The Not-Quite States of America comes out TODAY. Here's everything I want you to know.

More than three years ago, I began working on a book about the U.S. territories. I traveled more than 31,000 miles to visit these far-flung islands, flying on ocean-crossing jets and shoebox-size planes, riding on ferries and in the back of pickup trucks, and slooowly easing rental cars along potholed mountain roads. I spent even more time writing and rewriting and rerewriting and paging though books and scrolling through microfiche and tracking down old newspapers.

Today, the book is officially here, published by W.W. Norton. And, ahem ...

It's available wherever books are sold--get it from your local store or online from IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon. 

If you're in the Twin Cities, please come to my book launch party next Thursday, February 23rd, at 7:00pm at Honey in Northeast Minneapolis. 

(And since today is Valentine's Day, I also made some occasion-worthy cards and even some wrapping paper so you can pretend it's a box of chocolates. No, for real, I actually made those.) 

I’m genuinely excited for you to read the book. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll learn some interesting things about these places and their cultures and their histories, and get a new perspective on the USA as a whole--who we are, how we got here. There are World War II battles and beer-drinking pigs and family backyard barbecues. A glowing bay, an abandoned mall, a Micronesian Stonehenge.

Consider this post A Brief Review of the Things I Want You to Know about The Not-Quite States of America, including:

• A few details about the book, and where to get it
• How you can help me spread the word, please and thank you
• Notes on my own favorite scenes and key points
• Some upcoming events

For even more book info, head over to www.notquitestates.com.

* * *

Please buy the book! 

Also ask your library to order it. (Call all the libraries you know. Call random libraries!) It should be readily available at bookstores across the USA as of today. If not, ask them to order it.

Or order it online. Links again:  IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.

You can also get it for your Kindle or other e-reader. And there's an audio version, though I can't find the link right this second and I'll have to update this sentence when I find it.

Thank you! Thank you so much.

* * *

Please spread the word. Thanks in advance.

Truth: Publishing is brutal and I need all the help I can get to stand out (especially since the Biggest Book of the Season—the new novel by George Saunders—is being released on the same day).

So! As you read, if you see something interesting or noteworthy, give a holler on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Friendster/whatever. Feel free to tag me (Twitter: @douglasmack / Facebook: @DougMackAuthor) or use the hashtag #NotQuiteStates.

And when you’re done with the book—it’s 280 pages, a fast read—I’d sure appreciate it you would tell your friends and also leave a review somewhere.

• Do a reader recommendation at your local store (if they do that sort of thing)
• Post a review on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Indiebound
• Show some love on Goodreads

Be honest! Give details beyond “This is great!!!” (But if you don’t like the book, please either silently hand it to your enemy or just never tell anyone else about it. Thanks.)

* * *

If you're on Goodreads

I'm also giving away three signed copies--and I'll even include some bonus behind-the-scenes info. Here are all the details about the giveaway.

The giveaway period ends on February 21, so sign up now. 

* * *

A brief introduction to the book, by way of a party trick

* * *

A few book highlights

The book mixes history, travel, and politics, with the ultimate goal of giving you, dear reader, a sense of why the territories matter and what they're like and why they should be a bigger part of our national conversation. 

You'll read about history, including: 

• The territories role in the broader story of American expansion--it was never just about heading west but also about going overseas
• How farmers' need for fertilizer in the mid-1800s led to a major quest to find tiny islands
  
  covered in guano--bird poop--which then paved the way for more expansion
• Why the territories were arguably the biggest topic in the USA around 1900--the so-called "Imperial Moment"--and why they eventually fell out of the national conversation
• How a series of Supreme Court cases, starting around 1900, made territory residents essentially second-class citizens, without the full rights of Americans in the states
• The critical role of our Pacific islands in World War II. Guam and two Aleutian islands were occupied by the Japanese for much of the war. 

