Author: fitz

Today, Roy Underhill sent Chris and me a delightful and much-anticipated gift indeed – the (almost) final author edit of “Calvin Cobb – Radio Woodworker!” I was having a bad day; now I am not. I’m having a grand time laughing my way through Roy’s revised copy whilst sipping a little bourbon and petting my three-legged cat, Possum.

On Friday, I’m headed down with Chris to the Ohio Book Store to search for the perfect stack of 1930s novels to inspire the designer – the typeface and look of the book is of great import to Roy, and rightfully so. The right look adds a graphic dimension to your experience of reading by transporting you beyond the words’ denotations and visually into the era in which the novel takes place. (Wow…I sound like an English teacher.)

We’re also still working to select the perfect artist to illustrate Calvin and his cohorts; the choices have been narrowed…but it’s hard. I don’t have kids, but it’s hard enough to count on others to give my cats the same care and attention as do I (it’s why I dislike long trips). And this little baby of Roy’s has been gestating for a long time – to whom should we entrust its care? I don’t know…but I hope to within the month.

In the meantime, here are a couple paragraphs from the manuscript to whet your appetite.

Calvin Cobb dodged through the morning stream of pedestrians on Pennsylvania Avenue and sprang up the gum-dotted steps of the old Post Office building. In the gleaming, Ionic-columned forest of 1937 New Deal Washington, entering this grimy castle was best done quickly—like pulling off a bandage. Today, though, he paused and glanced back at the odd behavior of the sidewalk crowd. Men and women who should have been hurrying to their own offices were, instead, holding onto their hats and squinting straight up at the clock tower high above him. Calvin threw himself flat against the granite column framing the doorway. It took a few seconds of peering upwards into the shadows of the clock tower for him to realize that it wasn’t a jumper they were looking at—it was a painter working on scaffolding suspended halfway down one of the gigantic clock faces. Calvin now shuddered with a new fear as he reasoned in Washington logic, They’re retouching the clock on the iceberg—the wrecking ball can’t be far behind!

…

Calvin took a shallow breath and stared up at the narrow iron trusses of the skylight above him and imagined suddenly finding himself transported there, clinging to a thin iron spandrel high above the cavernous pit. The frightening image worked—a shivering thrill began below his ears, converged in his spine, and broke up into a million rivulets in his legs. Calvin Cobb had charged himself with his full morning dose of adrenaline—just as the one-armed woman patted him on the back.

Who is this one-armed woman? Will they tear down Calvin’s office building? What happens when you spread manure at a speed of 50 miles per hour? How can you build things on the radio? Does Calvin get the girl? I know the answers to all these questions. But you’ll have to wait…just a few more months.

— Megan Fitzpatrick

p.s. If you have a recommendation for an illustrator, the perfect 1930s font or what have you, please send those direct to me at meganfitzpatrick@fuse.net (because it’s really weird to have Chris acting as my secretary; it’s usually the other way ’round).

Roy Underhill is a little under the weather – both literally and figuratively. We chatted last night, during which I found he’s on the mend from a nasty cold and also at the mercy of the nasty weather in the southeast. So assuming his electricity remains intact, he’s staying bundled up inside at his computer for the next several days as he continues revisions on his novel, “Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker!” – a novel with measured drawings.

The book is a delightful screwball comedy along the lines of such great Depression-era films as “His Girl Friday” and “Bringing up Baby,” complete with farcical situations, strong female characters, (seemingly) impossible romance and everything else you’d expect from that genre. It had me giggling on almost every page (perhaps you’ll be guffawing). And should you choose to read it thus, “Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker!” also incorporates troubling issues of historic revisionism and gender roles (but Roy doesn’t hit you over the head with the heady stuff). Of course it involves woodworking (there will actually be measured drawings of the plans Calvin shares with his listeners!).

So what gives with the picture above, you might wonder? That’s the Old Post Office Pavilion* on Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., where much of the book takes place. You’ll find Calvin’s shop behind those clock faces, which to me read as a metaphor for…well, you’ll have to see for yourself how the locations reveal truths about the characters (and reveal Roy’s love for and deep knowledge of the fascinating history of our capital).

If all goes as planned (and as the primary editor it’s my job to make sure it does), Lost Art Press will publish “Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker!” late in 2014 (with the high-quality paper and binding you’d expect, with printing in the United States). To that end, Roy is busy whipping the text into shape with a couple of revisions to enhance the plot and pacing; he’s promised me a new draft by the end of the month. We’ll then identify the seminal scenes and select the perfect illustrator to bring them to life in a style reminiscent of vintage Hardy Boys books.

I hope to be able to share with you some illustration treatments by late March – and I’ll be keeping you up to date as the project progresses. In a few weeks, I’ll introduce a couple more of the characters…without giving too much away, I hope. Until then, know that with “Calvin Cobb: Radio Woodworker,” the shit hits the fan. No really – Calvin’s day job is studying manure spreaders.

— Megan Fitzpatrick

* 1911 picture by Harris & Ewing, from Wikimedia Commons