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Boots!

Where would we be without boos?

Where would we be without good?

No, Tender.

It's a rhetorical question, sir, but where would we be without books?

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and this is Bookworm.

I'm very, very happy today because one of my favorite authors is with us. She is virtually a regular on the show.

If five times in 32 years can be called a regular, it is Ricky DuCourney. Her new book is called

Traffic. It is a very special, very short book.

It's a book that is a novel in warp time.

It takes place in outer space after the end of planet Earth,

and it is a kind of miracle of prose.

I mean, for those of you who do not know, as I did not know, what warp drive is,

Ricky DuCourney makes things happen so quickly in this book that we're hurtling through outer space in the aftermath of the

end of the known world. The two major characters are picking up souvenirs here and there. Among

the souvenirs, Al Pacino's plumbing.

Al Pacino, of all things, makes an appearance toward the end of the book because he is the hero of the robot, the book's robot, Mick.

I had the honor to introduce my collaborator, Sean Sullivan, to the work of Ricky Ducorne,

and he'll be joining us in this conversation. I hope you'll be hearing his voice on

Bookworm regularly now, but this is the very first time. Now, I'm going to throw the ball out to my colleague,

Sean Sullivan, and give him the chance to ask the first question of our guest, the dear and

...