A different kind of proof.

Wow. The proof for What Happened on Smith Street arrived today. It looks so cool. I'm a little freaked out; I don't mind telling you. It was one thing to see it in a Word document, then another to see it printed on letter-sized paper and spiral-bound from the friendly, neighborhood FedEx shop. Still another to see it after Stephen had laid it out and formatted it for submission, along with the cover.

But this. This is another thing, altogether.

It's weird. It's almost as if it isn't mine anymore. That's the only way I can describe it. Although, my son (who is almost four) got all excited when he saw the back: "It's a book with you, Mommy!" He did a little dance. He does love to dance. And, he loves books, too. That's my boy.

But back to the proof. The cover looks wonderful, front and back. I love the font; I love the layout; I love everything about it.

Oh, except that pagination. It doesn't start on the correct side of the page. I think this may be the Achilles heel of every proof of every book since the dawn of moveable type and bookbinding. Page-shift. The good news is that the printer can fix it without resubmitting. How fantastic is that?

Katie took some pictures of me holding it and acting silly. Which is the only way I can think to act right now. I'll add a photo gallery with the pics eventually.

But for now, I'm just too excited. Although, when it came, I was in the middle of proofreading something for a client. I ran to Katie's house, showed it to her, paused for an impromptu photo shoot and then ran back home to finish my work.

Funny, huh?