On first books

Five years and a couple of days ago, I hit "Publish" on Amazon KDP and my first book was sent out into the wild.

First books--and maybe any first thing you do--are tricky. They're a very important milestone, but they're also a reminder of how much of a work in progress we all are. I admit to not giving as much love to my first published book as much as I do to the next ones, because anything I learned after publishing this one was applied in the next, so the first one often feels inferior to the others.

Except that the first book has what the next ones can never have--the first leap of faith, the first time someone edited my work at length, the first words from a full-length novel that anyone ever read from me, the first lessons learned as an author and not just any writer.

And then someone would come along and tell me that my first book is their favorite among the ones I've published, that this is the one that spoke to them, that some of them couldn't even finish it because it just felt so true to them, and I realize how even if Fall Like Rain is a little rough around the edges just like its main character, Rain, it is still the right book to the right reader for that right time.

In the words of Lin-Manuel Miranda in Hamilton the Musical: "Look at where we are, look at where we started." So happy five years + a few days to my first book, Fall Like Rain! Thanks for all the lessons and for setting me off in this interesting and fun path that keeps me sane in the middle of all the other things.

Now to finish that 3-year old manuscript...

P.S. Fall Like Rain is available on Amazon. :)