Adventures in Publishingland . . .

2009 has been a very busy year . . . I was inaugurated in Washington, DC, tried to form a bi-partisan government, pushed for health care reform, vacationed in Martha's Vineyard . . . no, wait, that was Barack Obama. Darn.

So much for living vacariously through our new president. He's got enough on his plate without having to furnish me with daydreams of power, prestige, and really great photo ops. Still, when a man who's younger than you becomes president, it starts you thinking that maybe it's time to take stock of what you've accomplished. I mean, HE'S in the zone. Me, not so much.

Still, 2009 wasn't such a bad year. I've had four books published, one of which, The Hammond Book of Presidents, can sort of be blamed for my Obama-mania and a late-blooming interest in politics. Two of the others, Hammond Undercover: Princesses and Hammond Undercover: Rocks & Minerals, mainly gave me an appreciation for large gemstones. (Ha! Bet you never thought I'd be able to connect THOSE two books!) But it's my fourth book that's really been a feather in the old cap.

Marvel Illustrated's Pride & Prejudice is a hardcover collection of the five comic issues I wrote for them last spring based on Jane Austen's beloved book. It came out at the end of October accompanied by a very nice review in Entertainment Weekly, which named it one of the three best graphic adaptations of literary classics out this fall. Then just today I got word from my editor at Marvel that P&P is on the New York Times Bestseller list for graphic novels.

I was gobsmacked for sure. Still am. What does this mean? How is it that the work of a genteel British lady is up there with (and in some cases outselling) such testosterone-tinged collections as Wolverine, Spider-Man, Watchmen, Stephen King's The Stand and The Dark Tower?

I think I know the answer. I believe that the time was right for females to invade the inner sanctum of the He-Man Boy's Club that has typically been the American comics publishing biz. And if you want to know the truth, Marvel welcomed Jane and me with open arms. You see, they WANTED those female readers (bottom line, don't you know), but just weren't quite sure how to woo them. It occurred to Marvel—after some convincing from a romance writer who shall remain nameless—that the work of an author like Austen, with a huge fan base and a track record of profitable movies and TV miniseries, might just be the breakout book they needed.

And the rest, as they say, is history. Things are heating up; I can feel it in my bones. I'm currently working on an adaptation of Sense and Sensibility for Marvel, I've been invitated to a panel discussion on Austen at the Morgan Library in NYC, and I hope to be part of a book festival in Newburyport, MA, next spring. And, hey, I even started working on this blog again. Maybe I am in the zone after all.

hajeski

As summer winds down

August is almost over and I'd given up hope of even getting near a lake or pool for a nice swim. But when my best friend and her teenage daughter arrived during the hottest weekend of the summer, we ended up swimming in the river that runs in front of my trailer. The "mighty Willowemoc" usually ranges between shallow trout stream or raging flood. But right now, after a week of nightly thunderstorms, the water is the perfect depth for swimming.

If you've never swum in a river, let me tell you, it beats anything else for a relaxing dip. Better than the ocean —no salty water to sting your eyes, no undertow or waves to battle. Better than a lake —no bottom muck or duck week to tangle your legs. And since this is a protected trout stream, the water is pristine, so clear you can see the bottom (and any jutting rocks that might be in your path). The water is still shallow in places, so that on a hot day there are sunwarmed eddies if the cooler depths get too numbing.

So picture the three of us drifting along with the gentle current, sycamores and maples towering overhead— when all of a sudden my neighbor's two white geese (who were barely tolerating us on their watery turf) started honking in warning. We look up and see a bald eagle soaring along the river, coming toward us. I wait months to see one of these elusive birds, and here he was gliding right above us. I tell you, it doesn't get better than that.

So summer may be waning, but I got in my swimming and discovered, just like Dorothy, that sometimes your heart's desire is right outside your own front door . . . And that makes a nice seque to my current "must listen" CD -- the soundtrack of "Wicked." I was fortunate enough to see it on Broadway in previews, but the CD wasn't available at the time. Now I finally have the CD—courtesy of a workmate who never saw the play but loves the music—and can revel in the magic of one of my favorite shows. So let's hope we're all "Defying Gravity" at some point in our lives. Whether it's floating on a lazy river or letting our spirits soar like an eagle.

Nancy