next year to read the PS edition, you'll be able to experience this remarkable book right now. Remember, the contest goes only until Wednesday (since I'll be leaving on Thursday for Singapore), and you can only enter once, so make sure you tell me about your grooviest collection. I'll mail the book to the winner after I get back on October 17.

Good luck and happy writing!