Still have a ways to go  with the aesthetics, but getting much closer with a new look for 2010. A new beginning. More to come in the next few days. Honest!

Going to update the look and feel of the site in bits and pieces over the next few days, so please patient if something breaks that always worked before. Trust me, I’m on it.

This week Kerry reviews the final PDF before the first edition of The Last Track heads to printer. Made the final tweaks and insertions a day before the publisher emailed the files her way. By the 29th whatever corrections Kerry makes will be implemented in the source files. That still leaves some work from the graphic artist to the front and rear cover–something about templates for formatting images for rendering. But in essence, the book will be “done”. And then the selling/marketing starts. Oh, and making some headway on the sequel.

More posts will follow this week, and I resolve to be much more consistent about updates in 2010.

As Kirkus folded while Ellen met with them in NYC ( among other services ), I had a funny thought about timing. What if The Last Track would up being among the last batch of reviews Kirkus released? That would be kind of cool, actually.

Many publishers harbored conflicted feelings about Kirkus. Or so I’ve read. In fact, a few ceased submitting projects to Kirkus in recent years, since they were beholden to neither the reach of the publisher nor the author’s legacy. But oftentimes when I loved a title, odds were good Kirkus had some nice things to say about the book, too. Oddly, I have trouble recalling a bad Kirkus review. Then again, selling the Last Track sharpened some pretty intense filtering mechanism in my fragile little mind.

Despite the years of querying, very few replies have survived the shredder. Perhaps five or six personal notes and emails are what remain from that entire period. Maybe I could have kept them, but one form letter is pretty much the same as the next.

The book club meeting got rescheduled due to inclement weather. However, the Revolution Reading Club were kind enough to provide a very nice review in the meantime which will appear with the book.

Meeting with a book club who read The Last Track this weekend. Thanks to the Revolution Reading Club for an opportunity to dialog with the only people who matter: readers.

Ellen ( PR ) is meeting with some of the review services this week about this and other projects, so hopefully Santa brings some good tidings in the way of a review coverage. Or a nod. And some gin. Definitely gotta bring some gin.