This morning, I decided I wanted a digital mockup of my book.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the feeling that came with seeing it.
Yes, I have the ebook preorder set up. Yes, I have a launch date. Yes, I’m actively working on getting the physical copy ready.
But seeing a mockup of The Tome of Talula sitting there like a real book hit differently.
For the first time, it felt real.
I spent five years building this world and two of those years actively writing and editing. Countless mornings before work. Late nights. Rewrites. Character arcs. Maps. Lore. Entire conversations about fictional people who somehow became family.
Now we’re in year six, and soon there will be an actual book sitting on a shelf.
I raised a six-year-old project.
I’m a proud mother, but I’m also a very nervous one.
Because it feels a little like watching your disaster children walk into first grade for the first time. You’ve done everything you can to prepare them, and now you have to let them go meet the world.
Only in this case, all of you get to read about them.
And that’s both exciting and terrifying.
P.S. The Tome of Talula is currently 68 chapters and more than 148,000 words long.
This book isn’t just thick.
It’s THICC.
