Trial by... Earth?

Today is the day- One of several in the near future that will determine the level of success(or failure) of Journeyman Warsmith, The Blademage Saga, and by extension, my writing career.

The official cover reveal for Journeyman Warsmith is this evening at 6:30 at the Victory branch of the Ada Community Library. Everyone involved up to this point has delivered. The second round of marked-up revisions arrived from Ken this morning. The artwork is amazing, Paul was great to work with again on yet another project. The products based on his work have rolled in well ahead of schedule from Vistaprint. The local print shop, Dominick Printing in Ontario (Links to follow soon on the left), has done a wonderful job with all of the enlargement, lamination, bookmarks, etc. They even helped me design some humorous mugs that were ordered kind of last minute, but still got here with a day to spare. Diane from the library was all over the idea of a cover reveal. She let me pick the date, helped brainstorm the title (that was a bit manic, but hilarious), and she even baked cupcakes!

That's a lot of people pulling through when I needed them to. They're good at what they do. They make me look good. It's a blessing to have such a wonderful team that can pull off pretty much whatever I ask of them, with as little as a text message, a facebook post, an e-mail, or a phone call. There are still a few people that need added to the team, but it's pretty effective as it stands now.

Nobody is going to stand up there tonight and talk for me. There's no guy for that. I know Diane will do a fantastic job with the intro, probably warm them up a bit, stuff them with cupcakes. That could help a lot, come to think of it. But it'll be me talking. I have some notes on my phone, a little checklist of topics I want to cover. I'll have a selection of text from Journeyman Warsmith that I want to read, that fits the theme and the title of the event perfectly, as things are wont to around my writing career as of late. There will even be a few items that local fans (if any are present) may like to have, that will be given away at some point during the evening. But I'll have to do the talking.

Maybe it'll be a small group like last time and I'll be able to relax. Maybe it'll be a large group that will rattle my nerves. Not sure which scares me more at this point. I know there are a lot of people that I know personally that are very supportive, but I'm looking for a healthy local crowd beyond those I've influenced myself, and I'm already intimidated by them before I know if they even exist.

All the tumblers are clicking into place. Aside from the possibility of dreadful weather, which influenced my last event there, attendance should be up, as are expectations. The choice is mine.

I choose... to Dance.