I'm an instant gratification kind of gal. I was never one of those kids who tried to make a sucker last as long as possible. If there's a cookie in front of me, I will probably eat it. I'm also better with spontenaity than with planning ahead. I just don't know ahead of time if I'm going to want to do X when Thursday rolls around. I try to plan ahead because it makes life with other people easier and I don't want my friends to ditch me. But really? I'd rather just wake up on Thursday, look outside at the weather and inside at how I'm feeling, and decide to go the Arboretum on a whim, perhaps texting a friend or two on the way to see if anyone wants to join us.
That's me. Spontaneous and in pursuit of instant gratification.
One of the reasons I was attracted to blogging is that it completely appealed to this side of me. If I want to write about something and share it with others, I can do so right away while it is fresh in my mind and important to me. And I can get feedback and have a conversation with others (via comments and facebook) right away. I love it!
Most other forms of publishing are not nearly as quick. With my column (which I just stopped doing, by the way), I turned my copy in a month in advance. When I've written for Mothering and Parenting magazines, it was six months or more before the articles were published. With this book that I just turned in, it'll be spring 2013 before I can share it with you. So much time!
What I'd really like to do is tie a pretty ribbon around my book and hand it straight to you today. A present from me to you. I worked so hard on it and put so much of myself into it. I want to share it. And I don't want to wait over a year to do so.
But I will wait because I must. And because I trust that my publisher will work all kinds of magic to make this book even better than it is now. Editing, graphic design, printing, and I don't even know what else lies in store for this little book of mine.
And so, even though I'd really like to hand this book straight to you as is, I will wait. And it will be better with the waiting, I'm sure.
