ta DA!
Well, okay, technically it isn't "out" yet, but in today's mail I received the very first copy of THE WILLOUGHBYS and even though it is I think my 34th...maybe 35th?...book, it is still a thrill to see the finished product.. Not entirely unlike waiting nine months to have a baby and then seeing it for the first time. Fingers, toes, all intact. Nose still a work in progress but with possiblities. You hope people will share your affection for it.
Okay, the analogy breaks down a little. But there is some of the same whew, I did it, and here it is, world
feeling.
Thank you, Houghton Mifflin editors and designers!
Speaking of giving birth, my oldest daughter, whose birthday was two days ago, the painter/weaver/woodworker daughter who lives in San Francisco, has just arrived in Boston for the weekend, with her friend Steve and their dog Penny Lane. Every year I boringly once again tell her about the day she was born, when her father drove me to the hospital in New London, Connecticut, crossing a toll bridge from Groton, where we lived; and I said in a spritely fashion to the toll collector: "I'm having a baby today!" The toll booth guy looked at me with a "Huh?" look. Clearly it was not as exciting an event for him as it was for me.
Way cool! Despite the fact that I've been feeling smug and superior for acquiring a Willoughbys ARC of my very own months ago, the finished product always seems to trump the preview. Why is that? ;)
Posted by: Sarah Miller | February 16, 2008 at 06:09 AM
Yes, it's true. But I'm not sure why it is. And to create yet one other in-apt analogy, last month, with my granddaughter, i watched one of the worst movies of all time, and by Spielberg, no less: "AI: Artificial Intelligence", in which, in a futuristic society, a couple who has lost their only child get a robot child who looks, acts, speaks, etc. like a real boy. And he is definitely an ARC, not a real book.
(For those wondering, ARC means Advanced Reading Copy)
Posted by: Lois Lowry | February 16, 2008 at 06:21 AM
"And he is definitely an ARC, not a real book."
I love it! Perhaps the phenomenon ought to be christened The Pinocchio Effect?
Posted by: Sarah Miller | February 17, 2008 at 05:18 AM