No, I will not make a joke about Penguin being in the house, because this is not the nineties any more and that phrase was never funny to begin with.

Ahem. Before I move onto the main point of this post, I’d like to take a moment to recommend a book called The Gargoyle by Canadian author Andrew Davidson. It’s more or less a romance, but it’s a lot of other things as well: funny, epic, intricately plotted, and full of fascinating stories-within-a-story. I love that kind of book, where little bits and pieces of other stories are woven in like a tapestry. It’s not something I do myself – I’m not sure I could, though admittedly I’ve never tried it – and I always love it when someone else does it.

In any case, The Gargoyle is well worth your while. It’s the sort of book I read and re-read simply because there’s so much pleasure to be had from it. The descriptions alone are pure pleasure to take in. I’ve always envied that ability in other authors; describing things generally bores me when I have to do it.

Anyway, onto the main event: in the small hours of this morning (I was up late writing, which I still do very occasionally), I received an email from my US publisher informing me that Penguin and Random House have undergone a corporate merger and are now a single publishing house called Penguin Random House. Fortunately the various imprints of the two houses, which include Ace – the imprint that publishes me in the States – will remain independent, so not a lot is going to change from my end. I can only hope that the merging of these two industry giants will create a new, even more impressive publisher – with more money to spend on publicity for me.

Hey, I have debts to pay.

~KJT, anticipating the installation of her kitchen with great excitement.