Over the weekend, I received one of the best packages of my life. The author copies of my DEBUT board book, “Oodles of Noodles,” arrived. It’s one thing to see your work laid out on a screen; it is a different thing entirely to hold it in your hand. The heft, the feel of the pages, the quality of the thing. As one of my best friends said when I sent her a picture of the box, “you thought this up in your brain, and somebody else made them.”
She hit the nail on the head. I was an assistant stage manager in college. While my name was not on any posters, and my face was not the one that received any applause at the show’s end, there was always the clear understanding amongst everyone involved in any show that the show only goes on because work is also happening behind the scenes.
Writing can be a solitary act, but publishing takes a village. From my agent who shows far more patience than I do in the publishing process (bless her for it), to my editor, the marketing team at my publisher, and all the friends and other authors who have written early reviews or simply liked my social media posts, the story might have existed without them, but the book itself would not.
It takes a village to do a lot of things, and I think it’s important to recognize and thank that village when we can. So I thank mine. It’s only two weeks until “Oodles of Noodles” is officially published and available to the public. But it’s been years to get the book here, and I did not make that journey alone.
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