For the next several hours, Anna, Nate, and Arthur discussed the details of the publishing contract Janet had previously printed out before the meeting. The first ten pages were mostly boiler plate with the names of the principles, date and title of the manuscript filled in. The rest of the twenty or so pages spelled out the terms regarding copyright ownership, publishing rights, and the most important detail; advance and royalties.With any other literary agent, Anna could negotiate percentages for days, but she knew Arty trusted her, as she did him, so it made the process go by much more smoothly. Besides, it was Elaine who had drawn up the original contract agreements, so she was more than confident her company, as well as the author and his agent, was fully protected.            Anna sat back and watched as Arty explained the terminology before his client signed his name on each line. Even though her attention

For the next several days, Anna didn’t have a spare second to think about her Vashti fantasy, as her concentration was totally immersed in the reality of preparing for the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Although the event was open to the public for only two days, for the publishers and authors, planning began weeks in advance. Even those years when Anna wasn’t scheduled as a guest speaker for a discussion panel, her and her staff was busy deciding which titles to spotlight at the event, scheduling her author’s personal appearances, book readings, signings submitting all the necessary information to the FOB by the deadline and praying there wouldn’t be any embarrassing last-minute changes to Steine & Steine’s line-up.  When she had just started at Beacon Press, Anna painfully learned there was nothing more damaging to an author’s career than disappointed readers, when one of their star authors was a no-show, the backlash from

The time difference between her dream world and her real one always amazed Anna. Although her recent dream seemed like hours has passed, the clock on the wall in her office showed that it had only been less than one from the time she had closed her eyes until the alarm brought her back to the present.            What also amazed Anna was, even though she had only taken a quick nap, she felt fully energized. If that’s what the scientists called a power nap, she thought, it certainly was working for her, dreams or no dreams. The thought of going home to an empty condo on a Friday night was depressing. Anna knew that most of her single friends already had plans with their perspective dates and not wanted really wanted a divorcee third-wheel to join them. As much as she didn’t want to continually rely on Elaine for company, her friend never turned her down, even when the invitation came at the last minute. Anna w

By now, Anna was no longer referring to her past life travels as dreams. The more times Anna was transported into her Adara persona, the easier it was becoming for her to adapt to the environment, so when she found herself back in the garden holding the wedding invitation in her hand, she wasn’t that surprised it was the exact parchment that Nate had handed to her only what seemed like seconds ago. The biggest changes were that the faded print she had been looking at was now perfectly clear lettering and the hand holding the page was no longer Dr. Nathaniel Braverman’s.            “I believe the scribe really outdid himself.” Darius retrieved the invitation from Anna’s hand. “These invitations will be hand-delivered immediately after you’ve accepted my marriage proposal following the banquet tonight.”           

            Because they were going to meet Fred at the office in a few minutes, Anna decided to take the more direct route on the freeway instead of Sepulveda. One reason she had bought a condominium in Santa Monica after her divorce was that it was only a fifteen minute drive to her office on Wilshire Boulevard taking side streets.Two miles after turning onto the southbound exit, Anna saw flashing red lights in the distance. She cursed under her breath as the traffic in front of them was slowing to a crawl. The last thing Anna wanted at the moment was to be alone for a long period of time with the author of the book she was about to complete, or have to explain to him how she had come up with the ending without sounding like a complete lunatic.Anna realized it was too late to exit off the freeway to avoid the traffic jam and much too late to avoid answering the awkward questions she knew he was going to ask. Ho