Reading SOTT for the First Time Ever (Yes, I Know I Wrote it...)

I'm just NOW reading it for the first time?!

Yes. Today is the first time I've actually sat down and read a physical copy of my book. A fellow author warned me not to read Secrets of The Tally right after it came out, because it would still be too fresh in my head, and I'd inevitaby see things I would immediately want to change. So I've spent the last year eating, sleeping, and breathing in the scent of marketing, sales, distribution, Kickstarter, and Book Two. But now that Book Two (Catching Epics) is done and I'm trying to take time away from it, it came time to pick up a SOTT copy from the stacks I keep lying around the house, and see if I still liked the story.

I'm going to be honest and say I struggled a little - partly because I can still quote every single line, almost word for word, even after nearly nine months away from it. Partly, it was because I kept thinking about books two and three at inopportune times, new plans spinning into my head at every turn. I had to force myself to slow down, stay focused, and just read.

But when I actually slowed down to absorb the words, I found myself totally in love with them all over again. Even more than that, I felt like I was meeting my past self for the first time in a long time. Secrets of The Tally reminds me of all the things happening in my life when I was writing the story (I wrote SOTT from ages twelve to twenty-three, so a LOT happened). It reminds me of how much I've changed, and all the ways I've stayed the same.

It took me two days to real all the way through, and I find myself laying the book down with a feeling of "Yes." I was worried I wouldn't live up to my own hype, or that I'd find myself embarrassed by the things I revealed about my inner self in the words. But I am so proud to call this work my own, and now I get the priviledge of moving on to Catching Epics, which I love just as much.