Saturday, January 27, 2007

Novelists Are Often Absent-Minded

Nevada Appeal - News: "An acclaimed novelist lost his office in Carson City on Thursday when he threw a lit piece of paper into gasoline.

Fantasy writer David Eddings, 75, said he was using water to flush out the gas tank of his broken-down Excalibur sports car, when some fluid leaked. In a lapse of judgment he readily admitted, Eddings lit a piece of paper and threw into the puddle to test if it was still flammable. The answer came in an orange torrent.

The fire raged through the garage and a quarter of the way into the office that occupies the lot next door to his home. His 95-year-old mother-in-law inside the home, came outside to find the juniper trees lining the driveway had gone up in flames, too.

Eddings said his intention to was to prevent a fire - he was afraid to leave a tank full of gasoline in a car that had gone kaput - but instead he did the opposite.

'One word comes to mind,' the renowned wordsmith said as he stood in a pajama shirt and slippers. 'Dumb.'"

3 comments:

Victor Gischler said...

Fool!

Cap'n Bob said...

I think this has more to do with his being 75 than a writer.

Unknown said...

You could be right, Cap'n.