Take Fourteen

The book went out into the world yesterday and this morning I tried to say thank you to a phone propped against the kitchen window. Take one had trumpets in it. Takes two through six had the word journey, in various positions, each worse than the last. Somewhere around take nine I heard myself performing gratitude instead of feeling it, which is the exact failure the whole blog exists to avoid, so I stopped, made proper coffee in the cezve, and started over with the cup in my hand.

Take fourteen is the keeper. In it I say thank you twice, plainly, once for reading and once for the early readers who went first, and then I drink my coffee before it goes cold, on camera, because that is the most honest sentence I know. The kitchen is green, the light is doing its morning work, and the woman in the frame looks tired and pleased, which is accurate.

I am told real authors reshoot until the eyes sparkle. Mine sparkle at exactly one thing the morning after a launch, and it is in the cup.