Some of those phone calls last week seem to be working for us, now. On Monday we had a very enjoyable conversation that - if all goes as it looks like it is going to - will have a significant impact on the number of books we currently have in our database in short order. It's too early to talk about it in detail - partly because nothing is finalized yet, and partly because I try not to count anything until everything is "for sure".
Still, it was a significant enough conversation and event that we celebrated by taking close ones to dinner - at least I did. And not just a dollar ice cream from McDonald's, but a full blown Italian meal at the Olive Garden and a bottle of wine. While it's always good to be prudent and cautious about making major decisions when deals are still in the works, it's also my philosophy to celebrate when and where you can. So, dinner now, and probably dinner again after everything is a done deal and we're moving forward.
Hopefully I'll be able to share more soon.
Also, and this is on a bit of a personal note, but People in the Dark by Aaron Stanton, one of the books in our current database, has been read for the very first time last week. People in the Dark is my novel that I've been working on on-and-off for a while. It's completed, but not edited. Up until now, I've never let people read any of the unedited portions, only the first few chapters.
So, I finally broke down and let one other person read it, and her reviews were positive. Biased in my favor, almost certainly, but positive. Here's what I find the most reassuring about this - I've watched her read many books, and even good books sometimes get put down when life gets hectic. Then they only sometimes get picked back up again. So here's the reassuring part: She read it as if she was curious about what happened next.
I think she was actually reading it because she wanted to know where it was going, not because she was obligated to. It got put down at times when the right TV show came on, yes, but then it was picked up again afterwards - she wasn't rushing through it as if trying to get to the end.
There was no sigh of relief after the last word. It was consumed as if... well, as if it were a book.
What an excellent complement.
I should finish editing it sometime.
Aaron
P.S. That also makes it the first book to ever be read cover to cover on my Kindle.
