There is no experience quite like tearing open a mail package and finding the first printed copy of your new hardcover book. Yes, The Orphanmaster arrived at the cabin this morning, looking much like the beautiful galley but oh so different at the same time. There’s the heft, for one thing. The raised white type. (A scary black shadow encroaches from the left, taking a little bite out of the O.) The clarity of the cover image. And just the fact that this is my book, after hard and long work finally in print and ready to descend upon the world. A book gestates privately — no one can really understand the world you’ve created (even if you blather on about it continually) — but suddenly that world is available to everyone. Welcome.
Jean Zimmerman 