I have a psychic friend named Ruby. Like, a professional psychic; Ruby is really good, scary good. She's rarely wrong. She told me the book was going to be a "blockbuster." I am trying to believe she's right on this one, too, though I don't need a blockbuster; all I need is a "good seller."

I asked her what her guide had to say about getting the word out. She said, "You're looking at this as if you're facing this huge mountain."

Which is true. As an independent, the deck is stacked against me. Reviewers won't read my work no matter how good it is because it's self-published. Bookstores won't carry me because I can't buy the shelf space and I can't afford to accept returns. I have a tiny ad budget compared to the majors.

"You are looking at this the wrong way," said Ruby. "You're looking at this as if you're facing a mountain and you've got to climb over it. Don't climb over it. Go around it."

Lovers and Beloveds is now available for pre-order direct and autographed from me. The cover price is $14.95, not bad for 144,000 words of entertainment. If you tried to reserve your copy and couldn't, try now; I didn't put a weight in for the book, and the store barfed when people tried to order.

UPDATE Spoilerville is down till I figure out how not to spoil people accidentally.

There is now a section on the site called "Spoilerville." This is where discussion of the book(s ) for those who read the whole thing at once will go. Currently it contains one subforum: "Lovers and Beloveds."

DO NOT ENTER THAT FORUM UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE SPOILED. srsly.

Because that forum exists, I ask you now to please keep spoilers out of episode discussions on the free pages. Don't even spoiler tag them. Please. Just keep 'em to Spoilerville.

Thank you and I love you all madly today.

Mark the time: 9:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time, Monday, August 30th, 2010.

I'm done. I've finished book one.

I need to compile the acknowledgment list and write a quick appendix. Then out it goes to the pre-salers. I'm going to wait a couple of days in case someone finds something egregious, and to make sure everyone's got their acknowledgments right, then off to the typographer.

[This was supposed to have been posted last night. The husband has set the router to turn my internet access off at 10 pm--for good reason.]

...I am putting together the acknowledgments. If you haven't told me what name you want in them, and you haven't told me what name you want the book signed to, PM me or email me. I emailed a bunch of you to ask; please check your spam filters, since gmail especially hates me.

Yes, close. I have incorporated Netta's final (astonishingly few) edits, and am getting comments from Karen starting tomorrow. I will have the raw manuscript out to presalers no later than 9/15.

I am terrified.