Tuesday, June 24, 2008

They Have Arrived!

A funny thing happened on the way back from London . . .

My publishers sent me six free copies of my book, to me care of the friends I was staying with in the UK. I can have more copies at a discount, but these six were already designated in my head: one for my parents, one for my brother and his family, one for each of my grandmothers, one for the Milk Guy and one for me.

But then there was a little mailing mix-up and so my parents actually got a couple of free copies, too (by the grace of the publishers), so I could give their copy to my London hosts. But then one of my friends asked if she could buy one off of me. And then another friend, to whom I was showing a copy, thought I was giving it to her. And then I needed another gift for someone else . . .

By the time I got on the plane to return to the US, the only copy I had was the one for the Milk Guy. Which I gave to him when he picked me up from the airport, and then that was it. It didn't matter how much church and Starbucks friends clamoured--I could not show them my book, because I didn't have it. But it was okay, because even though my book isn't quite out in the States, I had ordered some at my discount, and they would surely be arriving soon.

"Soon" would be the wrong word to describe how they actually arrived. But they did arrive interestingly. This evening when I returned home from an afternoon out, I noticed two rather conspicuous mailbags on the front step. There was one box of books in each bag, and each bag was tied up with all sorts of tags and markings. Inside the boxes was a whole lot of shredded paper and . . . my books!

7 comments:

Barry Pike said...

Please let us know when we can buy them domestically. :)

Annelise said...

yea!

Anonymous said...

How exciting!
Have you thought about seeing if Billy can get you connected with the right people to do a book signing at Morningstar?
I'm looking foreward to getting a copy for myself of your book... I wonder what that's like, knowing that friends and family will soon be reading your work?

Lara said...

I love that your book arrival didn't happen in some ordinary fashion. And how exciting that your baby is here!

Anonymous said...

Being one of your avid blog readers, I would like the opportunity to purchase one of these books and review it on my blog! Woohoo!

David Madeira said...

woohoo! that´s such an exciting photograph.

Jennwith2ns said...

Thanks, everybody!!

Barry--here's a little secret: they should be out here on 9 July, but if you order them from Christian Book Distributors (CBD), they actually already have them in stock and you can get them now.

Jeff--oh trust me. Billy and I have already begun negotiations. As for what it's like knowing friends and family will read it? For the most part it's just kind of cool. But I feel a little nervous about the reactions of some, to some of my ideas. Also, as you will see when you read it through to the end, there is a certain irony to its coming out right now, as relates to current events in my personal life . . .

(Now you ALL want to read it, if you didn't before, huh? ;)

AMM--thanks for putting it that way. It does kind of feel like that. Well, maybe not physically . . .

Marty--I would be honoured.

Dave--Thanks! ;)