Birth of a Book

I have to admit: I wasn't sure what to expect today. So much of what would pop up as "new" to the big, wide world was not new to me. I'd already held the book in my hand. I knew there was a flurry of interviews and guest posts scheduled to go up--my favorite is at eHarmony--but having written them, there was no surprises in store there. I knew good friends would gather at City Grocery, but I've had drinks with them at City Grocery dozens of times before. So I thought: well, we'll just head on down to Square Books. We'll see. And this is what I found...

The flowers my mom had delivered to me, care of the bookstore. 

A stack of copies--more than I'd ever seen in one place before!

Then I turned around and realized, Oh my goodness. That was just the stack of extras. Here's the real stack, complete with a teaser for my July 26 reading.

A friend walked in, said hello, and the next thing I knew...my book was at the check-out counter! (If this photo is a bit blurry, I know it's because I looked really strange photographing a banal commercial process.)

This is me with that friend--Jere, aka the man I got to see buy my book on the day my book went on sale. He's pretty much my favorite person on God's green earth right now.

Sometimes a day of celebration doesn't have to be epic. Sometimes it's the small gestures of the people who love you. Sometimes it's taking a deep breath and knowing: So it begins.