BOOK THAT BEAST!

In the movies, they say "Cut! Print!"

(Oh, wait, that was back in the days when they used to print images on actual film.)

Well, whatever they say nowadays, in the publishing world, there are  more arcane ways to mark the time it takes a book to trundle its way from final draft toward publication. And my book, Beast: A Love Story, just passed one of those milestones.

Last week, I got the second check from my publisher. According to the fine print, this is the portion of the advance to be paid "on acceptance of the finished manuscript." Which means Beast is officially finished! Yay!`

We are still on track for a Spring, 2017, publication date from mighty Candlewick Press. But my work is done. They employ professionals for the current copy-editing phase (a good thing, as anyone knows who's ever had to wade through the minefield of typos in one of my raw drafts).

And, of course, they employ professional artists for the cover design, and I can't wait to take a sneak peek at some of their ideas! Not that I'm likely to have a vote in the final design, but it'll be fun to see some of the concepts.

Until then, my Pinterest page for all things Beast-related is full of goodies.

Here's one I just recently discovered: illustrations by Gordon Laite (1925-1978) for The Blue Book Of Fairy Tales from Little Golden Books. (First edition: 1959.) This is certainly not my Beast, nor my Beauty, but I love the energy in this image, the expressionistic castle interior (and the exterior seen through the window), and, of course, that fabulous peacock-feather gown!

More Beast news as it happens. Stay tuned!