Steven brought up a good point (and then you all got silly): I said there'd be no surprises after the next couple of months, and he asked if that meant film rights etc. to ABSENT FRIENDS have been sold. No, they haven't. Book clubs have, and audio, and it's available as an e-book, for anyone with that technology. But no film, no TV, and so far no foreign rights, either. My agent is optimistic about foreign rights, to the point where -- have I discussed this here already? -- he retained foreign rights sales, making our advance from Bantam smaller than it would have been if we'd given them the right to make those sales, because he thinks we can do better selling them ourselves. (Translation: he tries to sell them, I sit back and watch.) I'm not so sure, because this is such a NY book, but I gave him my blessing.

Personally, I find the idea of the candy very appealing.