The thrill of seeing your name on your first book

I now have copies of my very first YA book–The Last Dragon! (grinning) On Saturday, I went to lunch at the editor’s house with my fellow writers from the Dragon Speaker series–Debbie Ouellet and Erin Thomas. We signed copies to each other, and received some copies of our own book.

What a thrill to see my name on the cover, to open up the book and see the dedication I’d written, and the story, the words that I wrote!

All the way home on the subway, I kept taking one of the copies of my book out of the back, grinning at the cover, reading a few pages, then putting it back. I’d stare at the cover peeking out from the top of the bag. I kept wanting to turn to strangers on the subway and wave my book at them, saying “I wrote this! This is MY book!” It took great restraint not to do that. (laughing) I satisfied myself by showing my book to a store clerk who I’ve had interactions with before, and she was lovely and excited with me.

Dragon Speaker Series authors - top, left to right: Cheryl Rainfield, Erin Thomas; bottom: Deb Ouellet. And yes, that's a Wonder Woman belt I'm wearing.

Here's each of us holding a copy of our book in the order they appear in the Dragon Speaker series: Cheryl Rainfield with The Last Dragon; Deb Ouellet with A Hero's Worth; and Erin Thomas with Draco's Fire.

Erin Thomas was savvy enough to ask for a photo with our editor, Paul Kropp (also a children's/YA writer); he's poking his head out behind Deb and me.

Erin also managed to get a photo of Lori Jamison, the author of the 32-page teacher's guide for all the Dragon Speaker books.

September 7th, 2009