Getting a lot of play right now is a book whose title is similar to The Orphanmaster. The two books are entirely dissimiliar, and comparing them is a case of apples and oranges. I wish that author well.
For now, the people and places of my book, The Orphanmaster, remain evanescent, chimerical, free-floating in the air, waiting to touch down.
New Amsterdam Traders
This print depicts New Amsterdam citizens of the 17th century. My characters Blandine and Drummond appear similarly in my mind’s eye (perhaps a little bit sexier). Note the rolled up beaver pelt on the ground between them, looking for the all the world like an enormous caterpillar.
Where do characters exist before they hit the page? Before the page is bound into a book? Before that book hits the stores? Before those characters touch (’tis is a consummation devoutly to be wished) people’s hearts?
Blandine and Drummond, Anthony and Kitane and Jan wait expectantly in the wings. The publication date may not be until June, but they are as real to me as if they lived and breathed.
Jean Zimmerman 
I had a house once that had blown from the waterfront on the Long Island Sound into the nearby woods during the big hurricane of 1938. I owned it (MANY) years after the hurricane, and only found out from old-timers that it had once been on the beach. Wish I could have moved it back!
I cannot wait to read this!! I love the print.