Today feels a little surreal

Yesterday was such an exciting day in so many ways because I got to share my news and countless lovely people - both friends and people I hope will become friends - joined in as I celebrated on Twitter, on here, and even in the chat box of a Words with Friends game.  It took me forever to calm down enough to sleep.

It was weird waking up today to the knowledge that people know now, and I'm officially on the debut author track.  I keep getting little reminders of this, like the notice Mer sent me of my book in Publisher's Marketplace, or the "coda by emma trevayne" search terms that popped up in my blog stats.  No one's ever googled that before.

I've been saying for about six weeks that there were certain milestones that would make this start feeling real to me.  Human nature, I think, dictates that we're always a little unwilling to believe when a dream comes true.  I hit about six of those markers yesterday, so I guess now I have to take a deep breath and accept this is actually happening.

As I mentioned in my announcement post, there are so many things I'm looking forward to in the coming year.  Cover art is a big one.  Finally sharing the all-important CODA playlist is another.  There'll be the day my MS is accepted as final, when I read through the copyedits, hopefully some foreign rights sales...the list goes on.

The two at the top of the list are related, though they'll be separated by many months.  I can't wait to dive into edits, because I really want this to be the best book it can be come launch day.

Basically, this entire post is one big excuse to use this:

Bring it, 2012.  I'm so excited.  

And in the meantime, I'm going shopping.  I'm a huge advocate of marking my writing successes with rewards (some of you know about the incredible shoes I bought when I signed with Mer) and there's a pair of headphones I've been promising myself for this moment since last summer.  As I said to Lisa the Excellent Editor yesterday, I can't figure out whether that's fitting or ironic, but that's a joke the rest of you will get when you read CODA.