I expect you’ve started something new by now. If not, consider this a nudge from a fan. You have a following, my friend, desperate for the next Hannah Tigone. To paraphrase Spider-Man: With great readership comes great responsibility.
Seriously though, I saw An Implausible Country in the bookstore around the corner, yesterday. A place called The Rook…one of those hipster joints where you can get a half-strength turmeric soy latte, and a wheatgrass and birdseed snack with your book. Anyway, the U.S. jacket pops in the wild, in case you were wondering. Photo of it on the new releases shelf attached. I might have bought myself another copy, just so I could brag to the bookseller that I knew the author! I think she was impressed. There was a definite hint of admiration in the way she asked, “Do you need a bag?”
I so regret that I was unable to come to New York when you toured last Fall. We could have met after all these years as colleagues and correspondents. I shall make amends by crossing the seas to you in a few months, unless of course you are coming stateside. Perhaps if you were to set a book here, then a research trip might be justified? Still, there might be something fitting about a friendship based on a common love of words being founded on an exchange of the same.
As for your enquiries about how my own book is coming: Well, I spent Friday at the library. I wrote a thousand words and deleted fifteen hundred. Regardless, the Boston Public Library is a nice spot in which to be stood up by the muse. I’m afraid she’s playing hard to get where I’m concerned. I had hoped that the venue might shake loose some inspiration. It’s pretty spectacular—the ceiling in the Reading Room is something to behold. I’m afraid I spent rather a lot of time staring at it. I can’t help but wonder how many frustrated writers have counted the decorative cornices before me… Perhaps Emerson or Alcott gazed aimlessly at that same plasterwork, or at least its equivalent in the earlier incarnation of the BPL when it was on Boylston Street. It’s vaguely comforting to think that they might have.
Anyway, I look forward to hearing about your current project. As always, I’m happy to be a sounding board if you require one—to read chapters as you write, so the feedback is immediate. It’ll give me something to do while I’m in this writing slump, and perhaps your productivity will rub off! And eventually, I might have something for you to read and comment on in return.
