A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… I had a proof of my very first ever draft of Awakening privately printed. At that point in time, it didn’t have a title but was simplify known as First Draft. (Riveting, I know.) The story was terrible. No, really. The world was less developed, the characters all sounded the same, and the pacing was rushed. It was my first go at writing, what can I say?

But the moment that proof arrived and I held the physical form of what my mind had dreamed up, I knew, for the first time in my life, what I wanted to be when I grew up. For the next fourteen years, I used whatever spare time I had to better my writing skills and then used that knowledge to eventually rewrite the story and give it a proper title. With Awakening now complete and currently being queried, I once again felt the urning to hold in my hands the physical form of all that hard work. This time, I added the maps I illustrated and the accompanying appendix to the proof. How amazing is it to see the calendar I illustrated tucked in next to the Glossary! In the words of Kevin McCallister, it’s “a lovely [proof copy], just for me!”

There’s that scene in the film Cast Away where Chuck is on the island and finally gets a spark to catch fire. Giddy with excitement, he builds it into a giant bonfire and dances around it proclaiming, “Yes! Look what I have created! I have made fire! I… *beats chest* have made fire!” I feel just like that when I look through my proof. I don’t know what the querying process holds, but while I navigate it, this proof helps me remember what I have created, and it keeps me wanting to create more.