Spring

The past week has been insanely hectic and the coming weekend will be no less so. Both the kids are here and they brought friends. Hungry friends. And then asked whether they could invite more friends for Easter dinner. I said, "Sure, no problem." Because that is always the answer to that question.

So I don't really have anything to say, but thought I'd put up a couple pictures of flowering things. These two are the view from my front door:

I'm sure my neighbors won't mind that I'm putting a picture of their house on the Internet. It's at least prettier than the one on Google. The entire neighborhood looks like this, only more so. It's like driving through a fairytale, this time of year. 

And this is one I took the other night, just before the full moon, standing on the back deck looking up through the still mostly bare maple branches, waiting for The Wonder Dog to do whatever it is he does out there in the dark hour after midnight:

It's not every day you hear news like this . . .

I have exciting news! So, you know I finished my book last wee-- Oh, I hadn’t mentioned that? Must have slipped my mind. Yeah, the final 100 or so pages were a breeze. Don't know why people say writing fiction is difficult. Anyway, I decided to hell with this "query letter" nonsense and sent the entire ms to my Dream Agent. Well, apparently it was a very slow week (or it might have been that lovely eye-catching pink paper I printed it on) because she read it immediately. She called the next day to tell me how much she LOVED it and begged me to let her represent me. For half her usual percentage.

Of course, I agreed.

And before the ink was even dry on that contract, she was shopping the ms around to all the biggest NY publishing houses. She emailed on Monday to tell me they were engaged in a bidding war! I guess they liked it too. So anyway, we just finalized the deal last night. A seven figure contract (I'm not talking about The Seven Dwarfs here) and they want to print it in hardcover. Plus a HUGE budget for promotion. And, get this-- they want to send me on a book signing tour. Twenty-five cities in ten days. Good grief! They've stepped up production and completely rearranged their publishing schedule so the book will be out sometime early this summer.

I'm SO excited! I can't wait.

Oh, and I just got a call from Jon Stewart himself! He read an advance copy (I told you they'd really stepped up production, didn't I?) and he wants to interview me on his show next Monday. Of course, I had to tell him no, that won't work. I can't miss an episode of 24. So he's going to bump someone else and we'll do it Wednesday instead.

Oh. My. God. I've got to find something to wear. I've lost so much weight lately, nothing fits.