The Author Roller Coaster Ride

Being an author is awesome. It’s like creating your own roller coaster with miles and miles of track, and you get to sit in the front seat as you experience all the highs and lows, twists and turns of the seemingly endless ride.

When you first start the ride, putting those first words to paper or computer, it’s every bit like getting in that coaster car and holding onto the bar as it begins that first, painfully slow, clack-clack treck up to the top of the first drop. Similarly, finishing the first draft of a novel can seem as if it takes forever to get to the end, or in the case of our rollercoaster metaphor, to the top of a hill that is so high you can almost touch the clouds. But when you get there, when you finish your first draft and your car plunges down at a hundred miles an hour, it’s thrilling for about… a minute. Then comes the next draft, then the one after that, and little highs and lows you experience along the way as you perfect your masterpiece. 

So it goes until…the book is done. Fini. And, that, too is a different kind of thrill as your coaster car zips around some fancy swirls, followed by another series of lulls until finally, publication! Wheeeeee! Hands in the air, screaming at the top of your lungs, PUBLISHED!

Ah, but the ride isn’t over yet. While publication is yet another thrill, it’s one fraught with expectation. This is where the ride can get a little scary because once the book is out in the world, you wait with white-knuckle anticipation for the surprise section of the track you know is coming. Well, you hope it’s coming, anyway, because after everything you’ve already been through there’s just gotta be something awesome at the end of your journey. Right? You don’t want the ride to end with a dud. 

That something awesome would be your first sale, of course. You click on your sales dashboard on the internet, and… WOW! There it is! Your first sale! Yippeeeee! Feel the wind through your hair as you zip through a crazy section of the track. 

Still not the end of the ride, what comes next, the grand finale—what can make or break your entire experience. What’s the grand finale? That would be your first review. When that comes in and it’s a good one? Man, there’s nothing like it in the world. NOTHING. There you are, screaming down the final stretch of track with a sense of elation that is indescribable. Seriously. You’ve just ridden the most awesome rollercoaster—that you designed and have been on for over a year, perhaps—and you are absolutely dizzy and maybe even a little nauseous with giddy satisfaction.

All that to say… I got my first official review for Dot in the Weeds today! To say I am gobsmacked by it is, well… understating it just a bit. I have been walking on air all day and may just stay up here for a good while longer because it’s very nice up here.

You can read it here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43172586-dot-in-the-weeds