I've been so busy getting ready for this point, I haven't had a lot of time to reflect on how I feel about it. It's been about fifteen months since my book sold, but I still kind of can't believe that something I wrote is going to be sitting on the bookshelves of people I've never met. That is beyond surreal to me.
But I'm also incredibly proud of this little book. When I was in grade school, I loved writing SO MUCH--it wasn't so much a dream that I would be an author some day as an expectation. And then I grew up and got sidetracked by life and the zillion wonderful and not-so-wonderful distractions it offers. I still thought about writing, and even tried it again every once in a while, but I didn't get serious until the day about four years ago when I realized that if I didn't put forth some serious effort RIGHT NOW, my dream/expectation was probably never going to happen. And that scared me.
Writing a book takes a ton of effort, and a lot more knowledge than just how to put pretty sentences on a page. But I've had the best, most satisfying time putting in that work, and I've made some amazing friendships along the way. I hope my little book brings readers as much enjoyment as it brought me writing it.
Every once in a while when I'm talking about my book to someone who's not a writer, they'll ask a few more questions than usual and get a bit of a hungry look that makes me think, This person probably has a book they've always wanted to write. And I wish I could just grab these people and say "Start writing NOW." Nobody says, Man, I wish I'd spent more time at the office, right? I wish I'd watched more TV series, seen every single episode of Law & Order at least five times. I wish I'd spent more time loafing around on the Internet, browsing my social networks over and over. If you've got a dream, carve out time for it. Find a way to make yourself do it--a calendar, a reward system, whatever it takes. Because keeping that promise to your dreamer self? It feels really good.
I'm not going to rewrite my entire acknowledgements here, but a huge thanks to everyone who's cheered me on along the way--family, friends, critique partners, my agent, my editor, friends who I've only met online. Your support has pulled me out of my hidey-hole, gotten me through some ruts, and most importantly, made this whole endeavor a ton of fun.
