Readers, I have sinned in the name of book promotion.

Will librarians and authors shun me when they find out what I've done?

I took the life of a book.

An old, used, three dollar dictionary from the Goodwill, but a book nonetheless.

Cutting up a book felt wrong. Kind of like plucking a chicken. Blame it all on Martha.

The dictionary pages (AB through CD and a little bit of E) were cut up and turned into leaves for The English Language Family Tree. Also known as the Things That Make Us [Sic]amore. Zing!

Based on an illustration I did for Martha's new book I made a four foot tall version of the tree complete with Shakespeare doing graffiti and Jane Austen's brassiere. The tree will make its home in the window of Secret Garden hopefully by tomorrow and stay there until Martha's big book event on October 16th. I made all the little pieces come off easily, so the tree can go with Martha to her other book events if she likes it.

Making the tree took five times LONGER than I thought it would. I am excited for it to leave my house before Bebop tries to climb it or Logan tries to mark it.