For the Time Being is here!

Apparently, I'm something like the 30th person to actually see For the Time Being. The advance copies arrived at Derek's last Friday and have been quickly snatched up by the Boston poetry crowd. I got a great note from Joel Sloman (the first editor of the Poetry Project's, The World) telling me that book looks fantastic. I had to respond that I hadn't actually seen it. But.. Hurray!... it was in my mailbox this morning! It's a large format book (7.5" x 9") and tops out at 250 pages. The cover is pretty striking and, frankly, turned out much better than I suspected. The Timothy Daniel's San Francisco street scene painting is framed in some kind of gold-on-chestnut, thrift store-esque frame which has been roughly mounted (you can still see the cut marks) and if you turn the book 90 degrees and look closely, you can actually see a reflection of Brain Toth (the cover designer) taking a picture of the painting inside the painting. The whole painting (frame and all) appears to hang on a wall (or page) with the title acting as a tag or description. Simply put: it's a cover with a lot of layers. A reflection of a book designer inside a painting framed and mounted on a wall appearing to be a piece of art for sale at a gallery. I think it all captures the spirit of the project really well, especally two people walking and talking on a empty street somewhere in some dark city. Certainly, when we began this project, few people had any idea what Tyler and I were up to.

I doubt I'll do another book like this any time soon. All-in-all, this proved to be a fairly exhausting endeavor. Literally, I think it was a two year and nine month project from the initial conception until today. I'm going to sit back right now and pour a stiff drink and enjoy simply holding it in my hands. Thanks to everyone who's helped along the way, especially Ryan and Derek who spent countless hours proofing (and catching) many mistakes.

The book can be ordered directly from Bootstrap Productions.