I'll Be Right Back, After a Brief Commercial Message

I'm stealing a good idea from Andrew Sullivan, it having occurred to me that my book makes a wonderful gift -- and 'tis the season. Here's how you can give it to your most favorite person in the world (actually, I'm guessing you have dozens of favorite people in the world) with a personalized inscription:

If you email me with a name and any sort of inscription request you have (within broadly interpreted rules of decency), I'll personally write it and sign on a nice adhesive panel you can stick onto the front page of your book. And I'll even pay the postage (which, as far as I can tell, is about equal to the royalty I'd get on the book). (I say that because I haven't heard from the publisher in a while...) Include in the email your postal address, which I promise I'll trash as soon as I mail your inscription, and will use it for no other purpose. Email me at jschwab at gte dot net, and title it "book inscription" or something even more clever. My spam filter is incredibly stupid. In addition to the fact that blogger almost never notifies me when there's a new comment on a post, when I get notified of MY OWN comment, my email labels it as junk. I'm trying not to take it personally.

I think this is a very cool idea, and a generous offer. I expect it to catapult me to best-seller lists around the world, and to generate a call from Oprah. And I'm quite sure your friend(s) will be eternally grateful.