Hello, everyone! I hope you all have been enjoying the delightful weather summer has afforded us Portlanders. The Ninth Day has been progressing wonderfully this term, and we hope to make even more headway on this project over the next few weeks in preparation for our autumn launch.

The first bit of news is that our galleys have been mailed out—woohoo! I have many people to thank for helping to make this happen: first the marketing team for getting the review requests written, then the exterior/interior design teams for working so expeditiously and creating such a lovely looking book, and then the marketing team once again for getting the advanced reader copies of these beauties packaged and mailed out. It looks like the continuation of great things for Ruth’s novel.

The digital resource copy of The Ninth Day is now available on Edelweiss as well, and Keely has already received many requests for this book. I hope to spread to word about Ruth’s novel far and wide in the blog world, the vlog (i.e., video blog) world, and other wonderful book review venues. Keely has been doing an excellent job of staying on top of this, so another big round of applause to her!

Ruth has been posting quite regularly on her new blog about Miriam—or Mim, as she is referred to in this story—from the perspective of Florrie, Mim’s best friend. The blog is up to 18 posts as of August 9, and although I am a little behind in reading it, I have been enjoying it very much. I really love Ruth’s series, so it is always exciting to read anything that takes place in the fictional world she has created.

The fourth and final blurb we received was from the famous American author, radio journalist, and NPR correspondent Margot Adler, whose own experiences at Berkley allowed for a wonderful historical perspective on the novel. Her blurb will be a prominent feature on the back cover of The Ninth Day.

The book’s interior and exterior design have been fully completed and the novel is currently being taken through the proofreading stage. I have had the opportunity to review the book in its preliminary physical form, and it is absolutely delightful; our designers have really exceeded themselves with this second book in the Serakh saga. I can’t wait for the October publication of this novel and the chance to show it off at Wordstock.

Be sure to check back in on September 16 for the latest update on The Ninth Day. Until then, happy reading!