I got tons of calls, emails and texts yesterday. All from friends and family. All telling me that they just received my book from Amazon. Half of them pre-ordered it months ago and have been sending me regular IMs asking why they hadn’t received it yet (very funny). And all were genuinely enthusiastic to be holding a book with my name on the cover; I, however, felt a bit like vomiting.
It’s not that I’m not excited, because I am. Very excited. I’ve been waiting a LONG time for this. And when I think back to the day when I started writing my query letter, it’s amazing to realize how far I’ve come. My book is out in the world! But also… my book is out in the world…
I’m a bit nervous knowing that there are people out there—right now—reading it. Like that feeling you’d get right before you’d turn in a paper to a college professor. You felt really confident about it two seconds ago, but now someone’s gonna grade it.
I’ve already gotten feedback from one friend, my former college roommate. She was the lone dissenter who pre-ordered the book from B&N.com and apparently they started shipping “Amor and Summer Secrets” earlier than the rest of the world. So she got her copy more than a week ago.
Me & Margit
That said, this was her reaction:
1. “I paused after the first 50 pages and told my husband, ‘Hey, this is pretty good.’” LOL. You know she was nervous. It’s like going to your buddy’s “off Broadway play,” and crossing your fingers that you don’t have to tell him how great the programs looked.
2. Mariana Ruiz is definitely not me. In fact, she thought Mariana was much more of a “goodie goodie” than I was. Well, what’d you expect? We did go to college together…
3. She really liked the twist at the end and didn’t see it coming. Yay!
4. She wanted to know who Alex was in real life and whether he was supposed to be my husband. Um, no. If anything, my husband is more like Mariana’s brother, Vince (the frat boy). Just kidding, Jord…
3. She had always thought that a writer’s “voice” said something about their personality. But she thinks my personality is very different from Mariana and the way that Mariana thinks. It made her rethink her previous opinions on other novelists.
All-in-all she said she was very impressed—of course she had to, she’s my friend. But it was still nice to hear. And she gets to go down in history as being the first person to buy and receive my book. Yay, Margit!
So if you’re out there, reading my book right now, drop me a line when you’re finished. Tell me what you think. Or better yet, write a comment on Amazon. Tell the world! Enjoy!
POP-CULTURE RANT: Democratic National Convention
Personally, I think the scheduling was off for this conference. The Olympics stole the convention’s thunder. We just went two weeks without watching our regularly scheduled programming. I can’t tell you how full my DVR is; I think I’ve only seen one episode of Mad Men all season. I’m not ready to go straight into another weeklong news event. Though I did think Hillary and Michelle’s speeches were good. And I loved how Barack’s kids kept interrupting him on the JumboTron. He should bring them to his future State of the Unions just to keep things interesting.
Congratulations.
I found you via an interview on The Five Randoms. I loved the thing about how being Catholic makes one vulnerable to the whole sign thing. I am that way myself.
I love reading about the process and what other writers do.