It's a story written & illustrated by Edward Gorey, detailing one author's process of novel-writing, from start to finish. It's genius.
"Mr. C(lavius) F(rederick) Earbrass is, of course, the well-known novelist. Of his books, A Moral Dustbin, More Chains Than Clank, Was It Likely?, and the Hipdeep trilogy are, perhaps, the most admired. ...
On November 18th of alternate years Mr Earbrass begins writing 'his new novel.' Weeks ago he chose its title at random from a list of them he keeps in a little green note-book. It being tea-time of the 17th, he is alarmed not to have thought of a plot to which The Unstrung Harp might apply, but his mind will keep reverting to the last biscuit on the plate.
If you don't wish to pay collectors' pricing, the best way to get it is in the anthology Amphigorey (http://www.amazon.com/Amphigorey-Edward-Gorey/dp/0399504338/), which also contains oodles more brilliance that I suspect you will find precisely tailored to your particular sense of humor, for example, this excerpt from The Listing Attic:
Each night Father fills me with dread, When he sits on the foot of my bed; I'd not mind that he speaks In gibbers and squeaks, But for seventeen years he's been dead.
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Date: 2009-05-30 03:54 pm (UTC)"Mr. C(lavius) F(rederick) Earbrass is, of course, the well-known novelist. Of his books, A Moral Dustbin, More Chains Than Clank, Was It Likely?, and the Hipdeep trilogy are, perhaps, the most admired. ...
On November 18th of alternate years Mr Earbrass begins writing 'his new novel.' Weeks ago he chose its title at random from a list of them he keeps in a little green note-book. It being tea-time of the 17th, he is alarmed not to have thought of a plot to which The Unstrung Harp might apply, but his mind will keep reverting to the last biscuit on the plate.
If you don't wish to pay collectors' pricing, the best way to get it is in the anthology Amphigorey (http://www.amazon.com/Amphigorey-Edward-Gorey/dp/0399504338/), which also contains oodles more brilliance that I suspect you will find precisely tailored to your particular sense of humor, for example, this excerpt from The Listing Attic:
Each night Father fills me with dread,
When he sits on the foot of my bed;
I'd not mind that he speaks
In gibbers and squeaks,
But for seventeen years he's been dead.