Twitterpated

I got my new books today!


It was a week earlier than I expected, but it's so fun to open up those boxes and see them--even when I look dumb doing it. My son played photographer today because I didn't want to wait for my husband to get home so I could open the box.


Here is the ceremonial unpacking of the author copies:

Once again, I will remind everyone that my teeth aren't really that crooked. It's this shadow thing that happens on my right tooth because it's stupid.


When James saw the book, he started laughing. "Twitterpated? Hahaha! Is that a real word?" Well, YEAH. I tried to explain it, and how it's even in the movie Bambi or whatever. And he was all, "Nope. It sounds like being constipated, like someone is saying, 'I want to Tweet, but I just . . . can't.'" And then he fell over laughing again. And I kicked him. But not very hard.


Anyway, this book has kind of snuck up on me a little. And I bite my thumb and at anyone who says "snuck" isn't a real verb. Uh . . . oh, yeah. So it's taken me by surprise. Twitterpated is actually the very first book I wrote. It's so fun to finally see it coming out now. I remember the sweat and tears that went into it. The amount of time I spent playing Insaniquarium because I didn't know what to write next. The elaborate character sketches I wrote before I ever started the story. The giant dish of frozen yogurt Kenny ran out and got me at 11:00 at night because that's when I finished writing my very first book. How amazing that felt. How amazing that still feels.


The thing is, I'm in a much different place career-wise as an author. On the same day that I'm opening my author copies for one book, I'm trying to compose my final bio-sketch for my agent so she can send my first national book out on submission this week. (That's a really huge deal that I'm probably not supposed to discuss publicly so let's not tell anyone I told you, okay?) And now instead of trying to whip my first chapter into shape for the LDS Storymakers contest, I'm judging one of the categories. And instead of picking the classes I want to go to, I'm planning the one I'll teach. And instead of trying to figure out how to find critique partners, I'm trying to figure out how to balance all the requests I get to read people's work against my own deadlines and family obligations.


But there are still things that are really fun. Like getting a royalty check last week, and my author copies today, and going on submission on Thursday. So we went out to eat as a family to celebrate it all, which reminded us why we haven't done that in a really long time (go out to eat) since we have a toddler, and that was supernotfun. And then my book came up on Goodreads tonight, which I love to see.


And I'll be telling you more about book stuff soon, but for right now, just because I'm so stoked to see Twitterpated on Goodreads, I made up a contest right on the spot (like a half hour ago). If you're on Goodreads and you add it To Read, whether you know you entered this contest or not, you're automatically entered to win a copy of the book. So you can wander on over here to Goodreads and add it To Read, if you want to.


And I'm going to go pet my pretty little books, and then curl up with my husband and a different book from the The Whitney finalists, and I'm going to soak up this day and all its good stuff. But not the two little kids at dinner part. The rest of it.