The Day I Clicked the Button

I've found that in Southern California there is this temperature ritual that happens on non-summer days in every coffee shop.

In the early morning, they are a wonderful refuge from the waning chill of the previous night. You get your cup of coffee, grab a seat near a power outlet, take off your sweater or jacket, and start doing things with your preferred electronic device.

Here I am making the final edits with my jacket off.

Then, just as outside begins to get comfortably warm, the baristas begin to blast the air conditioning. A chill draft wafts through the coffee shop. Customers start putting on their sweaters or jackets. Some leave for warmer places. A few cold-resistant specimens might stay, but otherwise it is the first major turnover of customers for the day.

My wife and I are not cold-resistant, so that means we'll usually leave for warmer climes. Yesterday morning was a day when we lingered through the temperature change. All because we were releasing my first fiction book, Into the Brambles.

Shivering from cold and excitement, we sat in our local coffee shop looking at a form on Kindle Direct Publishing. The book and its cover had been uploaded. All the settings were as we wanted them to be. All that remained was to click the Save and Publish button.

A year of writing followed by four months of intense revision had brought us to this point in time. We paused to savor the moment. Or maybe savoring it was an excuse. The truth is that I was scared.

Just then, someone behind the counter gave the thermostat a cruel twist. Another blast of arctic air washed over us. That decided it, it was time to click the button and watch the book be published. We would inform all our friends and family, then go someplace warm.

Audrey watched as I hovered the cursor over the button and boldly clicked without further hesitation.

It was 10:30 AM on Saturday, March 28th, 2015.

We rushed home, finding solace in the warmth of our backyard. From there we began to notify friends and family through email and social media that we had released my book.