Dishes, as it turns out.
I had Publication Day planned so well. My oldest would get on the bus for kindergarten, the baby would go down for his nap around 10:30, and I’d have at least two hours – if not three – to make sure everything with publication was moving along smoothly.
Not quite how it happened. The baby woke up at 4am, and by the time I convinced him that no, it really was still sleepy time, it was 5am. As the last vestiges of Snowzilla 2016 were still melting outside, and the school district here is run by wimps, my oldest did not have school at all, so I decided to just stay awake and get everything done that needing doing. I spent the next 90 minutes fixing links, setting up the Twitter and Tumblr queues, arranging for various blog posts and email campaigns and all the other tiny things that ensured that the day would go off without a hitch – and without my presence.
And then, because it was 6.30 and I was exhausted, I went back to bed. I was able to check on progress briefly around noon, while the baby napped and the 6yo was distracted by Paw Patrol, until he decided that I really needed to watch it with him (apparently, it’s my favorite show; who knew?).
But it wasn’t until that night, after the kids were asleep, that I was able to really look at what was going on. Reviews! And Ratings! And excited messages from people who were reading and telling me where in the story they were! Every one had me bouncing in my chair.
It wasn’t until this morning that I thought to look at the Amazon rankings:
AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
A friend helpfully pointed out that I was not outranking the Donald Trump Billionaire Bellboy story, but frankly, I don’t think even JKR could manage that feat, so I’m feeling pretty good about being #24 for a little bit. I can’t figure out if I can see the entire history of the ranking – but if my highest ranking was 24? I’m still happy.
As I write this entry, of course, the book has slipped to #29 in Fiction/Gay, but hey. STILL HAPPY.
As for the day after publication… well. Like I said. Dishes. Sadly for me, the baby napped for a grand total of 70 minutes, and was in a terrible mood the rest of the day. School was open, but only a half day, so the 6yo was home by 1:30. I still managed to get some writing done… but very little in the way of anything else, so by the time dinner was over, and my husband was home, I was a frazzled, headachy mess, and the kitchen didn’t look much better.
But hey! #24! And now I get to read about Donald Trump and bellboys. (Like I wasn’t going to download that story? Are you kidding? Gotta check out the competition, don’t I?)
