I got my book in the mail today! And the first thing I thought was…it’s so…tiny. It’s not many pages at all, and I spent so many years on it. Shouldn’t it be more? But it is what it is, I could have put some filler in, in the end though, it’s like living on the outer coast of Alaska….stripped down to the essentials. Of course now it seems much more real, and I’ve started thinking toward its debut in a month or so. Will there be good reviews? Scathing ones? What will some of my long lost friends think, will they be looking for themselves in the book? They aren’t there, but it is impossible not to write their spirits into anything I say about Alaska.
It must be like sending your child off to school for the first time…this book isn’t just mine anymore; it can be ripped apart and analyzed and discussed. That’s frightening! In the end though. I wrote the story I heard in my heart. If someone hates it, or loves it, it’s not really going to change that.
Onward.