So the official release date for my debut novel Backward Glass is tomorrow.  Which is odd, since it’s been out in ebook for a solid week, and actually on shelves in a lot of stores for close to a month, but, you know, whatevs.

Thing is, I’m nervous, y’all.  People talk about publishing a book as being like giving birth, but since I’ve only ever experienced that major life event from the outside, I can’t say.

To me, it’s like sending your kid off to school for the first time.  You’ve prepared him as best you can, dressed him up to be his best, and filled him with all the words you think he needs to take on the world.  But is it enough?  Will anybody like him?  Will he make friends?  Does he have good marketing?  Is he being put on the right display tables?  Are people gonna tweet about him?

Okay, some of those don’t apply to the kid.  But still.  I mean my name?  It’s alphabetically pretty close to Lowry.  I hope The Giver isn’t a bully.

But what’s going to happen next?  The starred review in Kirkus was awesome, as were the nice notes from Publishers Weekly and Booklist (no link yet on that one).  And the reviews from book bloggers who got ARCs have been a highlight of my last few months.  (Okay, bragging done now.)

I don’t have much more point to this.  I just wanted to share that I have some jitters.  If you were someone who wanted to help me sleep tonight, maybe you’d want to tweet to a friend (or a friend who has a teenager — or a friend who is a teenager) that they should get to a bookstore tomorrow and get a copy of Backward Glass.  Or to an online bookstore right now.

Just saying.

I’ll be off in the corner biting my nails.