There's a major event in the life of every young book that marks its progression from mere draft on someone's computer to a public figure in its own right. No, I'm not thinking about when the book gets published, or even when the final manuscript is sent to the publisher. I'm thinking of when a book gets its own page on amazon.com. (The right analogy is probably to "getting your drivers license" or something along those lines. Feel free to concoct your own details.)
So it's with a certain parental joy that I can announce From Eternity to Here now has its own amazon page. My baby is all grown up! And, as a gesture of independence, has already chosen a different subtitle: "The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time." The previous version, "The Origin of the Universe and the Arrow of Time," was judged a bit too dry, and was apparently making the marketing people at Dutton scrunch up their faces in disapproval. I am told that "quests" are very hot right now. All of which means, of course: you can buy it! For quite a handsome discount, I may add. It also means: I really should finish writing it. Pretty darn close; the last chapters are finished, and I'm just touching up a couple of the previous ones that were abandoned in my rush to tell the end of the story. The manuscript is coming in at noticeably more words than I had anticipated -- I suspect the "320 pages" listed on amazon is an underestimate. And, yes, there is another book with almost the same title and an eerily similar cover, which just appeared. But very different content inside! Frank Viola's subtitle is "Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God," which should be a clue to the sharp-eyed shopper that the two works are not the same. Writing a book is a big undertaking, in case no one before me had never noticed that before. I'm very grateful to my scientific collaborators for putting up with my extended disappearances along the way. It's also very nerve-wracking to imagine sending it out there into the world all by itself. With blog posts there is immediate feedback in terms of comments and trackbacks; you can get a feel for what the reactions are, and revise and respond accordingly. But the book really has a life of its own. People will read and review it for goodness knows how long, and I won't always be there to protect it. Frankly, I'm not sure this "book" technology will ever catch on.
