My author's copies of the new China Bayles hardcover, Bleeding Hearts, and the paperback edition of Dead Man's Bones arrived today. Pardon me while I sit on the floor and cradle them in my arms, crooning to them like babies. Birthing a book always feels like a long, drawn-out process, especially since I've already conceived and delivered Spanish Dagger, the next book in the series. But even though I've been living with the ideas and the e-files and the printed manuscript of Hearts for nearly two years (I finished it in December of 2004, delivered it in March 2005, and have seen it again in various stages of production) a book never seems real to me until I'm actually holding it in my hands. So, welcome to the wide, wild world, Hearts. May you be read and enjoyed by many--and get a ton of good reviews.
And there's another bit of good news. We've just agreed to the contract for the next two China Bayles mysteries! #16 (April 2008) will be titled Nightshade, #17 (April, 2009) will be called Wormwood. I don't know about you, but the longevity of this series astonishes and delights me. For a writer, there's no greater privilege than to be able to look ahead to good work, contracted and on the calendar.
In the same delivery that brought Hearts and Bones (what would we do out here in the country without UPS and FedEx?), came the copy-edited manuscript of The Book of Days. It is surprisingly clean--that is, not as full of errors as I feared!--and I'm hoping to get through it by Monday. Fun to read. Did I really write/compile all this great herbal stuff? I guess I did, because it's all right here on the pages, in front of me. The book is due to be published in early October, which means I'll be reading the galley pages sometime in July.
In the meantime, we're enjoying some beautiful spring weather. I pruned the roses around Valentine's Day, and now, as a floral reward, comes the first bloom: a lovely ivory-white blossom on the Ducher rose, which originated in China and was brought to the West about 1870.
Reading Note, from Mary Oliver, "Sand Dabs, Seven", in Long Life:
The sun has a working schedule, and the snow, and the birds, and every green leaf. Perhaps you should have one too?