You'll read about my own adventures and misadventures--hiking in the mountains of American Samoa, failing to learn salsa dancing in Puerto Rico, eating amazing barbecue on Guam. But my larger goal is to amplify the voices and stories of the people in the territories. 

These include:

• A pair of radio DJs who gave me an impromptu tour of Saint Croix
• Rastafari farmers on the island of Saint Thomas 
• Conservation workers in American Samoa working to protect their reefs and other natural resources
• American Samoan lawyers fighting for citizenship rights. (Currently, American Samoans are US nationals, not citizens. It's ... complicated.)
• The organizer of Samoan tattooing festival, who helped bring the art form back and share it with the world   
  
• Members of a military veterans' motorcycle club on Guam, who showed me around the island's World War II battlegrounds
• Immigrants from other nations seeking their own American Dreams in the territories, including a woman from China who came to Saipan to work in its notorious garment factories
• Activists in each territory who are fighting for a different political status--some argue for statehood, others want independence
• A pedigreed chef who had long worked in famous restaurants in the states and in Panama, but had just opened his own spot in a small mountain town in Puerto Rico. (Hi, Carlos!)

And, finally, you'll learn about the territories' role in the present-day story of the USA, from immigration to economics to the build-up of the military base on Guam, the better to keep an eye on China (even while Guam opens its doors to increasing numbers of Chinese tourists). 

The territories, I argue, are the USA's most important domestic policy issue no one is talking about.

* * * 

Events

We’re still working out the details for several events, including New York, Washington, DC, Seattle, and Portland. But the following events are confirmed:

Thursday, February 23 at 7pm
Book launch party at Honey in Northeast Minneapolis

More details on the Facebook event page

Tuesday, March 14 at 7:00pm

Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts 

More info here

Sunday, March 19 at 2pm
Books & Books in Coral Gables, Florida

Monday, March 20
Friends of the Library Lecture Series, Key West, Florida

Monday, March 27 at 6:30pm

World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth

More info here

Tuesday, March 28 at 11:45am

World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth

More info here

* * *

One last gentle reminder: Read and review! Thanks!

IndieBound

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Goodreads

My Book Would Make an Excellent Valentine's Day Gift

So I have a new book coming out on February 14th. It's called The Not-Quite States of America and it's all about the U.S. territories and Booklist says, "One will never think about the United States in quite the same way after this enjoyable read" and you can preorder it from your local bookseller or via Indiebound, Barnes & Noble, direct from W.W. Norton, or from that giant website named for a river ... and there's lots more info right over here.

But let's go back to the February 14th thing. That's Valentine's Day. An occasion best known for flowers and chocolates and teddy bears dressed like Cupid and dinner at whatever fancy restaurant still had space when you finally remembered to call yesterday.

You know that's even better than that--and would make for a less clichéd, more lasting sort of gift? My book. But perhaps you need some enticing. Perhaps the book lacks the proper sense of occasion. Well, fret no more, because now you can have it all: a great book (sure to gain your loved one's affection) and your Valentine's Day swag.

Which is to say: I made you some wrapping paper and some cards that fit both the spirit of the day and the spirit of the book.

The wrapping paper is set up to print on 11" x 17" paper and, yes, it's all the right size and suitable for printing. Here's the PDF file.

The cards are also all set to go--just print on 8.5" x 11" paper (do not scale) and trim as noted; they're 4" x 6" when folded. Some are sweet, some are snarky. Some are specific references to my book and its themes; some simply celebrate reading. Something for everyone and every relationship. Here's the PDF file with all fifteen cards. And here's a sample.

(Page 152 features an X-rated sculpture park on Guam.)

True.

If you do give this as a gift to someone and use the wrapping paper or one of these cards, tweet me a photo (or post it to my Facebook page) and I'll send you a little gift. Real offer.

Go on, then. Preorder!
Indiebound
Barnes & Noble
direct from W.W. Norton,
Amazon

... And there's more about the book over here.

