Goodnight Mrs. Calabash.

I come to you today with this bit of news – today’s post will be my last over here. I want to thank all of the other contributors to this blog, both past and present, for building up a wonderful and informative community. I only hope that I contributed a little bit over the last few years.

The good news is that one of my favorite people in the publishing industry—Terri Bischoff, Acquisitions Editor of Midnight Ink—will be taking over for me. She’s got a wealth of experience, not only on the publishing side of things, but she also ran a mystery bookstore (Booked for Murder, Madison, WI). Her ability to see things from multiple angles, I’m sure, will prove very insightful.

She’ll be great.

And you’ve been great.

On to the mailbag for one last run! We’ve got a miscellaneous grab bag of questions, I’ll tackle them all.

(1) Will Phil Jackson lead the New York Knicks to an NBA championship?

Not with the current roster, no. The problem with the Knicks (like many things in life) is that there really is something to the idea of the whole being more than the sum of its collected parts. The team has some really impressive parts (Jackson among them), but for whatever reason, the fancy glue and duct tape that holds them together, doesn’t make them fit. It’s been said that Nikola Tesla could imagine a machine of his own invention, visualize it running, and then, still in the mental world, take the machine apart and see where the gears had been rubbing against one another and prematurely wearing out. He would do that before building the machine in the physical. I think Phil is going to need to invent a whole new machine, perhaps excluding all existing parts, before the Knicks win an NBA championship.

(2) What's the oddest question you ever received and failed to answer?

I don’t know that I’ve failed to answer any questions no matter how odd they were (though history may very well prove me wrong). That said, I’m sure many of the “answers” I gave were suspect.

(3) Now what?

I’m still bumping around the interwebs (worldwide). If you’ve got a question you want me to address, send it to me on Twitter (@tyrusbooks) and I’ll answer it for you as best I can. Otherwise, continue to keep writing, continue to keep paying attention to the world around you, and remember we’re all going to die some day and it’s better to get everything out on the table than to suppress your voice.

And with that, I’m off for a prolonged bit of silence.

Goodbye and thank you!

Ben

www.benjaminleroy.com

Comments

[Jeff Cohen]

Thanks for your time and extraordinary perspective, Ben. We at DEAD GUY will miss you (although we hope you won't be a stranger) and we're excited to see Terri--who in the interest of full disclosure acquired a book of mine--starting next week!

[JennyW]

I've always enjoyed your straight-shooting perspective on publishing and writing and, most of all, living. Happy trails, Ben--it's good to know you're on this planet, showing us all how much good one person can do in a day.