Countdown to Release Date!

    In four days...

    Three days ago, a package arrived in the mail. I had no knowledge of it, being at work, but I got this phone call after school let out from my very excited son:

     "Mom! Mom! A box came in the mail today. And guess what! Inside that box was paper. And inside that was plastic. And inside the plastic...IS YOUR BOOK."

      I had just approved the jacket and proof a few days before, and wasn't expecting it so quickly! Getting home that night became a very exciting prospect. It was very hard not to "squee" at work, which would have been very unprofessional and un-nurse-like. VERY hard.

     When I got home, my family was waiting for me in the living room. "It's right there!" my boy said proudly, pointing to the closed box on the coffee table.

    
     I was a little hesitant at first, then I opened it. With everybody watching me, I wasn't sure if I was going to laugh, or cry, or both. I opened the box lid, and there it was, in trade-sized gorgeousness. I tore open the plastic protecting it. I looked at it, opened it and ruffled through the pages. The scent of paper is usually soothing to a reader, but this time it was a little different. My heartbeat was a little fast. The words I caught glimpses of as I ruffled back and forth were mine. The author's name was mine.

    MINE.

    I just stood there, staring at it. Years of writing and cutting huge swathes of dreck, getting up the courage to submit it to agents and publishers, the work of editing...all comes down to this.

    "See, I told you that Gabe would be more excited than she was," my husband finally said jokingly to his mother, who had come to pick him up and stayed to see the big watch-Lisa-cry-when-she-opens-the-box spectacle.

    About that time I realized my face hurt. An enormous, cheesy grin had taken permanent residence without my knowledge, and because my back was to everybody, they hadn't seen it.

    But I realized internally, that this was probably the coolest moment of my life, aside from the obvious events of marrying my best friend, and bringing our two kids into the world. It was a quiet, satisfied moment. A  moment of joy, and relief, and disbelief.

    In four days, I will be a published author.

   Wow.

    Of course, right after that moment of quiet reflection and peace, came the jumping up and down and the squee-ing. My book slept next to me on the night stand, and I carried it with me all the next day. MY book. My BOOK!!

     And sometime in the next month or so, I will be having a big party to celebrate this milestone in my life, with all my friends and my family who care to come. The kid who had "Famous Author" enscribed on her 7th grade yearbook has finally made a step in that direction. Even if the "famous" part never happens, the "author" part has. And that, my friends, is a reason to celebrate.