Autographs and Nervous Breakdowns

Now that the release date for the paperback version of A Thread of Deepest Black is almost here (March 6), I have received my copies from my publisher, Samhain.  They arrived unexpectedly early all boxed up in bubblewrap and it took me several hours of staring at the box on the kitchen counter before I could open it.  I have no idea why, I was excited to see a print copy of my book (my first one), and yet I was scared to peek inside!  Obviously I got over it.

They are very pretty.  I still love Kanaxa's wonderful cover.  Once my sisters found out, I had to fork over their copies.  One of them already read the ebook, but the other...lets just say I'm sure she'll never look at me the same way again!  I am trying to weasel out of giving my mom one.  I will eventually fail.  Mothers trump every excuse you can come up with.  Now, everybody in my family knows what I write, I blab storylines to them all the time, but unless you are m/m fan, I imagine reading it for the first time can be quite shocking.  In the end though, its their decision.

Which brings me to the next scary thing about receiving those books:  Autographing one!



It just so happens that on the day I received this Pandora's Box lovely package, I had plans to meet up with my friend Mountie from the Goodreads M/M Romance group for coffee (actually I only drink tea, but we always choose to keep the Starbucks staff employed).  I wasn't sure she'd want a copy, but I brought one, 'cause I just had to show SOMEBODY!  Being the wonderful person she is, yes, she did want one and then...well, she wanted me to autograph it for her.  OMG!  What?  I refrained from saying "What the hell for!" (or maybe I didn't, the whole thing is a freaky blur) and proceded to enter some bizarre fugue state.

Everything went blank.  Yep.  I couldn't find the words, any friggin' words, which is not something I've ever had happen to me.  I mean I knew I wanted to thank her for the honor, but wow, the link from brain to hand was broken, something had short-circuited.  And when I finally landed back on Earth with a thump, my shaky hand could barely hold the pen.  And she was kind enough to show me where I was supposed to sign.  I did not acquit myself well.  Thank you for putting up with me Mountie (I have no idea what I wrote, please tell me it wasn't moronic!).  If I had to have a meltdown in public, I'm glad it was with you!

So if you ever decide to ask me for my autograph (like at GayRomLit) please go easy on me.  While I may wonder why you want it, I will eventually suck it up and get it done because absolutely and truly, the honor is mine, that you would ask because you liked my book, and I thank you.