I’ve been working towards publication for a long time now. More than ten years, truth-be-told. Granted, I have had some short stories published, but I’m talking books now.
Truthfully, there have been times when I wondered if I would ever be successful. That was mostly at the beginning, but there have been bumps in the road the past four or five years.
As you know, I signed my first contract last fall (October 2010) for my Young Adult Superhero novel, “Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero”. You had better believe that I was excited when that happened. I don’t think I quit smiling for a week. But, that was almost a year ago and the book isn’t due out until next spring. That feeling of giddy excitement couldn’t last forever, nor did it. I settled in for the patient wait, knowing it would come out eventually.
The excitement was rekindled yesterday. I got to see an early draft of the cover.
I’m pretty lucky with the cover for “Mik Murdoch”. It is being done by a good friend who is both a great writer and artist extraordinaire. He and I have had several conversations about the cover and we came up with a concept that I think is pretty awesome. To make it even better, the model for the cover is my son.
So, we had the photo shoot and I knew what the concept was. You would think I would know what to expect, right?
Well, yes and at the same time no. I had a pretty good idea what to expect. Except, the reality of it is much more awesome than what I ever envisioned.
The concept leaps off the page for me and gets me all excited about the process all over again. Yes, the process is slow. Sometimes painfully so (and, I suspect, my publisher feels the same way) but it is moments like this that I know the waiting and patience is all worth it.
