The thing itself

I have just had an exciting delivery from my editor, who was so kind as to leave it downstairs with the evening doorman in my building - the first copy of Breeding: A Partial History of the Eighteenth Century!

Due to packing-related chaos, I was hard put to find a clear spot in the apartment for photographic documentation, but there was a temporary opening on the couch...

The sad fact about book-writing is that the part where you actually write the books is much more enjoyable than the part where they go out into the world; the latter might seem superficially more exciting, but it does not give you anything to really sink your teeth into!

I was actually going to add that for the purpose of cultivating mental tranquility I have a devout intention not to write any books in 2009, only then I remembered that I am hoping to finish a good chunk of one in January and that I will almost certainly be unable to resist starting a new one (partly on swimming!) over the summer - but I will write it very slowly, that is what I am thinking, over the course of a number of years...