The author has actually been in Paris and Pamplona but spends most of his time in Baltimore with his wife, cat, and lots of books. He once worked on the Sunpapers (shades of H.L. Mencken) where he was, he thinks, a copy editor. But he gave it up for the good life. He is at last a writer only, or didn't Scott Fitzgerald say that?

Asked for an estimate of his own work, the author replied: "Possible the finest of our time. John Barth, Samuel Beckett, Henny Youngman must move over." This is short estimate. Do not ask him for a long one.