I love this old book with the little locked heart on the cover. I've often referred to The Frontiersman's Daughter as the book of my heart. I think it always will be, though I am very fond of Courting Morrow Little. A book simply must have HEART. The last few days I've been reading through the pages for CML which is just a loose leaf copy of the book before it goes to print. It really is a joy to sit in silence with those book pages (only 362 as opposed to TFD's 412!) and see how it reads, though I envy those of you who come to a book fresh.
By this stage I've been over the book so many times it has the feel of stale bread:) I'm not complaining, mind you! I still have those favorite sentences and scenes that I race to get to and then savor once I'm there. And I hope you'll do the same. There's no such thing as the dreaded sagging middle - not in this book, anyway! Though there are always spots a perfectionist sees that might have been better. I wonder if artists feel this way? Do they stand back from a painting and see things they wish they'd changed? I know musicians do this. When Paul fiddles onstage he sometimes wishes things had sounded a bit differently.
I didn't do an acknowledgements page this time but do like my dedication. After the title page and publishing credits the dedication is simply "a few sparse words dropped into those preliminary white pages, poetic in their brevity." One of the best parts of writing a book is deciding who to dedicate the book to. Before I was published I used to dream most about book covers and dedications. Do you remember (without looking!) who I dedicated The Frontiersman's Daughter to?
If you were to write a book who would you dedicate it to?