Monday, May 3, 2010

New arrivals!

Not pets, not babies -- books! The galley proofs for Stuff of Legends arrived today, all emblazoned with big red notices: Not for Sale, Uncorrected Proofs for Limited Distribution. Six have come to me, and one is being sent out separately to one of the arts reviewers at the local paper. I'm trying to decide where the rest should go, though one of them is going into my box of treasures.

Everything looks very much as it appeared on the earlier version of the cover and in the .pdf proofs I was poring over last week -- with two exceptions. On the back of the cover, there's a new tag line that (again) I wish I could claim I'd thought of myself:

"Not your average old legend."

That's Jordan the Red right there in a nutshell (or close to it; when Jordan was actually trapped in a nutshell, in the "Rotwood Saga", he was much younger. Also much angrier. A nutshell is not a pleasant place to be, and causes famously bad dreams. But I digress).

On the front of the cover, there's a quote from Publishers Weekly. "A winning fantasy...satirical, rollicking adventure."

Now, this is a quote from when the novel was reviewed for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, last year; I'd like to think the novel has improved, through all the editing and attention it's received since then. But once again, it brings back to me how important and career-shaping that contest was for me -- my novel, whatever else may happen with it, has a Publishers Weekly review quote attached to it.

Exciting times. And now, back to work!

(Countdown: 4. Getting curious yet?)