Hello, Taiwan! (Or: How Do You Say "Book Launch, Woohoo!!" in Chinese?)

This officially debuts on August 1st:

The Taiwan edition of Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day-- make that 我用50年前的旅遊指南玩歐洲. I'm very excited.

The book was translated into traditional Chinese by Ting Wai-min, to whom I owe a sincere apology for words I just made up, as in the sentence "I am, as the Dutch say, kindofaneuroticintrovert." 

I tried plugging that into Google Translate just now, English to Chinese, and it came back with this: kindofaneuroticintrovert. So that's helpful.

I'm also sorry, Ting Wai-min, for "grimetastic," which Google Translate renders as 污垢TASTIC的

Bookiversary: A Year In The Life Of An Author, By The Numbers

We interrupt Enrichment Voyage programming for a brief message: Today is Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day's bookiversary! That's totally a word. I know because I just made it up. 

A year ago today, nearly 200 people crammed into a subterranean bar in Nordeast Minneapolis to help me launch the book. The twelve months that ensued were equally as frenetic, nerve-wracking, wonderful, weird, and cocktail-fueled (make mine an Old Fashioned, please).

Some selected highlights, lowlights, and weird-lights, by the numbers:

• Honors I still kinda can’t believe actually happened, and make me grin like you wouldn’t believe: National Geographic Traveler Book of the Month and being a guest speakeron a cruise ship, along with, um, Sandra Day O’Connor and other Genuinely Accomplished People.
• Overall talks/readings/signings: 17 (I think?)
• Number at (or presented by) indie bookstores: 8
• Number at cooking stores: 1 (the excellent Hill's Kitchen in Washington, DC)
• Number at which I gave an old-school slide show (you know, with an old-school slide projector): 4
• Number given with a cocktail in my hand: 1
• Type of cocktail and person who first introduced me to it: Caipirinha; Lee, obviously (in Europe)
• Number given on a cruise ship (as noted above): 5
• Overlap between cocktail-in-hand and cruise ship presentations: 100%
• Oddest encounter during a book tour event: the biker guy at the TV station in Seattle, who swore up and down that he had just videotaped "a mother sasquatch nursing a baby" and they needed to put it on the air right now.  
• Place where I got the best audience questions: my old high school (true story)
• Silliest question at a reading: “Can you recommend a guidebook for Paris?” (This after I had just spent half an hour talking about how I’d visited the Continent—for the first and only time—with a 1963 guide, making me really not the right person to ask this question.)
• Question I frankly am sick of answering: “What’s your favorite city?”
• Percentage of readings (and interviews) where someone asked this: 85%
• What I do when this happens: Smile and reply with whatever city sounds good at the moment, but the truth is it really depends on my mood and a ton of other factors, as described here.
• Postcards and Commentary Track Bookmarks given away: Probably around 200
• Interviews for and/or stories in foreign media: 4
• Coolest story about that: My mom was traveling in Europe shortly after Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper ran an interview with me. During casual conversation with the guy sitting next to her on the airplane, she mentioned my book and he said, “Oh, I just read about him when I was in Germany!”
• Foreign media requests turned down, with regrets: 1, because, alas, if I tried to do a live radio interview in German, I would sound like a less coherent, less sophisticated Dumbass American version of the Swedish Chef.
• Times I have checked my Amazon Sales Rank: Um. Like mumble-mumble-trillion.
• Current Sales Rank: (Sigh.)
• Amount of the Amazon book page URL that I have to type into my browser before it auto-completes the rest: A
• Book clubs directly interrogated by: 2
• Book clubs that live-tweeted at least a portion of their own discussion (and tagged me in their tweets): 2
• Book clubs where someone brought chocolate croissants to the their discussion: 1
• Site of the above book club: National Geographic HQ (!!)
• Emails from readers who used Europe on Five Dollars a Day themselves, in the 1960s: 20 or so
• Emails from readers who used Europe on Five Dollars a Day themselves, in the 2000s: 1
• Emails from  1960s travelers who asked me to check my book for old-school hotel information she’d been wondering about for years: 1
• Letters, postcards, or packages from readers: Oh, man. Dozens, maybe hundreds. Turns out there are a ton of other people who like old-school mail. (Ahem: PO Box 1922,  Minneapolis, MN 55458-1922)
• Coolest package contents: a fresh packet of the Big Boy Bail Bonds pens that Lee planned to use to ward off Belgian thugs (please see page 105, where you will note that I erroneously called the company “Bad Boy Bail Bonds,” an egregious error for which I sincerely apologize).
• Speed with which I have replied to various correspondents: Approximately the same as continental drift
• Level of guilt I feel for the above: Immense
• Assurance I will make: It’s coming. For real. I promise.
• Most polarizing chapter: Venice
• Profanity-laced caps-heavy emails from readers who cannot BELIEVE that I would say anything positive about that VILE Paris place or anything sarcastic about that TRANSCENDENTLY WONDERFUL Venice place: 1
• A brief comment to this and the other (very few but vocal) persons who were taken aback my brooding in said chapter: It’s really about travel fatigue, not gratuitous dissing of a city that, I now understand, you daydream about on an hourly basis.
• Answer to the inevitable question about The Next Book: Workin’ on it. I have an idea; my agent likes it; I need to get started on the proposal.

