News

MICAH is number one on the New York Times list. Not the printed list, not yet, but the on-line list, yes. I have it in a smaller window as I write this so that I can keep checking and make sure it’s really still there, at number one. I believe it will be printed in the paper next week. Earlier this week I found out that MICAH was number one on the USA Today list. That means that of every book sold in the country; hardback, paperback, juvenile, adult, fiction, nonfiction, old and new, all books sold, my book sold the most copies of anything. Of anything. How amazing is that? We were number twenty-three last week overall on this list, and that was with a day or so of sales. Everyone in New York started to get excited, I waited. I’ve learned not to let myself get too hopeful too soon in this business. But we are number one, and next week we will be number one on both the Nielsen’s Bookscan list and the Publisher’s Weekly list. My editor can’t remember the last book that made all four lists at number one. I mean one of them, or two of them, but not all four of them. People in New York are saying, maybe Dan Brown. We’re not sure about that, but it just seems impossible that Dan Brown and his book have not made all four lists at the same time at some point in his reign upon the lists. But making all four lists at number one is a very big deal. It’s like Vegas wouldn’t take those odds, big deal. But I did it, we did it. My characters are real enough to me that it always feels like a group effort.
Of course, it is a group effort, especially the sales numbers. You guys, the readers, the fans, the people that picked up this book and thought, well, I’ll give it a try. You guys did the numbers. You guys bought the book. Thank you.
I have been getting calls from New York from very reasonable, businesslike people, and they are giddy on the phone. A couple have been nearly incoherent with happiness. It’s very cool. I have not been incoherent with happiness. It’s effecting me. I haven’t been able to concentrate on the current book in days. But there was enough smaller work piled up that needed doing. Interviews, cover copy to go over, art work to look at, a comic book script, books to sign, all the thousand and one things I do as a writer that are not writing a book. I’ve caught up on everything but the spring newsletter. I’ll get to that on Monday. Because I am still having trouble sitting down and writing. Small jobs, pieces, so I can work, get up, move around, then work a little more. I am excited, but it’s like a bubbling excitement that quiets down then bubbles back to the surface, so that my body can’t sit still. I have to get up and move. Yet I haven’t been near the gym in days. I’ll fix that today. So I’ve been pacing, finishing up reading other people’s books. I’ve been waiting to calm down. Though if you talked to me on the phone I wouldn’t sound that excited. I have been the calmest person on all the calls from New York. To my agent, Merrilee, I actually said, “I’m excited, I know it doesn’t sound it.” She replied, “I’ve worked with you long enough I know this is excited for you.” And it is. Why aren’t I doing hand-spring? I’m not sure. When I first cracked the top five of the New York Times list Jon and I were in San Francisco on tour. We used up the battery in his phone, my phone, and our media escort, Frank’s phone calling and telling friends and family. Not this time. I actually spent about twenty-four hours telling no one. I think I didn’t trust it to be true. I didn’t believe it. But it is true. It really is.