I finally got a chance to see a copy of my book yesterday, the full finished product. It was delivered before noon but I promised my kids I would wait until they got home from school to open the boxes. I have been waiting so long already; it wasn’t hard to put it off for a few more hours. And when I saw the looks on their faces when they saw the boxes from the publisher, I knew I had made the right choice. They were so excited they couldn’t stand it. The looks of pride on their face as they saw their names in print on the dedication page made it all worth the wait. That’s when the tears began to pool in my eyes. Not because it had been such a long and tortuous process or because I had been up nights waiting for the book to be finished, but because like everything, the kids brought it all into perspective. Not that I didn’t relish in the monumental personal satisfaction this accomplishment provided, but experiencing the effect my achievement had on my daughters and the model it gave them for following their own dreams was, well, priceless.
The next milestone will be seeing the book on the shelves in our local Border’s and Barnes and Noble…only a couple more weeks for that one! It should be in all US bookstores by June 22nd. Shortly thereafter, on to Europe and the UK….
