Us on our anniversary in Miami Beach
Today has been a really weird day. We just returned from celebrating our 4th anniversary 16 years later (we got married on Leap Day so we only have an anniversary once every four years) in Miami. Today is Super Tuesday (and this year seems particularly chaotic). I woke up to texts from one of my best friends worried that her husband—who was in Nashville on business—was dead in that spate of awful tornadoes that ripped through the area (he’s fine, by the way). And then, on top of all of that, there’s been some disturbing stuff happening in my life that is not for public consumption (happening “off camera” as I like to say after two decades in the TV biz)…
And then, this moment of disturbing weirdness is punctuated by this huge, amazing, awesome event of getting to hold my new upcoming novel, Raphael, Painter in Rome, for the first time.
The box came while we were away (celebrating said wedding anniversary) so I had to wait a few days to unbox… I’d seen the Advanced Reading Copies—the book before the book that the PR team sends out to the press for early reviews—but this would be my first look at the real, hardcover deal… and I’ll admit, I was scared to look in that box at first!
Then, I finally did get up the courage to look inside…
And then pull him out and flip through him (yes, this novel has chosen to go by the pronouns he/him for some reason!)
And then I united Raphael with his older sibling… and boy do they make a handsome pair.
It’s a strange feeling, seeing the finished thing, sitting on my shelf.
The FIRST one seems so overwhelming it’s almost incomprehensible. This second one is like this PROOF that not only did I write a good enough book to get published the first time, but that it was good enough (and sold well enough) that I got to have a SECOND one… WHAT?!
It’s like I’m officially a novelist now.
And the 7 year old inside of me (who wrote her first book at her parents kitchen table and dreamed of being a “real author” one day) is like… wooo hooo! We did it!
That’s all. Just a news update to store on this website so I don’t forget this moment or this feeling or this weird, strange, disturbing, wonderful, awe-inspiring day.