a banner day

The day here in England is exactly what one would expect: gray, drizzly, quiet. But John and I are very bubbly because two copies of the paperback advanced reader copies (or ARC's) arrived today. That's right! A first look at John's book! I, in my emotional pregnant state, immediately started crying. Perhaps I would have anyway because it's been so many years of work, and it's so wonderful to see it becoming real, but it was a very exciting moment. There are hardback ARC's coming out as well, which should be beautiful, but those will be bound with the 600 sheets of vellum that John painstakingly signed on Sunday and just shipped back, so we won't see those for a while.

Of course these ARC's also arrived with the final edits on the galleys (which is the typeset copy of the book- I'm so impressed with myself for picking up all this publishing lingo!), so John still has work ahead of him. This will be his third and final pass, and then the retail hardback books will be put together. The launch date? April 5th. Yep, if you don't recognize that date, it's my Birthday. I was super excited about attending a fancy New York party for my Birthday this year, but now it appears that my husband will attend without me while I am home with a three-week old! So instead I keep reminding John that really important things come into this world for him on that day! He groans in response.

I usually say that extra quietly, though, because I don't want this baby to get any crazy ideas about staying in the womb an extra three weeks....