I Hope They All Had A Good Time In Sofia

I was all set on Monday (March 3) to celebrate the U.K. publication date of The Dead And The Gone, only my copies hadn't arrived and I refused to believe the book actually existed until I could see it for myself.

I had my blog entry all planned, a little d&g, a little Day of the Liberation of Bulgaria (coincidentally celebrated on March3). Most likely it would have been my greatest blog entry ever, and would certainly have increased my slowly gained readership by a readership or two.

But in spite of my staring wistfully out the window the entire day, the books didn't arrive. Tuesday, I e-mailed my very nice British publisher and without mentioning certain late eighteenth century unpleasantries even once, let her know of my heartbreak. I even used the word wistfully, which is more than Thomas Jefferson ever did.

Wednesday, when I was doing my volunteer work, someone from my very nice British publisher's office called to say they'd sent the books to my agent. Because my life is filled with wistful sadness, I didn't pick my messages up while I was volunteering, so I didn't get to brag to Marci and Carol that I'd gotten an actual phone call from a completely different country. They would have been real impressed too (drat and curse).

Once I heard the message, I e-mailed my agent and asked about the books (my books!). Sure enough, the books had been mailed there. But they swore they'd send them to me.

My agent was as good as her word, sort of. Today, I got a package of seven copies of The Dead And The Gone, UK Style. The thing is, my contract says I should get 10 copies, which means even if my agent took her traditional commission, I should have gotten 8 1/2 copies. But seven copies is better than none, especially when the book looks so good.

At the end of the book, there's this page that says: If you have enjoyed The Dead And The Gone you must read Life as we Knew it the first thrilling novel in Susan Pfeffer's terrifying sequence about the catastrophic disaster that plunges the whole world into chaos. Then there's a section from LAWKI, the part where the family comes down with the flu.

As soon as I got my copies, I sent an e-mail to my nice British publisher to say Thank You! and I Love It! And guess what? My nice British publisher called me! We talked about how beautiful The Dead And The Gone looks, and the difference between British and American book designs (she favors British). We made social chit chat. And then she asked what I was currently working on. So I told her.

"Five years later," she said. "I assume things have gotten better in those five years."

"Well no," I said. "Actually things are a lot worse."

"But surely they've figured out energy sources," she said.

"Coal," I said (very proud of myself). "And wind power."

My very nice British publisher clearly liked the wind power. I could tell even though she was calling me from an entire ocean away. "So what's the world like?" she asked.

"Well," I say. "The federal government wasn't very strong anyway, so it's pretty much collapsed and now there are federal cities and there are these towns and they're kind of like city states. And society has gotten stratified, with social status based on what you can do for society, so there are upper classes called tiers and everyone else is a drog."

"Ah," said my very nice British publisher. "So we're back to twelfth century feudal Europe."

"Exactly!" I said. And then I explained how Caitlin escaped from an arranged marriage and joined the performing troupe thinking she'd get to perform because she was the understudy and even though she did perform, mostly she was the troupe's slave and the book was about how she suffered but ultimately triumphed.

And my very nice British publisher never once hung up on me! Well, she did eventually, but that was after we said goodbye and wished each other a nice weekend and that sort of thing.

But before she hung up on me eventually, she said the book sounded more like science fiction than LAWKI/d&g. She asked when would the manuscript make its way to my agent, and I muttered something about revisions and Harcourt. Oh, and she asked if it had a title, and I said how I had this poll on my blog with the choices After The Time Before and Since The Time Before and Neither Of The Above and Neither was winning. I think she liked After The Time Before though.

Anyway it was extremely exciting for me to talk about P3B as though it were a real B. It isn't like I get to talk about drogs that often.

So The Dead And The Gone actually now exists and if there's anybody from Coventry reading this, scurry on over to your local bookstore and buy a copy. Now that I think about it, buy two and send me a half. You can keep The Dead And just long as I get The Gone. I have a particular fondness for that page where it says You Must Read Life as we Knew it. It makes me feel so droglike!