Arnold the Anxiety Echidna

Hi.

I'm Arnold.

No?

The Anxiety Echidna? Ring any bells? Still no? Come on, you must have heard of me. I'm like the Bluebird of Happiness or the Beer Monkey, only my speciality is anxiety, worry, nerves - that kind of thing. I'm the one who makes your fingers wobble, the one who stirs up your guts with a big cold stick. I breed butterflies - you know what I'm saying? Oh sure, I get a lot of stick for it, but someone's got to do it, so why not me? Besides, if it wasn't me it'd just be that beaver who's been hanging round the job centre with his CV dropping oh-so-subtle hints to the girls behind the desks all the time.

Anyway, I'm writing this on behalf of Ecks, who I've incapacitated somewhat these last few days. Thing is, see, he sent a sample of his book off to a little publisher called Snowbooks a little while ago, and they liked it and asked for the whole manuscript. So he sent it off - like I said, a while ago - and he e-mailed them a couple of times to see how it was going, and in his last response from them - last Monday - they said "Sorry about the delay, it's still with one of our readers, but we'll get a decision to you at the end of this week or the beginning of next."

I got the call on Thursday night, and I got to Ecks' house by Friday.

Well, it's Wednesday and here we are, still with no word from the publisher, and Ecks is feeling it a bit. OK, maybe I was a little vigorous with the old ice cubes in the belly, but, hey, I love my job, what can I say? He just wants to know the decision, one way or another, but he's stupid enough to be holding out hope that maybe...maybe...the answer will be...yes.

Me, I don't care. In fact, the later they leave it the more work I get! So here's to delays, indecision and uncertainty.

Cheers!