This came in today. It’s the final publication hardcover of Elegy Beach.
It’s funny, I’ve been Mister Matter-of-Fact ever since my agent sold the book almost exactly a year ago. I’ve been happy, grateful, anxious, appreciative, responsible, cooperative, parental, all kinds of emotions. Not to mention busy as hell.
What I haven’t been is hugely excited. I’ve written elsewhere (mainly in the Elegy Beach Afterword) that I had to compartmentalize myself in order to write this book at all. To get out of the way and let Writer Steve do it, but only let him to that, and leave the rest of my life alone. I think that necessary distancing may be why I haven’t gone all schoolgirly on everyone about the novel’s imminent publication.
Then the book showed up today. And I got excited as hell. I mean I was giddy all day long. Stoopid giddy. Making silly noises and laughing at my own jokes kind of giddy. Playing with a new puppydog kind of giddy. Because the book is gorgeous.* And because no amount of immersion or envisioning or daily attending to the tiny details that go into putting something like this together, prepared me for the unexpected, unalloyed joy I felt on holding the thing in my hands. I didn’t feel that way when I got copies of my first novel. I dunno why not. But this. This.
And now I’m horribly excited. It’s been a long time coming, folks.
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*Bless jacket designer Judith Lagerman, the art director at Penguin, and everyone who had anything to do with the production end of this book.
Got my finished copy yesterday as well (have had the ARC for some time). It looks great, and yeah, kudos to everyone involved in its production. Including you.
Life is so odd… I’m a regular listener of one of your podcasts, and somehow hearing the advertisement made something click today. “Hey, that sounds kind of familiar… could it be?”
Indeed. I read Ariel when it was first published, when I was an impressionable youngster. To think that I’d re-find you after so many years, through completely different channels, just when you’re publishing the sequel! 🙂 I’m looking forward to reading it. And I can’t say that of many books, these days.
Thanks so much — I hope you enjoy ELEGY BEACH! I’m antsy as hell waiting for it to be released.
I’ve deliberately kept my DJ and writer identities separate for years, and really only started cross-pollinating them when it began to take more effort to keep them separate than together. It’s happened a couple of times that a listener realizes he or she has read me, and I think that’s the kewlest. (Though it hasn’t happened that a reader realizes he or she has listened to me. Hmm.)