Parting words to everyone who has read the book, bought it, recommended it, etc.: Thank you all. So much. 

Scenes from a book launch party (+ the reviews are in!)

And then one day you wake up and realize that you have not only written a book but the book is now available everywhere and is, like, official, which makes you a real, legit author.

Oh. Man. 

So. The book is here, as of April 3rd! (Available everywhere, including IndieBound, my favorite indie stores, Amazon, and B&N ... just sayin'.) And various people have been saying various nice things about it. Like:

“An amusing and a wonderful read.” - Arthur Frommer
(on the radio show Rudy Maxa's World; listen to his full glowing review here.)

“Refreshing in its intelligence, candor, good-humored self-deprecation, and insightful redemption of the much-maligned tourist, Mack’s account is a trail-reblazing testament to the transformative power of travel in the modern world, and to the enduring richness of those well-trod places where authenticity, history, culture, and fame compose their own never-ending narratives.”
- National Geographic Traveler

“A genial companion for the armchair traveler.”  - Kirkus Reviews

For more coverage, including yours truly on Minnesota Public Radio, my television debut on KARE 11, and interviews in the Detroit Free Press, MSNBC.com, World Hum, and various other places, check out the Press & Praise section of the book site.

And I had a book launch party! Nearly two hundred people (!!) packed into Honey in Northeast Minneapolis. I read a scene about being stalked by creepy Mozart-costumed guys in Vienna and then did an authentic old-school slide show. All while wearing that seersucker suit you may have seen in my book trailer. Photos by my pal career break guru Kirk Horsted: 

Despite what it looks like, I am not rapping in this photo, I am about to start a slide show.
Question for discussion, though: Should my rapper stage name be D-Mack or Seersucka? Please advise.

And the Best Postcard Winner is ...

First, this contest needs a name. I mean, aside from the Pimp My Postcard Galley Giveaway Contest, which is more or less what I was calling it in my head, but which lacks the esteemed tone and roll-off-the-tongue catchiness of the Oscars or the Pulitzers or the Iggies.

Let's call them the Posties, shall we?

And now, herewith, some Postie winners, counting down to the Grand Postie, which will be honored not with a boring ol' gold statue (meh) but with a signed galley (hooray!). Scroll to the bottom if you're the impatient type and/or want to see if you won. 

