Books Arrive!

It's heeeeere! Psychically attuned to the rumble of the UPS truck, I had been listening ever since we got back from Iowa for Letters from Eden to arrive. Finally, Chet's throaty Demi Moore bark announced the the birth of a new chapter in our lives. In that first shipment, 100 copies came, to be followed by another 20, then another 100 (there's another box of 20 floating around out there somewhere). My studio, already crammed with the stuff of a dozen jobs, took on the immediate aspect of a cottage industry, with tissue paper, square white cardboard boxes, tape gun, rainbow Sharpies, and stacks of orders. Have patience with me, ye 179 faithful who have ordered this book to date. I'm working my way through the orders from first placed to last (I know, I know...you want it NOW, and I want to send it to you now...but imagine if you'd written a check in April and had been waiting all that time!) For each book sent, I've got to inscribe and sign it, wrap it in tissue, fold up a box, seal it with tape, address it, stamp a return address on it, stack it, then cross the order off the list. It's satisfying work, especially the last step. Inscribing is the hard part, especially when I know the recipient--thinking up something meaningful that's worth scribbling on the dedication page is a bit of a challenge sometimes, especially when you've done a couple of dozen in an evening.I love the hind leg position here as Chet strains to sniff the first copy. Everyone was so excited, you'd think there were bennehs in those boxes.

My family's copies are already gone in the first bunch of two dozen. Twenty-eight more went to the Whipple post office this afternoon. I sign and pack in the evening, in between cooking dinner and helping the kids with homework.
All UPS photos, except penultimate, by Phoebe Linnea Thompson

Baker snuck around the front of the truck to gain entry, and check to see that the driver had remembered to unload all the boxes. He was also expecting a biscuit, but this driver wasn't packin'.