It's been two weeks since I received that unexpected email from an e-publishing company telling me that they'd like to publish my novel. As blogged about several days later, I am still observing myself for signs of change. Perhaps not with the same intensity as during the days following this news. No longer do I complete a mental chart comprising behaviours such as: rechecking the TBP email in case it really read: 'Jane, I would not like to publish Water's Edge, ' indulging in arrogant thoughts and fantasies of the novel being turned into a blockbuster movie. I haven't taken taxis anywhere. I haven't indulged in a shopping spree. Nor have I started looking for a second home. No, essentially I am still me. I have, however, been busy on authorial tasks. My contract arrived via email: to scrutinise, sign, scan and email back. This certainly produced the 'wow' feeling. On the same day, I received a request to edit someone's book. What interested me was that the writer had already approached another editor, who happened to be a ThornBerry author. As she was too busy, she passed on my website details. I didn't know she knew anything about me. Obviously someone at TBP had told her I did editing work. A sign my writing life was changing.
Since then, I have put together a bio for the TBP website, and found a photo - not exactly how I like to see myself, but it will do for the moment. When these details and the photo of me were put up on the website under the heading of 'new signing', I felt a fillip of excitement, accompanied by frequent checks of the website, simply for the thrill of seeing myself - the child in me rears its ego more frequently than ever. In addition, I have given some input on the jacket cover and the blurb I would like to see on my e-book. Also the dedication and acknowledgements. What has taken the most time, to date, is the development of an author's website. It's by no means finished, but it's mentioned on my bio, so it is out there, in a way that my other websites/blogs never have been. Scary. As there is also a link to my blogs, I am conscious now of the need to consider more the content, to rein in frothiness. I am tentatively asking blogging friends if they'll interview me on their blogs and, finally, I've become a born-again tweeter, something I didn't think would happen.
Jane
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