The ARCs Are (Gonna Be) In The Mail!

I started Tuesday morning off with a well placed whine/kvetch email, and was told that the carton of ARCs for This World We Live In will be sent off today.

Today is not as good as last week or two weeks ago or October, but hey, it's better than next year.

Meantime, Scooter has decided to use the Whole Language approach for learning how to read. He's selected the book of interest to him, probably because it has lots of pictures of his distant relatives.

I'll let you know when he starts reading it or when the ARCs arrive, whichever comes first!

The Times They Are (Not) A-Changin'

I am pleased to report The Times of Trenton, New Jersey had an editorial about the Allentown High School "One School One Book" program, where they are reading Life As We Knew It.

I'm not, however, pleased to report that I've heard (from a genuine eyewitness) that there were no ARCs of This World We Live In available at NCTE last week. Apparently they didn't get printed in time.

I know the ARCs exist (at least in very small numbers) because I was sent a sixth one. A good thing too, since Joyce took ARC #5 home with her. My mother will get the newly arrived #6.

But the Bolivian hat is getting more and more crowded, and I'm getting more and more impatient. I do understand that this endless wait for the ARCs is more irritating to me than to you, but nonetheless I've put up a poll on the subject.

Feel free to editorialize!

Rumor Has It The ARCs Are In The Mail

My editor emailed me about something else and said they were.

At this point, I'll believe it when I see it.

Of course, what I should be seeing is the dust cloth in my hand. I haven't begun to clean the apartment, and Joyce and Lew will be here in less than 24 hours (some of which, Scooter permitting, I intend to sleep through).

If the ARCs show up tonight along with my UPS person, I'll scurry back here and make the official announcement. Were I you, I wouldn't hold my breath. Then again, you're probably not holding your breath waiting for me to start dusting, and I absolutely swear as soon as I publish this post, the cleaning will begin.

Or maybe in a couple of minutes. But it will begin. And end. Really it will.

But before I begin the cleaning, let me wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and tell you, in case you didn't know, that I am thankful for each and every one of you. There's no way I can express how grateful I am to you for the interest and the caring you've shared with me over the past few years.

ARChives

This will be the world's quickest ARC report since I'm running off to NYC in a minute to see my goddaughter who's there on vacation.

I used the Star-Ledger article as an opening to whine and kvetch about the lack of ARCs in my life.

The very nice Harcourt person who responded said she'd ask another very nice Harcourt person what was happening with them.

And that is the beginning, middle and end of the report.

In case I don't have anything more fascinating to tell you between today and Thursday, have a wonderful Thanksgiving. My friends Joyce and Lew are coming up and we're grabbing my mother and taking her out for a fancy restaurant Thanksgiving luncheon.

Food, family, friends and no aggravation. I hope your holiday is as wonderful as mine promises to be!

It's Time Consuming Being Semi-Famous

It's probably even more time consuming being rich and semi-famous, but that's not likely in my lifetime.

As you know, Google and I have an intimate relationship, but sometimes it forgets to tell me things. This morning, for reasons I will never fathom, I decided to check Google News for mentions of me, and by golly, there was one.

Fresh off the pages of the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger, an article about Allentown High School using Life As We Knew It for their One School One Book.

Ordinarily, such a discovery would be exciting, but not necessarily time consuming. Only I live just close enough to Newark that I could buy actual copies of the Star-Ledger, if I was willing to devote two to three hours to the search.

Of course I was willing. I ate breakfast, hopped in my car, and drove to the glorious Garden State. I found the Star-Ledgers in the fifth place I stopped at (let's hear it for ShopRite. Hip hip hooray!). I bought three, one for me, one for my mother, and one for Harcourt, just in case they'd like one.

I now know of five states that have schools that have used LAWKI for One School One Book, and yes, I can name them- New Jersey, Florida, Texas, California, and Massachusetts. It's a good thing not all of them have had newspaper articles about their schools. I'd hate to drive to California on a whim.

If you're in the mood, read all the nasty comments (and the one nice one) that follow the article. My favorite is Comment #10, that refers to Life As We Knew It as third rate. My guess is she never read LAWKI. If she did, she'd probably think it was fifth rate!

The Long And The Shorter Of It

Well, the ARCs definitely exist. I was sent a package with five of them (and a good thing I kept two). That's the front and the back up above. One of the ones I kept is my very own copy.

In fact, when they arrived Tuesday night (my UPS guy comes after 6 PM, which makes every day suspensefilled), I read it from beginning to end. Have I mentioned how fabulous the ending is? I would relay to you my emotional response, but I don't want to spoiler anything.

The other three copies went (in case you were curious) to my friends Janet (to whom The Dead And The Gone is dedicated) and Christy (who was the first person to hear the fabulous ending) and my cousin Ellen. Copy number five I'll give to my mother, who seems to be insistent on getting one.

I've been promised a lot more than five copies, and my guess is the package was sent to me because I've been whining and kvetching about these ARCs for more than a month now. At some point, I'll either get the box(es) with more ARCs, which I will then send to the people whose names get pulled out of the Bolivian hat, or I'll really whine and kvetch. I would do so now, but everybody I'd be whining/kvetching to is at NCTE right now, handing out ARCs of This World We Live In to anyone who is interested (which could be no one, for all I know). I may do some whining/kvetching on Monday, but with Thanksgiving rapidly approaching, no one may be around to ignore me. Or maybe the UPS guy will bring the box(es) this evening. I live in constant hope.

Two other pieces of sort of news. I bought a printer today that can actually scan. The last one couldn't, even though it claimed it could, and then it stopped feeding paper, and it really got upset when I pounded it with my fists. The new one is black and chic and at least it scans. I'll find out if it prints some other time.

And Amazon has changed the date on when TW will be published. No more April 1. Now it's March 31. I see this as good news/bad news. The good news is I won't have to listen to any more April Fool's Day jokes. The bad news is the counter on the right side of the blog, which took me a long time to set up, is now officially wrong.

Hmm...Maybe I should pound on it. Worse comes to worst, it would just ignore me!

The End Of The World Comes To Taiwan

I've been sitting around much of this evening, staring out the window, willing the UPS truck to arrive and bring me advance reading copies of This World We Live In (not that I know they're coming by UPS, but when I stared out the window watching the FedEx truck, it didn't bring me any) and reading What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell, because it's due back at the library on Monday, and it's just the kind of book to read when one is staring out the window, willing the UPS truck to arrive.

What a sentence. I feel like it should then go, "When suddenly a shot rang out."

Instead, I rang out to the computer to check emails and the suchlike, and found one from my agent's office, telling me we've sold the Taiwanese rights (Complex Chinese for those who understand such things, a group of people that does not include me) to Life As We Knew It, The Dead And The Gone, and the aforementioned This World We Live In (have I mentioned lately that my father was a lawyer) to Sharp Point Press.

Not only am I absolutely delighted, but I'm also convinced the ARCs for the Taiwanese version of TW will arrive sooner than the American ones.

All right. It's back to Malcolm Gladwell and window staring. If there's any movement on the ARC front, I'll certainly let you know!