Bummer.

But not really. Er, only sort of.

So they were really pleased with the work I did. They called it 'creative' and 'clever' and 'well-written'. The editor said that the end-of-chapter pieces were particularly nice, and made him actually want to find out the answers.

However. The reason it took so long for them to get back to me is that they were unable to hammer out a compromise about the future of the book with the prior authors (not specifically related to me in any way, apparently). So the entire project is canceled. Which, if you think about it, means I dodged a bullet. They must be impossible to work with, if they couldn't even keep the project alive!

The editor is finding other work for me to do, because he wants me to keep some space in my schedule until their other astronomy textbook needs a new author (probably next year). Which is kudos for me.

So I'm bummed, but not as bummed as I could be... and at least it opens up the area in my head that I had been reserving for that project!