Book publishing remains a mysterious world. As you know, I wrote the novelization to Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I was given about a month to write the manuscript and delivered on schedule at the end of December.Universal Studios took four times as long to approve the project as it took me to write it. Admittedly, back in February, they said director Guillermo del Toro wanted to read the manuscript and he received a copy. Once I heard that, I grew a wee bit nervous.And then the weeks dragged on.Last week, as I was working through the galleys, we finally got the approval from Universal Studios. “No changes” the words every editor and novelizer want to hear.The book has gone on press and should make its May 28 street date.Meantime, in a time lost to memory, I contributed a single essay to Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore. The mammoth 910 page volume, edited by Josepha Sherman, was said to be coming in June. Having heard nothing in a while, I checked the website and see it is now pencilled in for July. We’ll see if that really happens.