I suck and the world sucks and life sucks.

And me too! Ah, the sweet odor of commiseration.

OK, wow.

Not sure where to put this, but I figure this is a good spot.

A while back, googling, I found a rec from a professor at the psych department of University of Illinois at Urbana. She had chosen Plainsong and said some really wonderful things about it, long after it was out of print, So I hunted up an email address for her, emailed her, and thanked her.

The following is an excerpt from her (longer) reply:

The recommendation that I wrote for you was to commemorate my promotion from associate to full professor at the University of Illinois. On that occasion we are asked to pick a special book that we want to honor and that will be placed on the bookshelves with a plaque inside it honoring our promotion and saying that we chose the book. I knew that few people were aware of your wonderful book and chose it for lots of reasons, but mainly because I loved it and wanted it to get some recognition.

I would love to have a copy of the first in your new series. I do wish Plainsong had been marketed better--I have read it many times and ordered all the used copies I could get from Amazon.com to send to friends. I only have two left and probably will keep them!

Thanks again for getting in touch, and I'm glad to hear that you keep on writing...!

Needless to say, she gets a dedicated copy of "Weaver".

But just, wow. This one blew me away.

Oh gosh, that's really wonderful, Deb. And she was probably blown away by your writing to her, too.

Whoa, that's some high quality recommending there!!!

I have to find the copy of Plainsong I just got used from Amazon as well. It's, I'm ashamed to say, lost somewhere in my bedroom. I put it down somewhere, and now I can't find it.

After I finish War of the Flowers, I'm doing a serious book hunt...

Hee! And I get to hear Tad read WotF, because we're doing that reading together. I'll be posting that one up in about ten days,

That's really something, Deb. A total bouquet.

If it were me, I'd frame that letter or sleep with it under my pillow or possibly have it bronzed. Lovely.

I think what I want to do is, rather than have St. Martins send her a copy, I'll send her one out of my own stash (once they arrive here).

But I'm also going to forward the correspondence to Ruth. I got this back this morning, from Professor Heller (part of a longer email):

I do encourage you to re-issue Plainsong, and I will do my part to promote your new series...I can't wait to get started on it!

Civilised, I call it.

Civilised, I call it.

Lovely, I call it. Just like Betsy.

Nic's talking about doing a limited POD run of "Plainsong". I'm wondering if he might not be right. But part of me wants to wait and see how the series does; if the publisher gets enough "Hey! This book, that you printed reviews of on the back! Where is it?" feedback, they may want it back. In which case, well.....heheheheh.