If you guessed “a big box from Random House containing Mary’s author copies of THE NATIVE STAR” you’d be 100% correct. Ding ding ding ding! And you’d also be correct if you guessed that, upon receiving said copies, I would run immediately to the internet to post photos. You may be peering at your screen right now, saying to yourself, “but where are the dozens upon dozens of expected photos of the author opening the box, holding a copy up to her face as if posing for some kind of 1950′s ad for dishwashing flakes, dressing the books up in frilly little garments and serving them tea, spreading the books out on the ground and rolling around on them naked, etc?”

Well, oddly enough Random House seems to have sent me some kind of special edition, one which will not allow itself to be photographed. Like they must have been made with that special uncopyable paper that the government offices always used. Perhaps it is some kind of new copyright protection feature. To make an already interminable story longer, I tried to get pictures with our good camera—but was faced with dead batteries, and no replacements in the house. Then I tried to use my crappy camera phone, but for some mysterious reason, the camera application could not launch.

So no photos for you, until the rechargeable batteries that are in the recharging device recharge. Then it’s time to get naked!