LET’S GET REAL

My older son recently got his first full-time job, and he called to ask about which health plan he should join. It was in that moment that I realized he was an adult. Health benefits = real adult.

I just got back from a week of travel to find a large white envelope in the pile of mail. The return address was MacMillan Publishers — which is not my publishing company. Hmmm, very curious.

Inside the envelope was an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of A SWEET MESS, a contemporary romance by Jayci Lee, whom I met on the #2020Debuts Facebook group. Like me and Angie Kim (featured in my August 26, 2019 post), Jayci Lee is also a Korean-American lawyer-turned-writer. (In addition to its other benefits, there must be something in kimchi that promotes overachievement.) To add to the coincidences, Jayci and I share the same publication date: July 14, 2020.

I was thrilled to get the ARC, not only because I’ve recently become a fan of contemporary romance — curse you, Jasmine Guillory! (coincidentally, another lawyer-turned-writer) — but also because it feels like validation that I am an author. Receiving ARC = real author.

So, thank you to MacMillan Publishers and Jayci Lee for giving this first-time author a welcome boost to her imposter syndrome-riddled ego. As you can see from the photo above, I couldn’t wait to dig right in.

(I was tempted to crop the photo to zoom in on the book cover, but I couldn’t resist showing off the Totoro stuffed figures on the bookshelf.)