Essays

Dear Faithful Readers,

The day here in Koontzland began as it always does: Elsa, our golden retriever, gave me a morning cuddle, took me for a walk, and threw a ball for me to chase until I was exhausted. She then repaired to her bed in my office with a copy of the typeset proofs of my forthcoming novel, Devoted—and a red pencil. I ate breakfast at my desk while reading the Wall Street Journal, with special attention to the financial pages, which I’m superb at pretending to understand. Finished with the newspaper, I did half an hour of finger exercises to ensure that my hands would be limber enough to produce a few stunning pages of a new novel, and then I took a nap.

When I woke from my nap, Elsa had gone down the hall to Gerda’s office, where they were conferring over the corrections each had made in her copy of the typeset proofs of my forthcoming novel, Devoted.

After producing eleven stunning paragraphs of my next novel, I spent a few hours reviewing two sets of red-lined typeset proofs of my forthcoming novel, Devoted, which Gerda and Elsa had placed on my desk in the most gentle and loving way.

So when Devoted is published on March 31st, if you should read this scary but nevertheless hopeful story and find it thrilling, not just I will be smiling ear to ear, but so will Gerda, and so will Elsa, who has the widest smile of us all. Warmest regards,
Dean