Tuesday, June 27, is the big day, which means that today we are five days shy of the paperback pub of LOOKING FOR PEYTON PLACE. The other night, a friend asked me what I'm feeling at a time like this. And yes, the answer is anticipation. It isn't quite the heart-in-the-mouth pulsing that happens on the eve of the hardcover debut of a book, like when LOOKING FOR PEYTON PLACE first came out last July. But it's still vaguely nerve-racking.

I mean, what happens if the books didn't get to the stores on time, as happened with when THREE WISHES UPS suddenly went on strike? Or if the reading public is totally distracted by something in the news, as happened with UPLIFT when terrorists hit the World Trade Center? Or if another book takes so much room in the stores that booksellers don't even bother to put the book out, as happened just last summer with the new Harry Potter, the new John Irving, and the hardcover of LOOKING FOR PEYTON PLACE?

Oh, these problems pass. The hardcover of LOOKING FOR PEYTON PLACE did eventually get out on the shelves and made up for lost time, but I was concerned until I knew that.

So right about now, I'm hoping that nothing interferes with the paperback debut of LOOKING FOR PEYTON PLACE, that the gorgeous new cover is going to draw people to it at the start of this summer season, and that word about the upcoming 50th anniversary of the original PEYTON PLACE will draw in even more readers to my book.

Hope with me, please!