Have you ever thought about the novelist’s process? Would you like a peek behind the scenes of the publishing biz? If you’re even just a little bit curious, check-out Work In Progress. Farrar, Straus and Giroux’s new monthly blog looks at the writing process and the arcane peculiarities of big time publishing.

In the first edition, Jeffrey Eugenides, author of The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex, ponders his next novel in an illuminating exchange with FSG President and Publisher, Jonathan Galassi. The interview begins with:

“Galassi: Please tell us everything you can about your new book, starting with the title.

Jeffrey Eugenides: I hate to begin by withholding information, but I’d rather not divulge the title of the new book at the moment. I remember when my wife was pregnant and we were trying out different names for the baby. Anytime we told someone a prospective name, they would find something wrong with it. It rhymed with something not-nice. It was just begging to be deformed into a schoolyard epithet. The result was that we never named our child and refer to her now only by her SS#. So I’m not going to make that mistake again and tell you the title of my book.”

photo by Karen Yamuachi