“I haven’t met the man who can be pessimistic with a breast in his hand…”

***

“Three Spinster Inn,” she whispered as she typed the words. “Where there’s always room…for love.”

***

“This,” said Allissandra, throwing her hands up, “is my new fish. His name is Princess Satin.”

Josh Hanagarne (World’s Strongest Librarian) once said that the writing he most enjoys is the kind that you can tell the author had a ball creating.

I would agree, but clearly we agree on a couple of things.

“Princess Satin”, above, and the kind of girl who has a fish so-named, are his imaginary creations. They’re from his new novel, The Knot.

I would just like to take a moment to mention that in the House of Diels,  our (dearly departed, rest in peace, baby) red fighting fish was called Princess Mascara*.

Our pony – who presents to the world as an exceptionally large rottweiler – who once ambled over to me, nuzzled my leg, flopped on the floor, gazed at me apparently adoringly, and proceeded to pee on my bare feet out of 100% spite?

His name is Zeus, aka “Aurora.”

Zeus/Aurora now lives with my ex, whom I blame for That Incident even though he wasn’t home at the time. No matter. I’m pretty sure they were telepathically in cahoots.

I digress.

Like Josh, I’m wild about free-range writing. And Josh’s novel is that. It is cartwheeling, leap-frogging prose – appropriate since one of the central mysteries involves a talking frog – and it is fun. It is OTT.

(Not to be confused with OPP. Yeah, you know me.)

Josh sent me the first chapter of The Knot a couple of weeks ago and then I promptly I harassed him until he sent me the rest of the book.

You, on the other hand, don’t have to harass him. You can just buy his novel, The Knot.

And I think this would be a good time to tell you this is NOT a joint venture or affiliate dealio. I don’t get a cent for telling you to buy Josh’s book.

This is just adoration, pure and simple. I adore Josh Hanagarne (but you can’t buy him) and I adore his new novel, The Knot (and you can buy it!).

You’ll like it too. Check it out.

Option One: Download

If you prefer to read on the computer, you can download The Knot by clicking on the “buy now” button below. If you ever need to double-check the amount in your cart, just click on the “view cart” button.

Option 2: Buy from Amazon

You can buy The Knot on Amazon for $20.95. A copy will arrive in the mail shortly thereafter. (these links will also take you to a synopsis of the novel)

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* This fish, Princess Mascara, died eighteen months ago. Recently, I found my 3.5 year old sobbing her eyes out at the kitchen table. I asked her what was wrong, and she hiccupped and gulped “My fish died!”

EIGHTEEN MONTHS AGO.

But instead of saying that, I asked her what she thought we could do together to make her feel better. She looked up at me with eyes the size of teacups, filled with water, and said “Buy me a turtle.”

Ah, little one. Crafty, aren’t you?