I'm guessing he's referring to the fact that most cats really like a good scritch on the back at the base of their tail. Of course, it is SF, so....

It clarifies, but I'm tremendously easily pet-skeeved, so my eyebrows may take a while to un-raise.

I don't know that it has been proven animal have feelings.

I think it has been, a few years ago. But I can't remember where I read this.

Friends of mine had a cat, Drusilla, that ran away. Their other cat, Masha, went all throughout their apartment looking for Drusilla. Drusilla used to come bug Masha when she was in the litter box, so Masha spent a lot of time in the litter box when Dru was gone. Eventually Drusilla came back. As soon as Masha saw Dru she walked over and bopped Dru on the head and walked away.

I got carded tonight and the cashier (a young thing) acted really startled at my age. She could have just been being (er, grammar?) flattering, but she did sort of startle and have the manager come over to look at my DL. I was laughing pretty hard at that. I can't judge age well and maybe neither can she, but still.

Hec, is this all normal? Not the cat butts but the B&N stuff?

Everything is new to me, still. I'm not sure if I'm doing well, really well, or just plain normal. I feel like it's going really well because I'm constantly shocked that anyone bought this to begin with, but I'm just not sure where to set the bar.

Hec, is this all normal? Not the cat butts but the B&N stuff?

Better than normal, certainly. If the big chains like your book then they'll put it prominently on display. That'll make a HUGE difference in sales. Just walk through a Barnes and Noble and notice how many freakin' books are out there. Anything that gets people to notice the book is very important.

Also, your publisher is now smelling money which means they'll probably allocate more budget towards promotion, which is also very important.

You have to remember that few books actually make money. So when they find one that they think could sell or be profitable, they'll push it harder. The few profitable books pay for the many that don't.

So any kind of notice or feedback like you're getting now is very very good. I wouldn't advise you to quit your job quite yet. So many things can still go awry in publishing. But still. That's really good news.

In Other Scary News, There was nuclear accident in China Flats between Simi and Thousand Oaks in 1959.

I'm so glad I have so many friends who know stuff.

YAY on the book news Allyson!

That's so exciting! The book news.

And you'll have a band of guerrilla (god, I love the spell check feature on Firefox - two rs in guerrilla. Who knew.) marketers fanning out through the major chains making sure the book stays faced out and prominently displayed.

I made pad thai for dinner tonight - from Trader Joe's. I say "made" because I actually had to boil water for the noodles and stir fry the vegetables instead of popping a bowl in the microwave. It was yum. And, I found unsweetened chai latte mix - score. I'd never found any kind other than sugar sweetened, and that made me sad. Oh! And...

ROOIBOS!

because I am so suggestible it's pathetic. It's tasty. Orange-spiced.

And in less trivial news (and by trivial, I mean my grocery list, clearly, and not the book news, which is the opposite of trivial), my second follow-up PAP came back clean, so yay. All in all, a good day.

Dude, that's fucking awesome. And you totally have a platform, anyway. You'll sell hundreds of books to people who feel like they know you personally!

Also, I know a couple, one of whom is in marketing for a big publisher and the other of whom is a bookseller for a publisher, so if you ever want double-blind confirmation of what you're hearing, I could ask for translation.