Another mystery

Okay, where are they?

Madeline Wajda, at Willow Pond Farm just emailed me to say that her copies of The Book of Days arrived and they're beautiful. Amazon and Barnes and Noble started shipping a couple of days ago, and the Georgetown bookstore just called to tell me that they have a big stack for me to sign.

So where are the books Peggy ordered? The publisher says they've been shipped (Friday) AND delivered (yesterday), but I promise you, they are not here. Were they rustled by book rustlers? (Anything is possible out here in the wilderness of the Hill Country.) Were they left (all 27 cartons of them) on the doorstep of a bewildered neighbor? (This has happened before.) Is the delivery person lost, wandering lorn and forlorn through the backroads of Burnet County? Where ARE the the books?

This reminds me of the time, ten years or so ago, when I ordered 32 cartons of books (I think it was Rosemary Remembered) and they were delivered in a cattle truck. No foolin'. There was still hay in the truck bed, and other indisputable evidence that it had recently been occupied by cows. The driver was a cowboy with boots and hat (although he wasn't wearing spurs). Bill and I still laugh about the time our books came via cowboy.

We hope they'll come today, so I can start signing/packing/shipping tonight. In the meantime, you can click on over to China's blog, where she has posted an interesting bit of news about another mystery connected to this book. (File this under Nothing Goes As Planned.)

I'm working on Nightshade, which is going great guns. I'm nearly half-way through the book, although I'm running into a few plot snarls between this book and the previous installment, Spanish Dagger. Luckily, Dagger is still at the copy-edit stage, so there's plenty of time for me to do the rewrites on that book that are necessitated by the what's happening in this book. These book-bridging plots can be tricky.

Cross your fingers that the books will turn up today!

Reading note (file this under Lessons Learned the Hard Way): There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.--W. Somerset Maugham

Comments

[Loydene Keith]

You must be the same Susan Wittig I knew at Southwest Texas State. I picked up one of your books when I was visiting in Texas a couple of years ago and was pretty sure...but the pictures are surely you. I can't wait to explore some more of your writing. Loydene

[Marti Johnson]

My copies arrived today in Sacramento, CA, but only my two copies, no sign of yours. As I mentioned in my previous note a few minute ago, I like the book so much, I've just ordered two more copies as Christmas gifts for my daughters!