Happiness

In many cultures, cranes are a symbol of happiness. It’s been five months into the COVID-19 pandemic and happiness is a slippery thing. Still, we have to find and hold on to it wherever and whenever we can. For me, it’s my book, RESET.

I began it in April 2017 after a very frustrating night of writing. I decided to erase what I spent months writing and started over with a blank slate. Tabula rasa. As I was staring at the white page, I thought, what if humans could reset our lives every so often? What life would we have? What kind of world would we live in? 

Fast forward to February 2018, almost a year later and after a thousand rewrites, I wrote “the end” to the manuscript. After came the beta readers, more rewrites, and several rounds of editing. Then my road to traditional publishing began. In April of that year, I started my search for an agent. Mine found me via #DVpit pitch on Twitter. In October 2019, we sold RESET to Blackstone Publishing.

In June of this year, I went through the developmental editing phase and in July, the cover design. I’m now beginning to discuss marketing with my agent in preparation for the Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) coming out in November 2020. May 2021 is when RESET will be released in hardcover, ebook, and audio book. Four years will have passed between the conception of the book and its publication. This is the life of a book. This is the life of a writer.

Every step is a wonder and I’m reminded of my travels. Around the corner is an adventure waiting to happen, a new sight to see, a new taste to explore. It’s true what Steve Jobs said, “the journey is the reward.”

As much work as this book has been, I’m so thankful for it. In the middle of a political storm, under the threat of an economic collapse, in the face of social and racial injustices, this book is my crane of happiness. It represents, for me, that one thing that lifts up the human spirit: hope.

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