There are generally two things I can guarantee happening in the months from February to April – snow and taxes. Both are equally distressing and screw up any plans I have for the day. To date, snow has not been a big issue, but that’s coming. It always does. Something to look forward to, I suppose (enter my sarcastic humor). Today was the day for taxes and I have officially lost two hours of my life that I really want back. The migraine aura I’m suffering isn’t pleasant, either. It is trying times like these that I thank the heavens I have chosen to be an author. Because writing about a fictional person suffering through tax season is so much more fun to me than actually experiencing it. Or better yet, writing about a fictional character doing anything but taxes. That sounds awesome.
Yesterday while scrolling through my Facebook feed I came across one of those “memories” Facebook likes to give you. One year ago, on March 5, I sent Blind Date off to the publisher in hopes it would be accepted. I literally had a minor panic attack after I hit the send button on that email. I was so anxious and terrified. I liken the entire experience to rearing a child from conception to adulthood.
The idea is conceived from deep inside you and as you write, you give it everything you have, and the novel matures. One day, that creation is finished in its elementary phase. From there, you have to culture it, grow it, and reshape it through the teenage phase into something the rest of the world will want to read. Acceptance of the novel by the publisher was another moment of terror mixed with elation. My baby had grown up and was going to college. Now was the time for it to get the professional attention and receive that final check to make sure everything was ready for the big day. And then…that big day came.
August 29, 2016, Blind Date was released to the world and I spent the day worrying over how it would be received. Will my child take the best parts of me and be successful, or will it land flat on its face? I’m pleased to say I’m quite proud of how my first child turned out. So, I will repeat the process and continue to populate the world with my characters and my stories. I doubt, however, that it will ever get easier to send them out into the big, wide, judgmental world.