This has been one of those waiting periods publishing is so full of, where all kinds of things may be going on at the publisher's end but nothing is happening that the writer can see. Then today I got an email from my editor saying Bantam's VP for information systems had read a galley of ABSENT FRIENDS and he seems to have loved it. Apparently he told so many people in the company about it that she's gotten requests for galleys to take home over Easter weekend. This is new to me. At my previous publisher, if the senior editors (above your own editor) and the marketing/publicity people read your book, you were lucky. At Bantam, when they say the house is behind a book, it seems to mean the whole house, including people whose role in making it a success you, the writer, aren't sure of. Except that clearly it gets to be a synergistic thing, where everyone in-house is encouraged to feel connected to the book and to the project of making it a success. Which just adds to my delight at the way this publisher does things, and my feeling of being fortunate to be here.