The Postie for Okay, That's Seriously Impressive and Kind of Freaking Me Out goes to a collective, the previously noted vast Pantone postcard conspiracy. Incidentally, said conspiracy shows no signs of abating and which, actually, is only gaining strength. I've now received Pantone postcards from Bali, Hawaii, New Zealand, Switzerland, Scotland, and something like sixty-three states. I think I'm up to nearly a hundred Pantone postcards now, and I'm starting to see some duplicate postcards. You know what that means? It means there's more than one pack of postcards out there in the conspiracy-mix; there's the potential for at least two hundred of these things if and when the conspiracy reaches its conclusion. 

These are just the cards that I've received since I last posted about the Pantone conspiracy.

A few favorite individual cards:

Does anyone speak computer?

Front. See below for back.

Back.

Note the first two comments. Forcing your kids to write postcards: cruel child-labor or noble life lesson? Discuss.

Caption trend: writing comments about the weather on the backs of  gray swatch postcards.
Three different people did this, including Shirley in Indonesia.

Front of the above postcard.

Switzerland ... 

Iceland ...

Pantone conspiracy masterminds, I salute you.

Indeed.

The Postie in the Great Effort Foiled By the Postal Service category goes to MB, who sent four different cards from Hawaii, each one with a single word on them: "Aloha," "Hawaii," "On," "A." Three of the postcards are pictured here below.

As you will note, however, "Aloha Hawaii On A" doesn't much sense, no matter how you shuffle around those words. It seems that there may be some other missing words--I'm going to guess I was supposed to get more postcards. I just hope the message isn't supposed to be "Aloha. I'm shipwrecked in Hawaii, on a shark-infested lagoon. Please send help forthwith."

Moving on, the finalists. 

This postcard, truthfully, is my overall favorite. It wins the Postie for Best Defacing of Photos of an Author:

Irn Bru is a vile but wildly popular soft drink native to Scotland, in case you were wondering.

Yes, that's me, along with Maren, my girlfriend fiancee (in other news, I just got engaged!). The postcard came from Ann Schaefer, my mother's friend and 1967 traveling companion, who was immediately disqualified because I was already going to give her a copy of the book. My favorite part about this postcard, though, is that it knowingly echoes a set of photos that Ann and my mother sent back home during their own European trip.

Mom's on the left, Ann's on the right.

In second place is a monster who wins two Posties, for both Best Use of Street Art in a Postcard and Most Surprising Pantone Postcard Conspirators. It comes from my friends at the Key West Literary Seminar, Michael and Kathy; Arlo and Ashley; and Miles and Alan. The endearingly goofy monster you see below is covering up a Pantone postcard (note to Michael and Kathy, et. al: Seriously, how did you get roped into the conspiracy? This thing runs way deeper than I thought ...). I forget the name of the street artist--you see these little creatures here and there around Key West--but I'm hoping someone will remind me in the comments.

And finally ... The Grand Postie. Winner of the galley and the bookmarks and a lifetime of bragging rights!

This card probably doesn't look particularly special on the computer screen. 

But those stamps weren't just Photoshopped on. Those are, no kidding, actual authentic vintage postage stamps affixed to the card. That. That is fantastic. And the card itself is from a 1935 ad in Fortune magazine, as explained on the back:

And on top of everything--on top of making a postcard from a vintage magazine and vintage postcards, on top of generally playing right into the retro-travel theme of my book--there's a fortune for me. Generous, no? And utterly fantastic. 

Congrats, Renee--you win the Grand Postie and the Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day galley! Kudos on a job very well done. Email me your address (doug@douglasmack.net) and I'll send you the book ASAP. 

Finally, many thanks to everyone who sent me a postcard or letter. If you included your address, I'll write back. (It might take me a few more weeks, given the book launch and tour, but I won't forget about you.)

The contest is over, but please do keep writing!

Commentary Track Bookmarks

A while back--like, a long while back--I was thinking about merchandise tie-ins for my book: 

What would be the logical options? Um. Tacky t-shirts. Tourist action figure (Now whips out the camera 3 times faster!). Postcards. Beer bottles or coasters, maybe. Pastries, definitely. Yes, that's it: [Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day]-branded croissants! Any bakers who read this should call me to talk numbers, make deals, plan strategy. Big money awaits! Mega-profits guaranteed!!

