Writers is smart

The congratulatory emails started Tuesday morning.

I wasn’t sure why I was being congratulated, but I’ve found it’s sometimes best to play along until I figure out what the hell is going on around me. When you spend as much time as I do being clueless, you learn to operate that way.

Finally, I gathered enough puzzle pieces to figure out that someone had written something about me in the September issue of Writer’s Digest magazine. The mystery was enough to send me scrambling over to the library.

I tried to explain to the librarian what I was after, but my words came out in a jumbled torrent of excited adjectives and the occasional “holy crap!” That’s probably why she seemed intent on keeping her distance as she led me toward the magazine racks and pointed out the latest issue of the publication.

 

I leafed frantically through it, cursing at the thin pages and dropping the magazine twice.

“You’re sure it’s in there?” she asked.

Translation: Are you sure you’re really a writer? Because I think of writers as being kind of smart. Like at least smart enough to operate the pages of a magazine and maybe even read the sign on the front door that says pull instead of standing there like a moron shoving at it.

Or maybe she didn’t see that.

Anyway, I finally found the page, and jumped up and down a few times squealing. The librarian didn’t jump or squeal, but she did offer to photocopy the page that listed Making Waves as one of “10 Notable Debuts.”

I should point out that when I attempted to tweet and Facebook that headline, it took me three tries to spell “notable” right. 

Anyway, here’s part of the article. I won’t show you the whole thing, because obviously the good folks at Writer’s Digest want you to buy the magazine. Hey, I want to buy the magazine. As soon as my local bookstore gets it, I plan to buy at least a dozen copies.

I might even learn to turn the pages by myself.