The Scene of the Crime: Wife Slashes Box of Books
All sorts of excitement around here yesterday among me, my wife, and the cats.
I got home from my weekly session as a volunteer speech-language pathologist to find that a shipment of fifty copies of my new novel had arrived unexpectedly. Not wanting to leave the boxes out in the pouring rain, the delivery man had, unannounced, carried them onto the side porch and put them next to the recycle bin. For an awful moment, I though my wonderful wife had evil intentions.
Shame on me. When, breathless, I told her what had arrived, she leaped into action, grabbing a knife and attacking one of the boxes. I reminded her that this was an adventure story about two boy's struggle to survive WWII while sailing around the Pacific in a canoe while mastering the secrets of the ancient navigators-- not a murder-mystery. But a moment later she had slashed open the carboard and was holding up a copy of Brothers of the Fire Star and ooohing and aaahing over the gorgeous cover.
And it does look pretty good, too. Damned good, in fact. Past experience had taught me that the first sight of one's long-awaited and just-published novel can be a devastating, heart-rending, teeth-knashing experience. When I saw the cover of my first published book I wanted to lay down and die. When I opened it up and saw how it had been printed, I wanted to crawl in a hole.
But the third time, we must believe, is a charm. This book presents well from first sight. The cover is filled with rich, dark reds and the tropical lagoon scene with its single, red-bright star shining on a sailing canoe draws you in so you want to reach out, pick up the book, and see what it's all about. Just right.
Once inside, the text looks great, too. The font is bigger and easier to read than my other books, the margins right justified, slick and perfect, and the star-palm tree glyph at the head of each chapter is striking.
So, I danced around the house for a while until Terry reminded me that we had no champagne. Around the corner from our house we are very fortunate to have a very classy store that sells high-end kitchen stuff, world class cheeses, jams, jellies, and other wonderfuls including bubbly from Eparnay, that most fortunate of towns in Champagne, France. A short time later a bottle of Dom Perignon was on ice.
Books in a Box and Champagne on Ice
I had two activities I was supposed to attend last night, but no, it was all too much; I stayed home. Terry and I sat out on the back porch under the awning watching the rain pour down while we drank the fine hooch, noshed on good cheese, and went through the book, stopping here and there to read aloud to each other. It was all quite wonderful and we understood that it was; we appreciated it, one of life's all-too-rare moments.
Handsome on the inside, too.
(Note: I invite you to read about the writing of this book by visiting http://www.brothersofthefirestar.blogspot.com/)
No comments:
Post a Comment