This much is really true

Since I was a little girl of about seven, I think, I wanted to have a book published. I wanted one that I wrote with my name on it. I wanted to touch it, smell it, and see it. Well, yesterday I did just that. I got a call yesterday afternoon that my book was back from the printers. The amazing Kim at Jesperson Publishing actually drove to my husband's work to drop off my copies so I could get them ASAP. I think she was almost as excited about it as I was. Then I opened up the package and there it was: real, three-dimensional, a book with my name on it. When I opened it up, there were the words I had written and rewritten, looked at and edited so many times that I could not stand to look at them anymore but they no longer looked like those words because they were there in a real book, not on printed out copy after copy of my manuscript.

And it looked so fantastic! So much better than I had ever imagined. Vibrant colours and an eye-catching cover photo, raised title letters and a raised pink envelope on the back cover to set it all off. Rhonda at Jesperson really did a brilliant job of laying out the cover and the print. It was almost too much to take in. Hubby took a picture of me opening the books up and one of me holding the first copy I touched. I'd show you, I really would, but husband, while taking the picture, failed to say "Tina dear, please don't smile quite so much and arch your eyebrows that way. And take your hair out of your eyes. You really do look quite insane, more like you're holding the head of a recently slaughtered archenemy than your book."

So the book is back from the printers and is at Jesperson's office. They will be disbursing it to Chapters and other local bookstores very soon but you can contact them to get it directly from them, if you'd like to get it sooner. Helmut, yours should get to you soon.