When I sat down to write this post, I wrote the title ‘Release The Pigeons! Book XYZ Is Here!“….then looked at the topic again. Oops….not ‘how do you celebrate your release’, but rather ‘how do you celebrate finishing your story’? Okay….delete, delete, delete….For me, I’m in need of an emotional rescue.
Depending on the story, my emotions as I type ‘the end’ run the gamut of elation to extreme relief to yes, even tears. At times I’ve been so wrapped up in the story, I’ve actually cried while writing the final scene (Forbidden Love, Searching For Love).
Relief, that this story that has behaved more like a two-year-old in the throes of a tantrum (Best of Both Worlds, Teacher’s Pet) is finally finished!
Elation and wonder, that my brain managed to conjure this complicated web of characters and pour from my fingertips so eloquently that I’d even dream about them, and know exactly what the next scene/dialogue/setting would be. As my mother once observed, after watching me last year, “I just watched you type furiously during the Jeapardy and Survivor commercials. It’s amazing the way your brain works, to come up with that!” (Family Matters, included in Crossroads Anthology)
But how do I celebrate it? Depends on what day this miracle occurs. If it’s on karaoke night, I’ll indulge in a drink or two and sing my heart out. If it’s on a regular day, a glass of wine and a plea to the spouse to take us out to dinner (esp if I’m wiped out by typing all day!).
I give myself a few days’ distance from it before diving into edits, in hopes that in a few short weeks or months, I’ll be shouting its release to the world:)
Curious about how other authors celebrate? See you next week!
Update on ‘cover-gate’: When I signed on for this project back in July, the publisher said ‘yes’ to the idea of putting those four novellas into one print anthology. While I wasn’t happy that a) I was never consulted on cover art for the re-release of the e-format of all four and b) wasn’t happy with the final product, I nevertheless signed the new contract, anticipating the print version would arrive this week.
Queried new manager yesterday, only to be told they are NOT going to honor the original agreement, and since I was promised it originally, and if I felt strongly about it, they would be happy to release me from my contract. So now I’m back to paying my original cover artist, and contacting another to create the print cover:) I’m sure I’ll have more on this subject later, so stay tuned.
Molly's Musings/Kenzie's Korner 
Getting a story to behave long enough to finish is well worth a celebration and a break from cooking!
Exactly! And I take every excuse I can to get out of cooking, ha ha!
Phantom of the Opera is one of my go-to sources when I need to recover from the mental stress of a manuscript.
I LOVE Phantom! I need to sit down and watch Le Mis…the Hugh Jackman version.
I am glad you got out of that contract. It sounded sketchy the way they kept changing things up. Good luck on more ends and celebrations.
Me too, Cathy, me too! I only have one ‘hard-core’ erotic book; the rest are pretty tame. But when I signed on, other romance authors objected, since they’re more sweet, and it was like, ‘OMG, I can NOT be on the same site as an erotic romance writer!’…so they spun me off into another line. I think I’m the only author there, ha ha…..and now they only have 1 book from me. Not getting anything else.
Sounds like a great way to celebrate! I usually have those ‘the end’ moments home alone with my dogs. They aren’t particularly interested in my excitement and typically sleep through my announcement. The Hubby did take the family out to dinner when I completed my second book. Little things, but they make you feel good.
Yes, they sure do! All I need is ‘congratulations….let’s go out to dinner!’