I went into the Aldo shoe shop ten minutes before I was supposed to be there. Good. Nothing in my teeth. Sweater on the right way round. All good things. Seven minutes of loitering in the black granite Rockefeller Center lobby and then the guard at the security desk smiled, pointed to the elevators, wished me luck and suggested I breathe. I tried it. Breathe? In the Simon and Schuster elevator on the way up to meet my editor and everyone at Touchstone Fireside? Nope. Not an option. And the doors opened and my editor Danielle was waiting. And everything clicked into wonderful place. She is fantastic! She is the supercalifragilistic, hatstand in a handbag kind of fantastic. Warm, brilliant, encouraging, funny, smart as a whip, ask her anything, so happy she is editing the book, fun.
She took me to a lovely, yummy lunch and then around to all the offices to meet the people at Touchstone. It looked just how I had imagined it: manuscripts on the shelves, on the floor and books and books and books lining the walls. What I had not anticipated was that they would be my favorite books. These people worked on my favorite books. It was a wonderful day.