One Year of Published Authorhood!

Today marks the one year anniversary of the US publication of THE TETHERED MAGE. I’ve now been a published author for one whole year! WOO HOO!

If you want to get in the time machine, you can read my original post about my debut release  (with pictures).

But I thought that in honor of this anniversary, I’d offer you my list of Things That Are Actually Different In My Life Now That I’m a Published Author:

• When people ask me what I do for a living, I get to say I’m an author! And then they look at me funny and try to figure out what that means and if I’m for real (whatever that means to them), and ask awkward questions, and it’s all needlessly complicated.

• My fun hobby is now a job with deadlines. LIFE-CONSUMING DEADLINES. HA HA HA I DIDN’T WANT TO DO ANYTHING BESIDES WRITE EVER ANYWAY. THIS IS FINE

• When I walk into a bookstore, sometimes (usually!) MY BOOKS ARE ON THE SHELF HOLY CRAP!!! THIS NEVER STOPS BEING AMAZING!

• The default small talk topic at family gatherings has turned from “how are the kids” to “how are the books,” which is actually WAY MORE AWKWARD than you’d think

• Sometimes COMPLETE STRANGERS make posts on the internet about my books keeping them up late at night or making them miss their train stop and IT GIVES ME LIFE

• Where the fuck did all my Sharpies go?!

• I never get to see my friends anymore because DID I MENTION THE DEADLINES (SOB)

• BUT! My friends are awesome and understanding and POST SHELFIES WITH MY BOOKS IN THE WILD and squee about them with me and are in all ways THE BEST

• Taxes, on the other hand, are THE WORST whyyyyyyyy so complicated ARGH

• My teen’s geeky friends suddenly think I’m cool

• Dread about whether I’ll ever be good enough to get published now replaced by even more crushing dread about whether I’ll live up to the expectations of my readers & publisher with the next book

• Sometimes I’m just sitting there in my living room and I see MY BOOKS ON THE SHELF and I have to go pet them and sniff them and look, this is TOTALLY NORMAL

All in all, I have to say, it’s been PRETTY FRICKIN’ AMAZING. Happy first birthday to THE TETHERED MAGE, and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings!