Goblin Moon -- We have cover art!

[J-WO]

Well my blog, for one, is at you're disposal. That should bring GM to the attention of roughly six more people at least.

[Anne Lyle]

Very dandy, even if he isn't a highwayman! I love that the name for those 18th-century coats is "wrap-rascal"

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by J-WO

Well my blog, for one, is at you're disposal. That should bring GM to the attention of roughly six more people at least.

Oh dear, I read your blog, so that makes it roughly five.

But I'm sure you underestimate the traffic on your blog. In any case, thank you. Every little bit helps.

Originally Posted by Anne Lyle

Very dandy, even if he isn't a highwayman!

Thanks. Yes, I love the name "wrap-rascal," too. They had some wonderful names for clothes, hairstyles, hats, and especially colors in those days. My favorite is "Paris mud" though "Flea's blood" runs a close second.

[jeff.s.p]

Hello, Teresa.

I'm not much of a thread poster.. but been lurking for quite a while on the forum.

So sorry to hear of your daughters horrible experience, and this coupled with mortgage issues.
I'll keep you and your family in my prayers..



Love the book cover! btw.. It also reads exceptionally well as a thumbnail. If the main title were slightly larger and centered, it could be clearly readable at that small size.

.. just a thought.

Very nice!

Jeff

[Teresa Edgerton]

Thanks, jeff.

We did get the reverse mortgage, and while it will be a while yet before it buys me any significant amount of writing time, I'm looking forward to that when it comes.

I think the cover art is set in stone at this point. If, if, if, if the proof arrives within the next couple of weeks with no unpleasant surprises, GM should be available on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk before the end of November.

If everything works out.

[Teresa Edgerton]

And everything did not work out!

I wrote to Penguin for a copy of the reversion letter, which I had lost, so that I would have documentation for a Kindle version — I was just about to release the paperback, secure in the knowledge that the rights had been returned to me years ago -- and it turns out that they have no record in their system that the rights had reverted, and as far as they are concerned still own them!

(I know it's their system and not me, because they also said they had no record of returning the rights for the Green Lion books, and I have the letter for that.)

Which means I have to hold up on the paperback version, too, and it will be 1-2 months before I get the new reversion letter.

[Teresa Edgerton]

And in total desperation about the 1-2 month thing, when I've already waited since July, I made John take apart some old file cabinets in case something had fallen down behind the drawers. I was ready to take an axe to the bottom of one of them. I was ready to take the entire house apart, board by board.

And I found the reversion letter they sent to me back in 1995.

I have it, I have it, I have it!

Things can proceed. It may take a little while for the Kindle version, because unlike an original work they'll have used copies of the old paperback version in their system and it will probably take extra time for them to ask for the documentation and me to send it and all the rest of it instead of the usual few days. But the process can begin!

And I needn't hold back on the paperback version, although that will take time to go through the whole distribution thing before it's listed on amazon.com or amazon.co.uk but that's not going to be held up because nobody has a record of the reversion.

Because I do. And Penguin will, too, as soon as I can send it to them.

[J-WO]

Phew, close shave. Just goes to show the value in keeping all your old correspondence, I guess.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Oh, I knew I had kept it somewhere ... in a safe place. It's not the kind of thing you throw away. But the problem was finding where that safe place was, after all the rotating of people and rooms we've been going through over the years.

[The Judge]

Hoorah!

[Parson]

Praise the Lord! And a "good" filing system!

[Ursa major]

Excellent news regarding the reversion letter, Teresa.

(In my experience, the hardest things to find are those that have been "put in a safe place". If nothing else, this means that they're not in the place you would normally expect them to be, because you didn't think that was "safe" enough.)


Oh, and that is a good cover. (I can read the title off your avatar with no problem at all.)

[Teresa Edgerton]

Thanks, Ursa. We put a lot of work into the cover.

Actually, it was in the box I had earlier expected it to be, a photo box covered in paper with a Victorian flower motif. The problem is, I have many such boxes. All the rest were in my bedroom/office. One held rolled-up pairs of socks, one held hats knitted by my late mother, one held office supplies, etc. I had, of course, examined them all ... many times. "Yup, still socks. Yup, still hats." They never changed overnight, no matter how many times I checked.

I didn't know there was another box half-hidden by books on a lower shelf in the hall, put there when Eric died and Gwyneth moved home, so that we had to shift everything around (again).

When I found it, I lifted the lid, literally with trembling hands. Inside were letters from my agents, contracts, etc., dated 1994-1995. I kept telling myself, "Don't get excited, don't get excited. It might not be here. Don't get excited."

Except it was there.

I don't know why I suddenly noticed the box peeking out from the books, when I must have passed it thousands of times without seeing it. It was two feet from my bedroom door, all the time that I was conducting frantic searches through drawers and boxes filled with musty old manuscripts, notebooks, birthday cards, book covers, pictures drawn by my children when they were small, and so forth.

It was actually fortunate (no matter how traumatic) that I didn't find it earlier, because if I hadn't contacted my ex-publishers I would never have known that they didn't have a record of the reversion letter and still thought they owned the rights. That could have led to unpleasantness later, so it's good to clear it up now.

So maybe somebody's prayers worked.

.
.
.

[J-WO]

If I were a Russian animist/folklorist, I'd say your Domovoi made the box appear when it was needed.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Since things finally seem to be moving forward ... unless they aren't ... I've posted a sample chapter. If you haven't found it already, you can find it here:

GOBLIN MOON — FIRST CHAPTER