I just had the moment that authors wait for — copies of my December book arrived on my doorstep. Somehow, a book never feels real to me until I open that box and see and smell the final version. And, of course, it’s the moment when I get to celebrate my new release with. . .
. . . the UPS guy!
Mine has been through all the ups and downs of publishing with me — the rejection packages, the manuscripts through copyediting, the first book, the next one and so on. He seems to know when it’s a good package or a bad one. He’s watched me scream, he’s watched me cry, he’s watched me smile. And he still brings the next one up to my door and waits to see me open them. Then he nods, waves and drives his big brown truck off to his next delivery.
Well, that happened last Friday. The knock on the door, the box on the steps, the driver waiting as I opened the door and then the box. I held up the book and he waved and drove off.
And I stood looking at the final copies of a story I never thought I’d get a chance to tell. A story that was a leap of faith for me to send to an editor. A story that took me outside my comfort zone as a writer. A story that Kate Duffy convinced me I should write for her and for Brava.
So, as I stood there checking to see if the words inside were the words I remembered writing, I read the dedication and realized that I’d never have the chance to write a book with Kate again. And that tamped down the usual excitement and all I could do to ease that was to content myself knowing that she had been invaluable to me while writing the story. One suggestion, one recommendation from her, changed the whole dynamic of the story and the characters and made it the story it should be. . . and the one it is now.
The one I hope readers will love as much as she did….
This one’s for you, Kate…..
Terri
Nice post and great tribute to Kate.
Congrats, Terri, and thank you for the lovely post!