For some reason, that never quite worked out. Alas. Neither did the plan to give give away canal-side houses in Amsterdam to all of my readers. I tried, but, man, you wouldn't believe the paperwork. 

What I settled on instead was this: Commentary Track Bookmarks. 

DVDs come with commentary tracks and assorted extras, so why shouldn't books? Commentary Track Bookmarks are, yes, bookmarks featuring page-specific outtakes, notes on the writing process, photos, and other behind-the-scenes insights into my travels and my book. They were inspired in part by my friend Rolf Potts's excellent book Marco Polo Didn't Go There, which had commentary track sections at the end of each story.

There are forty different bookmark designs--collect 'em all! Come to one of the book tour events and I'll give you one--or send me a letter or postcard and I'll include one in my reply. Below are two examples; there are more at the bottom of each page as you click around the book web site. 

And if you're wondering how to some for yourself, there's a bit of a trick involved. . . .

Book Trailer: How to Pack Like a 1960s Tourist

Many thanks to the excellent Alex Cleberg, producer, editor, script-tweaker, and all-around Awesome Guy Who Made This Video Happen. 

For the full story about the packing list, read the book! It comes out April 3rd from Perigee Books/Penguin. Pre-order: IndieBound » Amazon » Barnes & Noble » my favorite indie stores.

For some quick additional background, keep reading here ...

30 Mid-Century Travel Ads to Spark Retro Wanderlust

First, a Public Service Announcement: LAST CHANCE to enter the Galley Giveaway / Pimp My Postcard contest! (Original deadline was this Thursday, but I'll probably accept anything I get through the weekend.)

 And now I present to you ... thirty old-fashioned travel ads from Life magazine in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. I found these when I was at the library researching my retro-European-travel-and-stuff book (cough-ahem, comes out April 3rd). They're in chronological order, starting with the 1940s. Most are for specific destinations or ways to get there (e.g. airlines), but I've also included some for travel accessories or that offer some sort of insight into how Americans thought about travel in a given year--like the Chef Boy-Ar-Dee ads that claim popping open a can of spaghetti is "Almost like being in a cafe in Rome." 

Note how the mode of transportation and the specific places being advertised evolves over the years. The earliest ones, with one notable exception, are all about seeing the USA by road or rail. Later on, they're about package tours to Europe. And at the very end, in the 1960s, the ads emphasize independent travel to Europe. Okay, enough set-up. You're just here for the ads. 

1.

1946

2.

1946. Close-up of text below. Basically, this ad was invited US service men and women 

who fought in Europe to come back as tourists.

Close-up of the above ad. Apologies for the low quality of the image.

3.

1946

4.

1947

5.

1947

6.

1948

7.

1948

8.

1950

[many more after the jump]

Advance copy giveaway: send me your coolest postcard

Pimp my postcard! Artify my aerogram! (I'm a writer, I can make words up.) Announcing the Europe on Five Wrong Turns a Day Galley-Giveaway Contest. (E5WTDGGC.) 

UPDATE: I'll accept postcards I get through the weekend. Just 'cause I'm nice. If I get it by Monday, March 26th, you're in. 

Send me the coolest postcard or letter you can dream up. The most awesome one, as judged by yours truly, will win this priceless item:

Why's it valuable?

1. It's a highly entertaining and slyly informative travel memoir that will surely make you a better person just by holding it. Sweet! 
2. It's a special, limited-edition galley (advance copy), with a sprinkling of special, limited-edition typos that don't appear in the final edition of the book--errors that surely make this advance copy all the more valuable, like those stamps with the upside-down airplane. Added bonus:It gives you blackmail material against me, if you can find that one really embarrassing typo. Awesome!
3. I'll send it to you before the official copies go on sale. Bragging rights! 
4. I'll sign it just for you, and mail it with my very own hands. ¡Excelente!
5. It was in said hands when I high-fived Mary Tyler Moore. 

