Following on the heels of a wonderfully convivial reading at Brown Dog Books in Hinesburg, Vermont, back in late August, and a remarkably thoughtful and engaging interview with Ian Williams on WJFF radio (which also includes discussion of the Endangered Alphabets Project), comes a fine review from a highly selective source: Tim Leffel, editor of Perceptive Travel.
This site, which combines hitherto-unpublished travel stories with reviews of travel books, is well worth checking out. To see Tim’s review of Thirty Percent, click here.

There. I think I’ve set a personal links-per-word record.

A major weakness of Thirty Percent Chance of Enlightenment is that it has no photos. My fault: I find it very hard to think like a writer and a photographer at the same time. As a result, the photos I shot while I was in India were all at-my-leisure shots rather than peak-moment-of-intensity shots. Tourist pictures, really, and not worth publishing.
But the monsoon is a wonderful subject for photography, and in order to remedy my own shortcomings, we’re launching the Thirty Percent Chance of Enlightenment Monsoon Photo Contest.
Here’s how it works:
Choose your best photo(s) of the Indian monsoon (up to 5 photos allowed per photographer).
Post them in the comment/response box of this website. You must include your name, the photo title, and information about where it was taken. (You can also include other descriptive or narrative information if you like.)
Closing date will be December 31st, 2010.
The contest will be judged by staff of the Champlain College Publishing Initiative, whose decision will be final.
The winning photo will be awarded a prize of $100. Second place $75. Third place $50. The best 16 photos will be included in the second edition of Thirty Percent Chance of Enlightenment. The photographers will retain all rights to their photographs.

First, this word from my publicist:

Often hilarious, ultimately profound, Thirty Percent Chance of Enlightenment begins when Tim Brookes receives a phone call from his editor at National Geographic asking if he’d like to write an article on weather forecasting—an assignment that doesn’t go as forecast.
He embarks on an adventure that starts in a hurricane on an icy mountaintop in New Hampshire and takes him to India to watch the monsoon come ashore and write about the elaborate, almost mystical art of monsoon forecasting. When the rain begins, however, a series of misunderstandings finds him banned from every single office of the India Meteorological Department.
Before long, his journey turns into a cross-country road trip in search of the true meaning of the monsoon—a trip that takes him through the spice villages high in the Western Ghats, to a Hindu wedding at which all the main participants end up drenched, and leaves him ankle-deep in a holy river where the temple elephants bathe. He discovers the history of the umbrella, the bizarre ritual of rain-inducing donkey weddings, and for his erratic and dusty labors, he ends up being rewarded with a glimpse into the spiritual nature of water.

Thanks, Alisha. In case you haven’t come across my writing before, my cult-favorite hitchhiking book A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow was selected as one of the Top Travel Books of 2000 by the New York Times and Booklist. You can get the complete picture from my multi-dimensional website.

Click here to order Thirty Percent Chance of Enlightenment from Amazon.com. Or alternatively (and this would be my preference) email me (timbrookes@burlingtontelecom.net) and order a book directly from me, signed and inscribed in my very own handwriting.

Or, if you’re as wary about spending money as I am, click here to download Part I of Thirty Percent FREE and check it out for yourself.