We craft and tell stories because we’ve stood on the uncertain edge between the waking world and our imagination, between enchantment and fear. And we remember other stories that help us build our own stories, scraps of lumber and fragments of narrative we gather together to make stories for ourselves.

Sister Fox is Making Her Book

On my bookshelf right now, I have a magical volume sitting in pride of place: an advance copy of Sister Fox’s Field Guide to the Writing Life, by Jane Yolen. And believe me: it’s beautiful. If you were one of the lucky ones who got Johnny Wink’s collection, well it’s like that, but even more so.

There’s a wonderful moment in publishing when you hold the physical volume in your hands for the first time—when you can see it and feel it and smell it, and it’s stopped being an idea in your head and has become a book. And then you can sit down and jot a message to the printer: yes, this is better than hoped, and yes, you may begin production.

At the moment, that’s where we’re at: more copies of this beautiful book are being printed and bound and made real, at a mysterious book creating facility somewhere near Oxford and which, when I see what they do with books like Sister Fox, I suspect to be secretly run by poets, or magicians, or—most likely—magician-poets.

If you’re one of the lucky ones who ordered a copy of the limited hardback edition, your books are being made. The poet-magician-printers tell us that the books will be ready to ship in mid-December. This is a bit later than we’d originally hoped, because it’s the busiest time of year for poet-magician-printers, and we’re just in time for that festive holiday postal chaos.

So, sad to say, the books probably won’t ship till after Chanukah, and might not arrive before Christmas. But I can guarantee this: it will be worth the wait. You will love this book when you get it. We’ll be posting more updates from time to time, so watch this space.

And last, but far from least: if you’re able to attend one of Jane Yolen’s marvellous public readings, for a limited only she’ll have a few very special copies of Sister Fox which you can buy right then and there. They’re selling fast, so if you want to buy a copy for someone special this Chanukah, and can get to one of these readings, do. You won’t regret it for a moment.


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