Well... there's not too much actual work right now, as we wait for the release of in the path of falling objects. We're supposed to begin working through the editing of The Marbury Lens by the end of the month, and I think it's going to be a quick process that will keep me busy through all the things I have coming up from September to November (including that much-anticipated trip to London and Dublin -- Happy Birthday, Mr. Guinness -- next month).Later on today, there will be some updated material on the website , so you may want to check that out. And I'll find out my exact schedule for The Southern Festival of Books in a couple of weeks, so that will be updated as well.
Great news of the week: Aside from the Kirkus review, the news that Ghost Medicine will be coming out in paperback in 2010. Attention booksellers and librarians: Keep clearing shelf space, I have lots more stuff coming.
Yesterday, though, I got a terrific email from a librarian in Wisconsin. I met her in Chicago at ALA, but we had run (very quickly) out of Advance Copies of in the path of falling objects, and she wanted one. So I took her address and gave it over to the very ultra-terrific Ksenia Winnicki at Feiwel and Friends, and Ksenia made sure a copy was sent to her.
So, these are the best possible prizes a writer can get: awesome emails from readers. Here's a part of what my librarian friend said:
I picked up the book and read the back cover that it was intended for an audience of age 13+. I thought to myself... well this will be a big snooze of a young adult novel... Let me just say that after I began to read the world stopped around me. I began to read it on Thursday afternoon, picked it back up on Friday and finished it around three in the afternoon. What a read. What a thriller. What a wonderful book to share with the students this fall. I had already ordered you first book after speaking with you. Now I will order several copies of In the Path. I know some boys who are just really going to love it. Thank you for sharing your work. Thank you for writing books that young people will really relate to. Good luck with the sales...I can hardly wait until my copy of Ghost Medicine arrives!
I also wanted to say that I got a letter from a fan in Florida who asked if I'd be willing to send him an autographed bookplate for his copy of Ghost Medicine. Well, it took me a while to track down the right "stuff," but, dude, I sent you a few things you might like.
My friend Kelly Milner Halls has a great perspective on such requests. She says that when readers go out of their way to contact you for something like that, it's even better than signing a giveaway book at an expo, because it shows they really have a personal investment in your book.
Seventeen days.
