Heather Masterson

Here’s something you probably don’t know: when I first thought about pulling the book out of the trunk, dusting it off, shining it up, and publishing it, I had a very specific plan in mind. A detailed, covers-all-the-bases, suitably intricate plan.

This is that plan:

1. Publish it as a Kindle book.
2. There is no step 2.

I wanted to just quietly open the door and let it slip free. No fanfare, no advertising… hell, I wouldn’t tell anyone at all. Not my family, not my friends – nobody. People would find it. Or they wouldn’t. It would be out there, and I would know that it was out there – that was the important part.

As soon as others got involved, that plan went straight out the window. And maybe it should have, though the part of me that likes to hide in a cave (so long as it’s a cave with good Wi-Fi) is still cringing a little. (Ok, sometimes, it’s cringing a lot.)

Part of it is just not wanting to call attention to myself; part of it is just cringing away from the process of self-promotion when there’s always something going on out there that is, unquestionably, far more important. I just keep trying to remind myself that there’s a point to all this.

Here’s the point: books are freaking fantastic.

I fell in love with reading when I was young, and no matter how many awesome movies I watch or fantastic video games I play, books never lose their relevance. They’re still one of the best ways to escape. Or to learn. Or to discover. Or to dream. A lot of authors spent a lot of time and energy sending their books out into the world so that I could stumble across them, read them, re-read them, love them, argue with them, and fume over them. I’d like to return the favor, and even if only a few people escape into my twisted little world and enjoy it there, then I’ll count it well worth the effort.

I won’t be posting the absolutely cringe-worthy promotional video that I saw last night, though. That thing made me want to jab myself with a nice sharp pencil. But I will work on getting a better one, because I’m in this now, and my inner hermit can just suck it up.