No, it's not the Great American Novel or an impressive work of art. No, it doesn't resemble War and Peace or any of Shakespeare's works in any way at all, including length. It's just a little 56-page paperback entitled Elder Expectations: My Life in Rictameters (Lulu, 2008). You can read about publishing with Lulu in two of my columns, "Sharing Your Experiences, Memories, and Stories" and "Print-on-Demand and Online Self-Publishing" (availible in the column archives).

To refresh your memory, a rictameter is a nine-line verse form with lines of two, four, six, eight, ten, eight, six, four, and two syllables each, the first and last lines identical. Try writing some. It's fun!

This book won't be available on Amazon.com for a while (it will be, eventually), but if anyone is interested, you can see a preview and/or order it through the following link:

http://www.lulu.com/browse/book_view.php?fCID=2333315