“We’ve looked at the influx of new orders and even with working in double shifts
I see no way we can accept any more orders for Christmas delivery.

I’d rather be up front than make your fans angry by creating an expectation
we can’t meet.

If you agree, then would you change your website to make the cutoff date midnight
tonight for Christmas, but assure them they can continue to order any of your books
for delivery soon after the holidays.

Will will note this information on the auto response the system generates to those
placing orders, so they will get it from us as well as on your site.

We’ve got over 500 to process with more coming in by the hour and realistically
we can’t ship more than 100 a day, regardless of when the shipping systems shut
down. We’re going to end up shipping some on Monday and eating the extra priority
expense ourselves in our best effort to get orders in place to their destinations.”

[me again]

I’ll be going into the store on Thursday to sign books–and will do more early next week. So you _will_ get your signed/inscribed books, even if not by the 25th. Thought of giving a signed book as a New Year’s gift? Ground Hog’s Day, or Valentine’s?

Our apologies, and we hope you’ll enjoy the book(s), as soon as can get them to you. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, a Jolly Kwanzaa, and a Blessed Winter Solstice to you all!

Well, it’s like this:  The new, snazzy, all-signing, all-dancing (well, singing, at least) 20th-anniversary edition of OUTLANDER will be released on July 5th.

On July 5th, I personally will be traveling from New York to Laramie, WY (which is one of those places that you can’t get there from here, so it will take all day, starting before dawn) in order to be the keynote speaker at the Sir Walter Scott Symposium held at the University of Wyoming. What with one thing and another (ThrillerFest, for one–it’s even more impossible to get _back_ from Laramie to New York, taking all night as well as part of the next day), I won’t be back in Arizona until sometime on the 10th.

Now, The Poisoned Pen bookstore has graciously offered to host an event for the launch of this book, if I’d like. The question, though, is really–would _you_ guys like this?

I’d be happy to spend an evening with you and sign your books (and perhaps read a few excerpts from the upcoming SCOTTISH PRISONER and the so-far-untitled Book Eight (I really must come up with a title one of these days), but I don’t know how much demand there might be for Diana Live {g}, given the nature of this particular book. I mean, it’s a _beautiful_ book, and stuffed full of entertaining extra material–but it’s not a brand-new novel, either.

Let me know what you think, and I’ll tell the bookstore in a couple of days.

Thanks