This Day: All Sweet...Hardly Any Evil

My normal day to blog is the 1st. Today also happens to be the day that my debut novel, Sweet Evil, goes on sale from HarperTeen. For the past month I've been strangely calm, almost nonchalant, because after two years of waiting for this day to come I've already run through the gamut of emotions so many times. Now the idea of getting published, while still amazing, has become my "norm," so I *thought* I'd be playing it WAY cool for my release.

And then yesterday arrived. The day before publication. And all that blase just flew right the heck out the window.

Have you ever seen the clip of actress Kristen Bell on Ellen? She describes it so perfectly when she's talking about her emotions. I get it, because I'm the same way...a crier.  I cry when any strong emotion hits me: joy, sadness, frustration, surprise, you name it. Well, her dream of interacting with a sloth came true, and she had a mega-meltdown. It's really rather adorable and I love her for it.  Have a looksee for yourself.  :)

I've cried so many tears on this journey to publication. Tears of rejection, disappointment, disbelief when an editor showed interest, that holy-crap-I'm-getting-published moment, then... sadness when readers don't love it, but joy when they do. 

Well, between yesterday and today, my eyes have worked overtime because it ALL hit me ALL OVER AGAIN! And I don't want to take a moment of it for granted. Yesterday morning I started getting messages from lifelong friends and family members on facebook, then excited readers on Twitter saying "One more day!" and next thing I knew my whole body was buzzing with a crazy adrenaline rush.

And then just as quickly I was getting weepy and waxing poetic in tweets to friends about releasing my "baby" to fly. I hugged each of my children in turn, holding them tight and telling them how they were both dream-come-trues. This was followed by sending "I love you, man" emails to my editor, as if I'd had one too many celebratory drinks, thanking her for believing in me and my story. I wanted to hug everyone in sight who said anything nice to me. *hugs*

And between it all, I just cried. Overwhelmed. Loved. Humbled. Thank you.

To learn more about my journey, please visit my blog.

I love you, man.

~Wendy