Holla!

But wait! Yeah. There's more. The winner will also get a handful of Commentary Track Bookmarks (there are some examples over on the book web site), so that you'll not only see my typos but get some behind-the-scenes comments and notes. You'll have greater insight into the book than anyone else. Even Mary Tyler Moore. 

So what's the contest?

Simple: send me the craziest, coolest, most intriguing postcard or aerogram I've ever seen. Maybe it's cool because it tells an amazing story. Maybe it's covered in drawings or it's folded into aero-origami. Be creative. The winner is the one that I deem the most awesome. 

Pimp my postcard, artify my aerogram, put something cool in my mailbox. Kind of like this, except I know you can do about a thousand times better:

Rules: 

1. Letters/postcards/aerograms only. No packages, please.
2. Send it to:
   Doug Mack
   PO Box 1922
   Minneapolis, MN (USA)
   55458-1922
3. I must receive it by March 22, 2012. That gives you three weeks. Go.
4. You can find an aerogram template here. Or, if that doesn't work for some reason, here's another one.
5. Include some kind of contact info so that I can reach you if you win. I'll blur it if I post the postcard/aerogram on the blog.
6. I'll send the book anywhere in the world, so if you're in another country and can get me a postcard/aerogram by the above date, go for it. 
7. I reserve the right to post images of any and all entries on my blog. By entering the contest, you agree that I may do so. (The copyright is still yours, and I won't license or sell the image for profit or anything like that; you're just granting me the right to post the letter/postcard/aerogram on my blog.)
8. Be awesome.

Questions? 

Eight reactions to getting galleys from your publisher

1. Initial anticipation
The UPS guy delivers a large parcel for you. From Penguin. Admire the packaging. Never before has bubble wrap looked, to your eyes, so much like a Fabergé Egg. (What, you don’t see it?) But now the anticipation is killing you—stop gazing and open the dang thing already.  

2. Wild-eyed, kid-on-Christmas-morning glee
Get a knife. Slice carefully, trying very hard, in your shaky-handed giddiness, not to lop off a finger—or, worse, even slightly knick those precious, precious galleys.

3. Cinematic moment of discovery and triumph
Open the bubble wrap and pull out a galley like Indiana Jones unearthing an ancient, possibly-magical relic. Listen for the John Williams soundtrack soaring in the background.

 

4. Savor
Stare. For a good long time.

 

5. High-five Mary Tyler Moore.

6. A Toast!
Introduce your new friend Galley to your dear old pal Vintage Frommer’s Guidebook, the book your book is basically all about. Buy them each a drink. Let the conversation flow.

7. Back To Work
Realize you still have to review the galleys and make some last-minute updates and corrections and fix that one really awkward paragraph that has been confounding you for months.

8. Share the Moment
Also realize you should remind people of some important info, because after all that work, you think you've actually maybe done an okay-pretty-good job (especially once that paragraph is fixed) and it would really be pretty sweet if people, you know, actually bought it, read it, enjoyed it.

Pre-order links:

• IndieBound (consortium of independent booksellers; it's also the best place to find your local indie store): http://bit.ly/E5WT_Indie
• Amazon: http://amzn.to/E5WT_Amazon
• Or just give your friendly local bookseller the ISBN: 0399537325. 

Also, please keep in touch!

Sign up for the e-newsletter to get updates on book launch events and info. (Two options: you can sign up for semi-regular updates from me or, if you prefer, just a reminder when the book comes out. I promise to keep it short, sweet, and sporadic--no spam.)

And! Andand. To keep in touch the old-fashioned, pen-and-paper way, send me a real letter/postcard/aerogram (template! over! here!). I promise to write back and I just might feature it in my Postcard Gallery. You can write to me at:

Doug Mack
PO Box 1922
Minneapolis, MN 55458-1922