Erica Staab

I have the first proof of the In-Between sitting on my computer screen.

I got the e-mail yesterday saying my exterior proof of the book was ready and so I clicked and downloaded my piece (technology is amazing) and I was speechless.  They had taken my ideas, combined them with my photos, listened to the heart of the book and presented me with something that seemed to leap straight from my heart onto the screen.  And now today they sent me the interior proofs, and again I was left staring at the screen in awe of what they had done, and what we had created together.  My words, my pictures, my vision and now their artistic touches and viola!  A beautiful book waiting for its final approval before it graces the world with its presence.

It is my creation, my baby, my dream for the past two years, and now it not only has a name, it has deadlines, it has form, it has flesh and bones.  For so long it was just simply a nice thing that was on my bucket list:

124. Become a best-selling author

But bit by bit I crossed each hurdle, stepped up a little bit more, stretched beyond my comfort zones  and did one more thing towards my dream, some little, some big, and somehow, someway, it is giving way to this dream made manifest.

Now it is in my hands, a few more rounds of editing and the first author’s proof will literally be in my hands.  I can’t wait until it is, but until then I am savoring this place, this moment of being proud of me, this moment of realizing that I did this, I made this happen.  For far too much of my life I have always looked towards the next goal, the next great thing never pausing to savor the stops and starts along the way, never pausing to celebrate, or to even look back to realize what I did to get to this place.

I am finding that so much of the pleasure is in living the dream into life… first talking about it, feeling the shape and form of it in your own mind, then the first people that you sheepishly share your big dream with, then the first scary steps towards making it more concrete and real… and now for me, this place, this place of sharing my dream, of having friends and family who support each milestone along the way and who will celebrate each moment with me.  The completion of the first draft, the first Publisher that I sent it to, the first rejection letter, the first time I claimed those words out loud “I am a writer”, and now the first proofs… and… and well the next and will have to wait.

I am busy savoring THIS moment right here, right now.

I am busy living my dream into life.