Updated 7/3/25 to note the book is free.
Questions and answers:
Q: What is this about?
TJ: The Silver
Roads in Brittany, is the title poem which describes the discovering and
renovating of a house in Brittany, France, and living in the countryside. A
poetic, casual pastoral, with musings on life, along with six fables set in
Brittany, and one lyrical poem, a marriage poem. The marriage poem, ‘Stay
Together’ on page 189, contains a secret word. If you are the first person to
find the secret word, you receive $3,000.
TJ: Yes. It is a
promotional effort. The book is free as a gift from this site, shipping included.
Q: So, someone needs the book to find the secret word.
TJ: No, it is not
necessary to buy the book to find the secret word—the poem is online. But to
claim the $3,000 a copy of the book is needed.
Q: Once someone finds
the secret word are there any fees at all? Is travel required to show up
someplace?
TJ: No, no fees, you do
not need to leave the house—if you have a mailbox. The money will be sent by wire only. So, someone does need internet.
When the person finds
the word, they can email me with only the secret word in the
subject line and add in the body of the email their name and phone and attach a
picture of their own identifiable self while they hold the book to the info
page with the individual book number visible. This email: fellspointpoetrybooks@gmail.com
You know how people can be—they want
to know that there really is a secret word in the book that anyone can find and
that a real person finds the word. This will keep real people in the loop, so
to speak.
Q: What if someone reads
the poem online and discovers the secret word?
TJ: They need a copy of
the book to receive the money, because others want to know a real person finds
the secret word in the poem.
Q: Do I need to know
about poetry to find the secret word?
TJ: Not at all.
Q: Is the poem
complicated? People don’t have time to read complicated poetry. What if I don’t
like poetry? What if I don’t like your poetry?
TJ: I will be putting
many passages of the book online, so people can see if they might like the
book. The ‘Stay Together’ poem is very simple, and only one page. In fact, the
poem is only one sentence. But I hope people might read the whole book, too.
Descriptions of discovering the house in Brittany, the French countryside, and
some fables for life and love.
Remember, one role of
poetry is to share understandable things.
Q: Why are you doing
this?
TJ: I'm just trying to share poetry in a fun way. Poetry is often a tough sell anyway.
Q: Sounds like your
poetry is so bad you are almost paying people to read it.
TJ: Close! There are so
many books of poetry being published, so many poets, so many different poetry
factions and groups, so many opinions, I don’t know what to say.
Q: Are you sure there is
no scam in this?
TJ: I expect skepticism.
You know, in ancient Greece, poets would make little handmade books and share
them with their poet friends. Now, thousands of poets publish books and then
try to sell them. There isn’t much of a poetry reading public for all these
poets to earn a living by selling poetry. There are awards for poets, even
major ones, but poetry books on the average sell very few copies. Of course, a
few poets do actually sell their books. There is no scam here.
Q: What else?
TJ: Only the first
person to email fellspointpoetrybooks@gmail.com with
only the right word in the subject line and a picture of them holding the book
to the info page to receives the money. $3,000 is a lot to some and
nothing to others, and so I want to make this about poetry and interesting
ideas and how people discover and feel and think and not all about money, but
money, as we know, is important—but let me add, that the challenge to find the
word is probably more enticing to most.
Q: Why a selfie?
TJ: It is a kind of
verification. I want to be fair with who is who. And having a copy of the book
prevents people from just hearing about this project and emailing me random
words.
People will want to know
that there is a real person with a real name who finds the secret word. That is
fair and important. So, the finder of the secret word will not remain
anonymous. An anonymous finder would cause much skepticism. Remember, there are
no fees, costs, no charges at all to receive the money. The wire account must
be in the finder’s name. Again, if people are hesitant to
send a selfie--just set the camera on the timer and stand 20 feet away and take
a pic or just peer over the book or from around a tree--the idea is to keep
real people in the loop.
Q: Isn’t this just a
game to get people to read your poetry?
TJ: I appreciate your
humorous contentiousness. Sure, marketing. Poets publish books on Amazon
and sell a few at such and such, and then the next thing they know Amazon book
“resellers” are selling the author’s books for almost nothing plus
shipping—sometimes on the same Amazon page!
Of course, there are
better poets than me who have readers who are quite willing to buy their books,
so there is that, too.
People who don’t read or
care about books probably won’t even hear about a secret word in a poem in a
poetry book.
Q: How will anyone know
if the word has been found?
TJ: Check my
website, www.thomasjardine.com
Q: Is anyone excluded
from this? What about friends?
TJ: No. No one knows the
secret word, so why not allow everyone?
Q: What else is there to
know?
TJ: If someone finds the
secret word, they can say it aloud all day, but whoever emails me first at fellspointpoetrybooks@gmail.com
with only the right word
in the subject line and their name and phone and a selfie with the open to the
info page in the email will receive the money.
When writing the poem,
which took over 15 years to write including revisions, I had no intention of any such secret
anything, but it naturally came into being, almost by chance. I said to myself,
look, there it is, so, why not? So, the secret word was not a preplanned idea.
I think someone will find the secret word quickly.
Q: What about giving out
hints?
TJ: No hints.
Q: How will a person
know they have the right word? Are there hints elsewhere in the book?
Q: A person will know
they have the right word. They will be confident they have the right word. And
there are no hints elsewhere in the book, but people might become familiar with
how I think, which might help. I’m actually a dull person with a dry sense of
humor. Not much fun. The secret word is not one of the words used in the poem,
that would be gaming the system and diminish the challenge.
Q: What else should
people know about this?
TJ: The book is free.
Q: Thanks, I think.
TJ: Thank you.
Thomas Jardine
www.thomasjardine.com
The Silver Roads in
Brittany
Fells Point Poetry Books
ISBN 978-0-9672437-2-6 189 pages 5.75 x 4
fellspointpoetrybooks@gmail.com
