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.
