I was going to post today on either covers (because I've seen some killer ones lately) or on David Foster Wallace (as remembered by his wife in BOUND TO LAST - the anthology every bibliofile MUST read) or on rewriting a chapter on Ben Eielson for my manuscript because I think it's a weak chapter that needs work and I had an idea of some research I did that I thought could be added into it.

And then I got my contracts in the mail.

One of the things they don't tell you is that although you might have an offer and verbally accept it the contract itself can take quite some time to arrive. In my case (and likely because of the holidays in the middle) the offer was made back in early November and the contract is only now in my hands. Of course I panicked about this for a little while, thinking the delay was about my book and not just the business (yet again Gwenda talked me down from the wire) but as it turns out there were many tiny details that had to be worked out and now they have been and now I know exactly what is going to happen and now it is real.

Really really real.

All of this is exciting and will continue to be exciting as the year unfolds but it was the "Specifications of the Work" which made my head spin. This is the description of my book (now called "MAP OF THE DEAD PILOTS - no idea if that will last or not) and it was not written by me. I don't know who wrote it (my agent or editor probably) but it blew my mind. It's exactly what I wanted a reader to take from the book. Here's the last bit:

This will be not just a flying book and not just a book about Alaska but rather it will the story of a group of close-knit people who come to care about one another because of the harsh environment in which they work and the nearly impossible daily feats they are asked to perform. Part Northern Exposure, part Air America, and part Tim O'Brien, the Author will capture the grim realities and poignant relationships that emerge from Alaska's last wilderness.

And that's all true - it's funny and crazy and literary and it's all I could have wanted. And it's about my book.

Wow. This is happening. After so many years - it's really happening.