… I hope, at various venues for Under the Poppy, in Detroit and New York and elsewhere (World Fantasy Convention is in Columbus, OH this fall, right around the book’s release date!); details will follow when everything is in its place and all the strings are neatly coiled and/or strung.

Ditto more details on the show.  Suffice for today that we’ve been very busy, and phone calls have definitely been exchanged.

I think I need a new top hat. Perhaps a topsy turvy one?  Isn’t this absolutely gorgeous.

And please do feel free to judge my book by this gorgeously evocative and witty cover.  Love it, love it, love it!

…and I’m thrilled.  It’s always exciting to see a manuscript become a book – a real object one can hold in the hands – but because Under the Poppy is especially dear to me, this is a red-letter day.  And the letters are … F U N.

There’s something particularly warming about praise from a colleague, so finding this mention of Under the Poppy on Boing Boing was a delight.  Thanks, Cory.

As I post this, Director Diane is winging her way to SXSW; if you see her, say hi (she’s the elegant blonde in the witty t-shirt.  Yes, that elegant blonde).  Or perhaps you’ll be sitting next to her at the Like A Pascha screening …. Not all brothels are the same, of course, and surely such tacky dollar store masks will never be glimpsed at the Poppy.

And while we’re on the subject of film, interesting to see, in last Sunday’s New York Times, this overview of the use of onstage projections in the theatre. Michael Mayer, director of the Green Day musical “American Idiot” about to open on Broadway, is quoted as noting that the growing popularity of projections reflects “a whole generation’s response to the media” and that generation’s comfort with that media’s ubiquity.  Which is not, as such, a reason to include projections, film, anything, to a story onstage, unless it suits that story’s story, which ours emphatically do.

Very soon, the book’s gorgeous cover image will be ready to share (thanks, Gavin!), and for those who have asked, yes, pre-orders are a very good way to go.  The book will launch with an event here in Detroit and doubtless elsewhere; more details when I know them.

On the theatre side of the Poppy, we’re added the very excellent Sarah Warren to our team, hurray! and will have more news to share on the show’s venue sooner rather than later.  In the meantime, I rise to previously unseen heights, thanks to Monika and Diane. [Photo: DC.]

There’s been so much activity lately re the book and the show, I’m breathless. Let’s see, first the cover for Under the Poppy has been seen, tweaked, and approved – and it is gorgeous: subtle and inviting, with a naughty little puppet-y pop.  Say what one will about judging a book by its cover, it’s a fact that we all do, and why shouldn’t we?  The cover is the public face of the story, the thing that lures the eye and then the selecting hand (via shelf or mouse), so it had better be stunning, not just a pretty picture but an image that tells the story’s story in the time it takes to blink your eye.  And this one does, and I am thrilled. As soon as I can share it here, up it goes.

Next, or really concurrently, maestro Joe Stacey has sent several more compositions, underpinning themes for the films, that exist so organically that they’re less complement to the action than its true voice.

And Monika has been sketching up a storm, and we’ve just been treated to the first pass of the costumes: they are masterful, a gritty, sexy, glorious mash-up of periods and textures, an encapsulation of the artfully ragged world of the brothel.  Watching things come to life in this fashion (pun not intended, but let’s keep it anyway) is like observing an exotic flower unfurling in slow motion: transfixing, exhilarating.

The voice, the dress, the face … the Poppy is in bloom.