Here's what I've been avoiding posting about all week—the email from my agent that was awaiting me a week ago when Laura and I returned from a weekend in Utah:

Just talked to L—— and I'm afraid I've got bad news—he says he still loves the book, but that he considers it "deeply unbuyable" right now, because of the threat against the airplane. To be honest, I'd never thought of it like that, and I'm sure neither had you, but he pointed out that any kind of terroristic threat against an airplane, whether done out of Mormon or Muslim religious fervor, is not going to sell in today's market. I suddenly have a deeply sinking feeling that he might be right, but if we cut out the bomb threat part, we eviscerate the book entirely. That's the hook upon which the book, and any subsquent publicity, would hang. What's your feeling?

Am I deluding myself? I don't think so. I've been fighting this perception tooth and nail all week, and I still think I'm right. More thoughts on this subject soon.