Breaking the Surface

I feel almost as if I have been underwater for weeks now. Editing Finding Angel. Proofreading Finding Angel. Working on cover art. "Make this bigger? Smaller?" Working on interior art. Collecting endorsements. "Shall we place this here, or here?"  Finalizing....tweaking...more proofreading!

But, it is all over now. The file has been sent to the printer!

It is a strange feeling. My book will be available in a week. I will have it in my hands shortly after that. I will be...a published author.

Yes, I know, I'm published already. Forty-some-odd instances of short stories, both fiction and nonfiction, in various magazines and anthologies. They do mean so much--truly! Please don't get this wrong. Those things count. They really do. But this is different. This is the dream that started it all.

And now I have to figure out where to go from here. For so long everything has centered around writing Finding Angel. Writing short stories to build my platform (and falling in love with short story writing in the process). Writing queries, sending queries, printing rejection letters...and then revising and rewriting and pushing myself to get better, better, better.

While this feels like a huge milestone, I know it is only the beginning. Now comes marketing. And begging for reviews ;). And rolling my eyes at my husband every time he suggests trading in our travel trailer for an RV so I can travel the country doing book signings. (Which makes for very sore eyes muscles!)

But it won't stop there. I have a sequel to Finding Angel in the works and can now reorient my focus onto that. And there are always short stories to write!

So, while I'm up for air right now, I'll be diving back in and staying submerged for a nice long time.