Tonight at 7:00, I'll be reading and signing books at Schuler Books in Grand Rapids, on 3165 Alpine Ave. I'll probably be reading a teaser from The Stepsister Scheme, so if you want a sneak preview of the new series, this is your chance. Or if you just want to come by and say hi, that would be great too.

And now for the holy crap moment. Warning: this involves crass money talk, so if you're someone who feels such talk is inappropriate, leave now. Go check out some cats or something.

One of the things my agent does well is the foreign sales. The advances on those sales haven't been as much as I got here in the U.S., but they add up. One edition (Czech, if memory serves) even earned out its advance and paid me a small royalties check a while back.

Yesterday, I got another royalties check, this one from the German editions of Goblin Quest and Goblin Hero.

That single check was more than I made from writing in all of 2007. Not a lot more, but big enough to earn a hearty "Holy crap!"

I know there are people on my friends list who make more than that on a single book advance. I'm not about to run out and buy a mansion or anything like that. My daughter asked if this meant we were rich now. (Kids are so cute about money.) We're hardly rich ... what it means is that I can probably afford to redo our kitchen and maybe put a new roof on our house. Also, it means that taxes are about to get a little more complicated.

I'm still a bit stunned. Even more so, because I eventually recovered enough to take a closer look at the royalties statement. At first, I thought the money was for all of 2007. Then I realized the dates were European, and 1/10/07 - 31/12/07 meant this was just for a three-month period. Double-checking the German editions, I saw that Quest had come out in September, and Hero in December.

In other words, assuming I'm reading that statement correctly, both books earned out their advance within a three month period. Hero earned out in a matter of weeks. Earned out, and then some. Thank you, Germany!

My brain is still sorting everything out. There's a good chance further royalties will follow. Heck, the German edition of Goblin War only came out a few days ago, so we haven't seen anything on that book yet. But this is causing a radical reevaluation of exactly how this whole writing gig can work. I know people who earn five- or six-figure advances for their books, but I've never been one of them. I write because I love it, and the fact that it's a nice little supplement to my day job is a bonus.

But this ... well, let's just say I've never seriously considered quitting my day job to write. It didn't feel like a realistic possibility. It still isn't realistic for the short term. We need health insurance, and for all I know this is a fluke which won't happen again for years. And of course, part of the reason this check was so high is because I get paid in Euros, and the U.S. dollar is weak enough that this translates to more money. Hopefully the U.S. economy won't always be this bad. But depending on what happens in the years to come, let's just say quitting the day job is a slightly less unrealistic possibility than it was yesterday at this time.