bollywood beauty b&w

today i went along to penguin do the general meet-and-greet with their sales staff. it was quite surreal, walking into a meeting room and having everyone ask me questions about the book and myself, but it was fun. then we had sandwiches and chatted a bit more. then when i went to leave, the most bizarre thing happened. two of the sales reps came up to me with pens and the bound proof copies of my novel and asked me if i would sign them. seriously. i thought they were taking the piss, but realised very soon that they weren't, so i tried to think of something witty to write but couldn't. so what did i do? i signed my name on the first page underneath where my name was already printed in the book. then i realised that i hadn't even asked the first guy what his name was, so i got the book back off him, wrote his name and something i thought of just then that referred to a conversation we had had earlier. he laughed his head off when he read it, so i think i made up for the total goofiness i displayed to start off with. i so have to get a signing plan in place. also i found it interesting that both requests came from boys. for a novel with chick-lit-ish leanings, that aint a bad first reaction at all.

i have an uncorrected proof copy of the book sitting next to me now, which basically means it's the first proof pages bound like a book, with a b&w cover and a blurb on the back. i don't know who wrote the blurb, but it's quite good. whoever wrote it obviously read and liked the book, because they've caught the feel of it quite well. though i'm not too sure about the line that goes 'the chai hits the fan'. but then again, maybe i'm just bitter that i didn't come up with it first.

so, next step in the process will be the final one, words-wise. i will be getting the second proofs next week, and that's the last chance i get to make any changes. scary but good at the same time - as much as i love it, i would like to be able to let this one go now, because i can feel my brain gearing up to get back into writing new stuff again. i haven't written anything new in such a long time - no comedy, no nothing. i'm looking forward to getting back into it all again...

oh yeah - for those of you that are in easy reach of melbourne, keep the evening of monday august 1 free. launch party, dahlinks!