Judith McNaught

I got the January RT today and noticed a nice big ad for Judith McNaught's newest book. "Oh, cool," I thought, "that means it's actually coming out when it's supposed to." I had this mildly cynical thought because McNaught has had some books that were delayed literally years-- the publisher would put excerpts into the back of her other books, and then those excerpts never made it into a book. This is annoying to those of us who love her writing (and even though her last two books didn't really rock my world, I'm still looking forward to her next release). But while websurfing, I came across the following in RT's newsletter:

"An ad for (McNaught's latest) appears on the inside front cover, but at press time there was no book available for review. We are trying to get the galley/book in time to review it for the February issue, but there are no guarantees because Judy will not go to press until she is satisfied that the book is letter-perfect. Judy has a strong commitment to her fans and will not sacrifice one word for the sake of a deadline so stay tuned! This could be a loooong wait."

Groan.