Some time ago I finished writing and editing my first work of literary fiction. It is an allegory of the book of Jonah which shows Jonah as the antagonist rather than the protagonist. If you doubt my view, re-read the book. At 4 chapters it's much shorter than my allegory, but in the end Jonah leaves the city and goes to a hill to watch it get destroyed. He didn't change, he only went because he had to. Of course, I digress. One feature of my novella length story is that I started each chapter with quotes. They were quotes that either guided my writing or were appropriate when I found them afterwords. I even had one (Simply stated it is sagacious to eschew obfuscation) for the file full of the notes on the symbolism and metaphors I included in the work. The first quote I started with was one I later ended up deleting, but since it was first, Microsoft Word chose it for the file name. At some point, I began to think of the work as If, the first word of the quote. For some reason I've always thought the quote, from Lewis Carroll, was a relatively unknown quote, "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." Again, the appropriateness of the quote to the work is apparent. Today I was in a conversation where someone used the quote, albeit without referencing the original speaker, and it took me by surprise. I mean, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to have found the quote, but this guy, who has been working on shuttle engines since the late 70s, used it as matter-of-factly as I do. The reason his use of the quote stuck out is that I have been working on preparing "If" for distribution.

The finishing touches have been put on "If: An Allegory of Jonah" and I am about to offer it for subscribers of my blog in an e-book format. This is one of the reasons I transitioned my blog to a self-hosted blog. After 2 months of fiddling and fighting, I finally have the email subscriptions working. The only thing I don't have is a way for my webpage to send it out automatically.

If anyone has a clue how to have my email subscription service automatically send an e-book drop me a line. Otherwise, I'll make an announcement soon and check my subscription base each day to send them manually. 

Meanwhile, several other unrelated items have popped up in the last few days.

Last week I wrote about some dueling divorce billboards on opposite sides of the interstate. This week I noticed that the $200 divorce billboard is gone (leaving only the $199) but in its place is an ad for a 24 hour X Rated Adult Superstore. So cheap divorces and sex toys? Welcome to Montgomery.

On another blog I follow someone posited the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg. I should have mentioned this with my odd story post, but the Bible is quite clear on this matter. The chicken came first, see Genesis 1:20, where he made all the birds; then see verse 22 where he told them to multiply.

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