Cover Art for The Tree of Virtues

As we gear up for Quadragesima, the great 40 day anticipation of Easter, there are a number of loose ends awaiting knots. (That seems to be happening a lot more frequently these days!)

We are also preparing for the tenth anniversary of Subsidiarity - that is, March 2, 2000, which is the day when our famous spot transport system for cable television went live, and proceeded to run 24/7 for over five years - that's the one based on those papal encyclicals and their Catholic Social Teaching. And you thought that papal encyclicals weren't relevant to today's technology! Or, perhaps I should say, and you thought today's technology was somehow unaware of divine inspiration! Hee hee. Yes, someday you'll be able to read more about it... but for now we simply prepare. There are some issues being raised about that topic over on the ACS blogg, which is a grand thing, very interesting and stimulating. If you play baseball, you like playing catch - and if you like writing software, you like talking about how you've done it, and how you might do more, and maybe even write stories about writing software... And that's how it works! Chesterton isn't the only one who uses the semicolon; do you know why? Hee hee!

But of course there's more to software than Subsidiarity, just as there's more to the Papacy than technology - but remember it wasn't me who gave the Pope that title of Pontifex Maximus = "Greatest Bridge-Builder"!!! Ah... but there's also more to my business just now, and I would like to show you just a little of what has been happening.

Now, as it turns out, I must be very careful with any announcements I make these days about stories. I have rather painted myself into a topological corner, you see - things happen, and I have to be much more circumspect. You would not want your stories spoiled by the author's foolish blabbing about exciting parts, would you? Of course not! So I have had to edit the picture, just slightly, to avoid giving you a hint about something. What picture? This one:



This is a portion of the cover art for the sequel to The Three Relics, called "The Tree of Virtues", the next portion of the larger saga which is under development... (I will tell you its name one of these days, but not just now.)

Now, most likely you will immediately recognize two people here. On the left, the great, the mighty and world-famous jazz trombonist, Bo Reynolds. On the right, the man whom some call "The Hermite of the 21st century", the brilliant Doctor Erich Weitzmann: mathematician, theorist, philosopher.

Both of these great men happened to be at Collins University on the same day in November of 2008 - and so a strange and marvellous opportunity was provided... For as you can see, one of our young friends, Chuck Weller, a junior in high school, who by an incredible piece of luck, is jamming with Bo!

The other young man is Chuck's classmate Steve Brown, known to those who have read The Horrors in the Attic (part III of The Three Relics) or any of the "Kathedral Kids" stories.

You may be wondering what that odd little round thing in the lower left is. It is NOT a CD player. It is an intensely beefed up edition of the old "Simon Says" memory game from some years ago, built by a man named Paul LeTrobe at the request of Robert Felsen - a name which may cause a slight tingling to those who have been following the saga.


Note: Dr. Thursday's stories are on sale at all bookstores of Quayment, but if you don't live close enough to get there, you can always see if Loome has a used copy.