My First Novel- A Surreal Experience

By Christine Thackeray

OK, so I am a newbie at this whole publishing thing. I know others on this sight are old hat at it but for me the entire experience has been a surprise. I'm not sure what I expected but it wasn't that. As a matter of fact, it has been almost surreal.

Last year I decided to quit my part-time job and pursue my life-long dream of writing. I was surprised what a quiet and lonely experience writing was except when I was yelling at my kids to quiet down so I could finish another chapter or when they would totally ignore me and continue wrestling happily any. But after months of torturing my family with burnt dinners and laundry mountains, my manuscript was complete.

Then I began sending it out and after many rejections and a few rewrites, I was ecstatic that it got accepted. But once the contract was signed, it was as though it had never happened. I waited patiently for weeks (well, maybe Annaliese would disagree) until I got back the first proof. The corrections only took a few days and then it was as though I hadn't done anything again- it almost felt like I had imaged the whole thing.

But then yesterday out of the blue Doug emailed me the new cover. It looked totally different than I had imagined but I love it! I can even see my two boys about to jump into the "potty pond" if you look really closely at the crayon picture at the center (which really happened, gross.) It's finally becoming real and I am psyched because this story is great! Now I just have to let the world know. Any ideas on that front?