Anticipation

Sometimes I think anticipation is more fun than fulfillment. When you're looking forward to something, the possibilities are endless and the future shiny. As long as the lottery numbers haven't been drawn, you could be a millionaire. When your birthday is still five days away, you might be getting that $300 American Girl doll bed.*

And as long as your book hasn't been released, you can still envision eye popping, life changing, job-quitting sales figures.

Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration. But until your book drops, you can fantasize about glowing reviews ("This is the romance novel that will put werewolves ahead of vampires once and for all! So long, bloodsuckers! Woof, woof, baby!") and sales figures that make your editor read your future submissions ahead of everyone else's.

My first full length book comes out next Tuesday, Feb. 8. (What? You want to know where to buy it? Aw, shucks, you don't have...well, if you insist: Yours, Mine and Howls.) It's been reviewed once, and favorably. Another reviewer, after reading the first chapter, tweeted that she loved it and couldn't wait to read the whole book. So of course I immediately began to fret that I'd just set her up for huge disappointment. The Hub said, "Honey, why do you assume she'll be disappointed in your book?" I replied, "Hi! I'm your wife! You're telling me you're just now noticing this tendency?"

I am a confident optimist in most every area of life, but not when it comes to my books. My impending sophomore release has me just a wee bit petrified. I go from:

Oh, it'll be great! Reviewers will love it, just like Blessed Mary, Editor of My Dreams, says they will! Readers will flock to it!

to

It's weird. It's not like other werewolf books. Western romance lovers are gonna say "What are all these werewolves doing in my romance?" and paranormal readers are gonna say "What's with the horses? And why aren't there more Fae?" and Mom's gonna say "ORAL SEX? You write about ORAL SEX???" Oh, wait, no she won't, because she still doesn't know my pen name...

Then I take a deep breath, pour another glass of wine, and read old fan email from people who liked Kiss and Kin. Yes, it's pathetic, but the Hub and the Sisters-in-Law just can't listen to me whine anymore.



Okay, let's do a contest. The first commenter (to be determined by time stamp) to tell me who Carly Simon wrote "Anticipation" for will win a copy of Yours, Mine and Howls. (You might find the answer surprising.)







*Or not. Sorry, Diva.