The Shortest Verse in the Bible, or "What Makes an Author Tick?"
I had finally made it.
My first novel The Ripper Gene had just been published, and my wife had wisely scheduled our family to be nowhere near a bookstore, but rather at the New Jersey shore on vacation� in a sea town without a bookstore for twenty miles, during the momentous occasion of my first novel�s release.
The first night of the official day of my publication, after everyone in my family had gone to bed in the shore house, I quietly cracked open my MacBook Air and logged onto Amazon at midnight as my novel "went live�. I watched for the first few hours, disbelieving my own eyes as I watched my novel creep into the top 100 of the Hot New Releases list, and then into the top 100 of the overall Best Seller List for Medical Thrillers. Suddenly I couldn�t sleep at all, as I watched my novel slowly join the company of so many other incredibly talented and famous writers I'd read and admired over the years in my own chosen genre.
I felt truly blessed and overwhelmed to have finally "made it".
The hours ticked by- midnight, one, two, three a.m. And what to my wondering eyes did appear but my novel already sitting at #3 on the Hot New Releases and #24 on Best Sellers lists for Medical Thrillers in those first few hours of its release! What joy I felt in those early hours of the morning.
I continued to watch, disbelieving, until at one point it (something?) finally hit me. I had just taken a screen shot to post onto social media (my new best friend). At that point my novel was wedged between some other novels on the list which were also captured on my screen- my internet browser only accommodated six novels at a time- and at that particular point my novel happened to be surrounded by books by Michael Crichton, Patricia Cornwell, Robin Cook, Michael Palmer, and Tess Gerritssen. With little old me as the sixth and final book on the screen.
Readers of this genre will immediately understand, and perhaps most readers will as well. To borrow my 5th grade son�s favorite all-purpose word, that was some pretty "unbe-frickin�-lievable" company for a first-time author like me.
When I stopped for that moment, and realized what had finally happened for me, after all the effort and strife and rejection and self-doubt and persecution and myriad other hurdles and obstacles I�d encountered (and ultimately overcome)�. can you guess what I did?
I wept.
I�m not too proud
My first novel The Ripper Gene had just been published, and my wife had wisely scheduled our family to be nowhere near a bookstore, but rather at the New Jersey shore on vacation� in a sea town without a bookstore for twenty miles, during the momentous occasion of my first novel�s release.
The first night of the official day of my publication, after everyone in my family had gone to bed in the shore house, I quietly cracked open my MacBook Air and logged onto Amazon at midnight as my novel "went live�. I watched for the first few hours, disbelieving my own eyes as I watched my novel creep into the top 100 of the Hot New Releases list, and then into the top 100 of the overall Best Seller List for Medical Thrillers. Suddenly I couldn�t sleep at all, as I watched my novel slowly join the company of so many other incredibly talented and famous writers I'd read and admired over the years in my own chosen genre.
I felt truly blessed and overwhelmed to have finally "made it".
The hours ticked by- midnight, one, two, three a.m. And what to my wondering eyes did appear but my novel already sitting at #3 on the Hot New Releases and #24 on Best Sellers lists for Medical Thrillers in those first few hours of its release! What joy I felt in those early hours of the morning.
I continued to watch, disbelieving, until at one point it (something?) finally hit me. I had just taken a screen shot to post onto social media (my new best friend). At that point my novel was wedged between some other novels on the list which were also captured on my screen- my internet browser only accommodated six novels at a time- and at that particular point my novel happened to be surrounded by books by Michael Crichton, Patricia Cornwell, Robin Cook, Michael Palmer, and Tess Gerritssen. With little old me as the sixth and final book on the screen.
Readers of this genre will immediately understand, and perhaps most readers will as well. To borrow my 5th grade son�s favorite all-purpose word, that was some pretty "unbe-frickin�-lievable" company for a first-time author like me.
When I stopped for that moment, and realized what had finally happened for me, after all the effort and strife and rejection and self-doubt and persecution and myriad other hurdles and obstacles I�d encountered (and ultimately overcome)�. can you guess what I did?
I wept.
I�m not too proud
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