Minutes To Midnight, Chapter 25, And Massive Fangirling!

I’m going to get a little personal here for a moment.

I am a bibliophile. I love books. I unabashedly blame my parents and grandparents for this fact. It is the greatest gift they’ve ever given me (aside from the obvious “life” one) and I hope to someday pass that same adoration on to my own children. My first real paying job, when everyone around  me was slaving away in a fast food joint, was as a library clerk. I used to spend hours walking through the hushed silence, letting my fingers trail along the neatly arranged spines, just waiting for the next new discovery to capture my attention. I would lose myself in these words, these worlds, brought to life by others more bold, more talented than I and daydream about one day being able to also hold the coveted title of “author”.

When my husband said he wanted to write with me, it was like a dream come true. And it became a reality in February of this year. We self published our first title, the one you’re currently enjoying (or soon to be), Minutes To Midnight. And it was during that process that I learned a very valuable lesson: writing is like pouring your heart and soul onto paper, and publishing that work is absolutely nerve wracking. But when the positive reviews started rolling in, I knew that we’d done something magical.

There are many authors, past and present, who are on my list of “someday want to meet, if even for a second”. Tonight, I will get to be in the presence of one of my biggest influences and most favorite urban fantasy author, and I am absolutely freaking out about it.

I first found out about Jim Butcher’s Dresden File series through the short lived Syfy series. I was instantly enraptured by the world presented, and immediately went on the search for the books that spawned this incredible show. I devoured Storm Front and quickly made my way through each novel until I was all caught up and joining the masses who constantly waited for the next one to be released. It is, without fail, one of the very few books that I will buy in hard cover, ON the day it’s released, because I love them that much.

When we first moved to Seattle, we had the opportunity to see him in person, but were so new to the city that we ultimately didn’t get to because we got lost. By the time we figured out just where we were, it was too late for us to show up, and I was heartbroken. I wanted to tell Jim Butcher just how influential he’d been in my own writing endeavors, to share with him my gratitude for being bold enough to put his work out there for aspiring authors, like me, to enjoy and one day hope to emulate.

So I find it incredibly gratifying to be able to say that the same year we finally published our novel, we will potentially get that chance. This time, there won’t be any “getting lost” on the way. We have tickets. We WILL be leaving early. And our GPS will *not* abandon us tonight. I will stand like the giddy fangirl that I am, clutching my copy of Cold Days and stand in line for as long as it takes just so I can tell him thank you. Thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for showing me that perseverance can lead to wonderful things. Thank you for continuing to write, to expand the Dresden universe, and for making me realize that an epic story cannot be contained.

Thank you for showing me that anything is possible. Even in a world where the only magic resides in the written words encased between two covers.

That said, I’ll probably just break down and squee all over him and make a total fangirl fool of myself.

And I’m okay with that.

Only one chapter to go on this audio adventure! Enjoy!