Where the [expletive deleted] is that proof copy?!!

Many people continue to wait with varying degrees of patience for the paperback of ICE, WIND AND FIRE, and I'm posting today to bring you up to date. We are still waiting for the proof copy, which was shipped out of CreateSpace before Christmas ... and that was the second proof to be shipped, because the first -- shipped in October -- was a no-show. (My own patience expired a loooong time ago; about the time people were trimming trees and making eggnog.)

DreamCraft informs me that if the proof isn't delivered by the end of this week (Feb 5th), a third copy will be ordered ... and this is getting absolutely ridiculous. The new copy, if needed, will take another 2-3 weeks, minimum, for delivery to Australia, by which time we'll have been trying to usher the paperback of this book into the world for four months.

To one and all: my apologies for the delay. If I knew where the proof copies were vanishing to, rest assured, I'd be in there and salvage them. The next one will be sent via some sort of shipping system that allow es for tracking. The reason this is not usually an option is the cost -- it really is the last option! However, there comes a time when they've painted you into a corner and you have no other choice.

To Rie, who put up the original book which was cut out of its bindings to facilitate the OCR process: I am so sorry about this! I couldn't possibly have imagined this would happen ... it's never happened before. Proofs have always been delivered in 9 - 21 days, max, and one never went missing before this. Now, it looks like two have vanished -- give me the odds on this! Rest assured, the third copy shipped out of CreateSpace will be sent by some international express post, with tracking, regardless of cost -- and if one of the two proofs (I don't care which!) doesn't show up by Friday, the third will be ordered at the weekend.

I know they say patience is a virtue, but this is ridiculous.

Cheers,
Mel