The Fed Ex man just left. He dropped off a package from NYC--copies of the International Edition of Hummingbird. I've never had an International Edition of anything before. It's a gorgeous cover--if you're in England, Scotland, Canada, Ireland, Down Under or Asia, look for it!

Even handsomer is the trade paperback edition of Hummingbird for the USA. That will be released April 3. Uh, that's the same week as Da Vinci Code. Oh noooooooooooooooo!

We'll be posting the new covers here soon. Keep watching. Editions in French, German, Turkish and Hebrew are moving along, and the two Spanish versions are percolating. The Mexican vesrion (as opposed to the Iberian version) is being done by my (and Teresita's) cousin, the Mexican ambassador, Enrique Hubbard Urrea. When he has his draft done, we will lock ourselves away for a week and wrangle with the manuscript. He says parts of the translation have been "about as easy as giving birth to watermelons." But the book is written with Sinaloan Spanish in mind--he's much more an expert in the "sound" of Sinaloa than I, since he's a native son and I'm a border rat.

Also working on my poems again. (See below.) I hope to put my long-postponed book of poems out to market this year.

What are you reading? I tend to tackle a couple of books at a time. This month:
Greg Iles, THE FOOTPRINTS OF GOD;
Marshall Terrill, STEVE McQUEEN: PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN REBEL;
Ted Kooser, WINTER MORNING WALKS (for about the fourth time);
Rilke, THE BOOK OF HOURS;
Anthony de Mello, THE WAY TO LOVE;
Michael Poage, GOD WON'T OVERLOOK US.

Stoking the furnace--trying to build up to literary cruising speed for Hummingbird II.

Love,L
PS--still sending out Teresita cards; four went out this week.

# posted by Luis @ 12:16 PM