Note: I updated this post with a link to the original post from January here.

When I got home from work last night, there was a brown Fed Ex package waiting for me on my doorstep. The address label bore the Random House logo.

I brought it in to the kitchen and opened it. Two copies of the paperback edition of The Myth of You and Me slid out onto the kitchen table, along with a lovely cover letter from Sally Kim, a senior editor at RH.

I have to tell ya, it was pretty exciting to see my very own words printed inside a book, alongside my name. The only bummer is that they didn't use my full name--for legal reasons, I suppose . I was also asked to change the name of the person about whom I wrote (again, for legal reasons).

But I guess that doesn't matter. It shows my name, my town, and my story.

The thing that tickled me the most was that not a single word of my writing was edited. I am truly shocked by that. As a writer, one becomes accustomed to having their material ripped to pieces and reconstructed for clarity and conciseness and grammar. But this time, my story was captured exactly as I'd dashed it off on Leah's website.

As for the novel, I began reading it around 10:30 p.m. and was nearly finished by midnight, when my tired eyes finally gave out on me. So far, it's an excellent story about intense female friendship. The protagonist is realistic, accessible and to me, eerily relatable.

I highly recommend this book, and not just because I'm a little biased.

Labels: accomplishments, books, friends, writing