What Made Me Happy

In Saturday's post, I mentioned that I'd received something in the mail that made me stop dead in my tracks, turn off my car, put my head on the steering wheel, and weep for joy. I should preface this by saying that my publisher, Houghton Mifflin, has been sending out bound, black-and-white galleys of my upcoming book, Letters from Eden, to a lot of people, many of whom I've requested be included on the recipient list. The idea is to garner quotes, blurbs and reviews in advance of its release on October 4. I've poured everything I've got into this book--eight years' worth of essays, and 130 paintings and drawings.
It's a great leap of faith to write a letter to one's hero, the person who, since I was about eight years old, I have most wanted to emulate. It's an even greater leap to write a cover letter for the galley of your first book, asking for a cover blurb. But unless you do it, you never know how your hero might react to your own work. And finding that out is something well worth doing.

I found the postcard face down, and read it in puzzlement. Who had seen the galley, and taken the time to send this nice note? I couldn't think which of the two Janes I know and love might have written it, because I had sent a galley to neither one.


I turned it over, looking for the answer. Yours ever, Jane?? And wept for fifteen minutes.