A small but ambitious announcement

"The bar! You’ve got an answer about the bar!"

"Yes, sir," said the man who had tapped George on the shoulder. "But I’m afraid it’s still bad news. She absolutely, positively refuses to sell."

The jagged scar under George Hermann’s mouth twitched. "You’re kidding me. How could a trailer-trash barmaid refuse that much money?"

It was a rhetorical question, but the messenger wasn’t bright enough to catch that.

"She told our people to stick the money where the sun don’t shine -- um, doesn’t shine -- and had her bouncer escort them to the door. So you see, we have a little bit of a problem."

"It’s no problem at all," George Hermann said as he accepted a towel from the other, silent man. "Send one more, especially persuasive salesperson. And if that still doesn’t do the trick," he added with a wink, "have her killed."

* * * * *

I'm still typing furiously and barely 20 percent finished, but here's the deal: The first chapter of the sequel to The Imaginary Bomb, tentatively titled The Imaginary Lover, will debut Sept. 1, 2006. Same setup as last time: Words by B.W. Richardson, voice and music by Warren Bluhm. It'll be available at the I-Bomb site, where other surprising aural pleasures may be forthcoming before that date.

This is probably going to be an interesting fall for me and Warren. But patience, my friends. These things must be done delicately ...