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12.
AOTW: How did you feel and how did you react the first time
you saw your book on a shelf in a bookstore?
Sallie
Bissell: In The Forest of Harm came out on January 2.
I drove over to my favorite bookstore in my hometown of Nashville,
Tennessee. There it was, its beautiful white cover gleaming on the
shelf. I stared at it for a long time, thinking about how long I
had wanted to be a writer and now I finally had a book on the shelves.
I felt like I had arrived. Then tears came to my eyes, so I hurried
to the café and bought a cup of coffee and a piece of caramel cake.
I've never fought any occasion to celebrate with caffeine and sugar!
Stephanie
Gertler: I was in a bookstore in New York City. My sixteen-year-old
daughter, Ellie, and I went in and she pointed to the book. It was
in a prominent spot under "new fiction." She picked the book of
the shelf and was smiling, but I just turned and left the store.
I felt truly overwhelmed. It felt like Judgment Day!
NM
Kelby: When the Advance Reader's Copy came, I was pleased because
it's such a lovely-looking book. The cover is very beautiful. I
actually had it framed.
Once
Angels became a real book, not a manuscript, I started to understand
the idea of an author's voice in the world. Angels is my
gift to readers and I hope they like it. It's all I have to offer.
Cat
Bauer: Since I was overseas, I never saw it. It was only cyber.
I felt very strongly that I needed to have the actual experience
of seeing the book on the shelf because it didn't seem real ---
that's why I went back to the States. I signed in the Borders close
to my hometown in New Jersey, where the novel is set. People I hadn't
seen in years showed up to give their support. It was incredibly
fulfilling.
Thisbe
Nissen: It's very exciting; I don't really know what to say
other than that. I probably grinned ridiculously and got stared
at by sales people wondering who the blushing idiot in the fiction
section was.
Suzanne
Chazin: It was fun to see my name on a book jacket, but since
I wrote for a major magazine for more than a decade, this wasn't
really a rush. What was a rush (and continues to be) is anytime
someone talks to me about my characters. I feel a terrific high
knowing that people I created live inside someone else. This is
the greatest experience of all for me, and it's great every time.
It never diminishes, the way seeing your name in print can.
Michael
Leahey: The first time I saw my book on a bookshelf was in the
Coliseum Bookstore in Manhattan. It was on the bottom shelf between
John Le Carre and Elmore Leonard. It was, like my first taste of
ice cream, very special. I got so excited I tried to get the woman
next to me to buy the book. She took me for another New York nut
job and went to look at cookbooks.
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