“Fun, fast-moving and filled with vivid though sometimes arcane period details about farm machinery, computing and radio equipment, government agencies and cat faces staring out from marble walls, Roy creates unique and engaging characters whose fate propels the reader’s interest from one chapter to the next. Yet despite the heavy overlay of humor that pervades the story line and many of its details, the novel also bears a valuable social message as Calvin confronts the racism and anti-Semitism of the day.
“The ending, which I won’t reveal here, is both dramatic and—like the rest of the book—absurdly humorous. A wild ride indeed!”
You can read the full review here. The entire November 2014 issue of Wood News Online can be read here.
— Megan Fitzpatrick
p.s. Order before Nov. 29, 2014, for free domestic shipping; the book will start shipping on or around Nov. 10.
p.p.s. Not to be outdone by Chris (in this, anyway), here’s another short excerpt from the novel to tempt you:
This evening, Christopher sat on his couch, I sat on his floor (so as to better commune with the cats), and we scrutinized the printer proofs of “Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker!”
Chris uploaded the handful of corrections just minutes ago, and it’s now officially out of our control and will soon be on press.
Most exciting for me was seeing the dust jacket in 3D. Yeah, I knew what it looked like, wrote the flap copy for it and have read over it – carefully – numerous times. But that’s not the same as seeing it printed, cut and folded into the shape of a book.
Now, there’s nothing left to do but wait (about 5-6 weeks).
While you can’t see the inside of Washington, D.C.’s Old Post Office building (and Calvin Cobb’s clocktower workshop) until renovations are complete, for $1.50, you can have your own model.
And in fewer than two months, you can “see” the inside of the building through the eyes of “Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker!”
— Megan Fitzpatrick
p.s. Check out the other postcard scale models from Wurlington Press, too – cool.
Today, we got Jode Thompson’s final cover art for “Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker! A Novel with Measured Drawings” (thank you Jode – it looks awesome!).
But because I’m too much of a tease to share it with you – yet – I thought perhaps you’d like to look at other bad-ass women on motorcycles in the 19teens-’30s, thanks to Suzanne Ellison, who sent me the link.
Above is Sally Halterman, the first woman to have a motorcycle license in Washington, D.C. (Impressive and all…but she’s no Verdie – try riding a bike with a wooden leg, Sally! That said, nice boots.)
Below, the heels win. (It’s a 1933 shot of a woman trying out a Douglas on display.)
And here’s a woman who really could have been Verdie in 1917 – she’s a WWI dispatch rider (note the fellow in the sidecar hitching a ride). Verdie lost her leg riding a motorcycle during that war.
For a look at a wide range of women, motorcycles and women with dogs on motorcycles (plus a bonus priest and a bathing suit shot or two), click here.
And now I must get back to writing cover copy you simply can’t resist for “Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker!”
— Megan Fitzpatrick
p.s. Bonus shot from 1973…about which I’ll say nothing. Because they scare me, and could very well still be alive.
p.p.s. And here’s an interesting read about Britain’s women dispatch riders in WWII (again, thank you Suzanne).
The picture above is the clock tower of the Old Post Office building at the corner of Pennsylvania Ave. and 12th Street in Washington, D.C. Calvin Cobb’s workshop is behind the clock faces – so in his shop, he says, time runs backward.
But in reality, time marches relentlessly forward, and for the Old Post Office, that means stepping into new life as a hotel. Donald Trump is in the midst of developing the former government building into a luxury hotel, slated to open in 2016. It certainly beats razing the 1899 Richardsonian Romanesque structure.
And I suppose Calvin would be pleased – presumably, there is actual woodworking going on inside the walls of his old workshop as workers ready the hotel space for visitors.
The building, designed by Willoughby J. Edbrooke, was D.C.’s main post office for only 15 years; in 1914, the postal service relocated to a larger building near Union Station. What then became known as the “old” Post office was saved during the 1920s/1930s redevelopment of Federal Triangle only because there weren’t enough funds to tear it down (or perhaps because enough people realized how politically inexpedient it would be to spend money razing a perfectly sound building in the midst of the Great Depression).
In the early 1970s, there was another attempt to tear it down, but it was quickly (in political time) squelched by an ardent group of preservationists; in 1973, the Old Post Office was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In the late ’70s and early ’80s, a multi-stage renovation project commenced that resulted in a mix of federal office space and three retail levels (and eventual addition of an annex).
But it wasn’t successful. By 2000, the vacancy rate on the retail space was 80 percent, the annex was closed and there was no income.
Since then, there have been several efforts to renovate the space, including the “Old Post Office Building Redevelopment Act of 2008” (H.R. 5001), which eventually led to movement (following a lot of maneuvering by various agencies including the General Services Administration (GSA)…which is too complicated to boil down into just a few sentences).
In early 2012, the GSA announced it has chosen the Trump Organization as the potential redeveloper for plans that included a conference center, restaurants and 250+ hotel rooms, as well as a small museum dedicated to the history of the building, and the agreement to preserve the historic integrity of the building. And the National Park Service retains control over the clock tower and observation deck.
So if all goes according to plan, you’ll be able to visit Calvin’s workshop when the space reopens – whether or not you can afford the room rates.
But you’ll be able to read “Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker! A Novel with Measured Drawings” well before the Old Post Office Building is once again open to the public.
We’re 99 percent there, and will have everything off to the printer within three weeks. Linda Watts is making the final corrections to the measured drawings and finishing up design work on the end papers. Illustrator Jode Thompson is putting the finishing touches on the drawing that will become the dust jacket, Roy is working on copy for the back of the dust jacket, and Chris and I are writing copy for the dust-jacket flaps.
By tomorrow evening, I should be able to export a soup-to-nuts PDF of the project for final review, then it’s off to the printer and then to you.
