Just a short post today to mention that I received my ARCs of The Third Sign on Friday (and without a whole lot of fanfare, sitting right next to the shipment of our dog’s food, of all things…who says the author’s life isn’t glamorous?), and it was a lot more fun opening the box than I thought it would be. My publisher itself will be sending out a goodly number of ARCs to Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus and a number of others (in fact has already done so, I think), but these are extra copies which I will be able to distribute to other smaller venues, media and so on. Yes, these say Uncorrected Proof/Not For Sale on them, yes, they’re not the final hardcover version I’ll be getting in June, yes, they don’t have the full color back cover which the finished product will. But that said, it is pretty cool to hold my first novel in my hands, and to know that this product of years of work, a world which has to now only existed in my own head, will soon be published by a reputable press and read by (if all goes well) lots of people I’ve never met, seen, or heard of. Getting the shipment of my academic book in 2007 also felt good, but the nature of academic work is such that it’s unlikely to have as wide an audience. Writers want to communicate, and seeing this physical version of The Third Sign made that looming prospect just a little more real. Scary, but exhilarating at the same time. T minus 109 days…and counting.