Nerves of paper

It’s a strange process for me, print publishing. Having begun my career over at Ellora’s Cave in e-publishing, I’m used to the relatively quick turn around of that. From submission to publication can take as little as a few months, and print of course takes so much longer. I first submitted my short story “The Boy Next Door” (excerpt here) to Red Sage in the late summer of 2006, after pitching it to an editor at the RWA conference in Atlanta that July (Lord, the drama I went through with that – but that’s another story). I got the word that they wanted to publish it the following spring, in 2007, and later that year discovered it would appear in Secrets Volume 27. So it’s been nearly two years since anything really significant happened with the book, and now all of the sudden it’s coming out.

Which is really exciting, don’t get me wrong. I love this story, and I feel like it represents a turning point for me as a writer. I rewrote it at least twice before I submitted it, and once at the request of the editor looking at it. I sweated blood over this story, and the sense of accomplishment when it was finished and accepted for publication was incredible. And it was good, dammit. I'd worked damn hard to make it so, and I knew the finished product was something I could be proud of.

Which, now that it’s coming out, and now that the reviews are starting to come in, doesn’t mean I’m not nervous as hell. My stomach gets that “oh, we’re on a roller coaster!” feeling, my head gets a little buzzy, and I hold my breath.

But thankfully, I don’t have a lot of time to concentrate on being nervous. There’s too much to do! All the inactivity of the last two years has been transformed into a frenzy of scheduling book signings, guest blog spots, interviews and other promotional appearances. Ordering business cards, little give away gifts for book signings, and prepping for the workshop I’m co-presenting with Christine in July (jeez, we really need to work on that this weekend!).

So not a lot of time to focus on being nervous. But that roller coaster is there, in the background, just waiting for me to open my email and find a new review.