Rodney Robbins and the Rainy-day Pond

So that's my official title now. I just got word on that this afternoon. (I told my editor that it would be referred to as Hamilton's Pond in my memoirs.) I now enter what my editor loves to call the "black hole" of publishing. That means that I hear virtually nothing about what's happening with my book while they negotiate with an illustrator, set up pages, design the cover, and so on. Perhaps, if I'm very, very good, I will get a sneak peek at something now and then.

I'm really crossing my fingers about the illustrator. I have a friend who is an excellent illustrator, and her name has been thrown into the ring as a possibility for my book. That would be so great on so many levels. I better not hope too much for that lest I be horrifically disappointed if she doesn't get the job. There's a Shakespeare line that goes something like "Do not? Dare not? Do you know and dare not?" That line comes to my mind every time I have contact with my editor now.