The First Time...

There are all sorts of firsts in life – first kiss, first car, first love… With all due respect to my first kiss and my first love (and no, they’re not the same) the first I remember most clearly is riding down the sidewalk in front of my childhood home without my father holding onto my bike.

He’d let go before and I’d crashed. Spectacularly. I had the skinned knees and scraped fingers to prove it. I told him I couldn’t do it. He told me I could. Lord knows, I wanted to ride that bike. It was pink with a white banana seat, white handles and hot pink streamers. I wanted it so badly I could taste it, so I tried again.

The next time, I stayed upright. I flew. The bumps that, on previous trips, had sent me careening into the neighbors’ lawns were just…bumps. Behind me, my father cheered. Ahead of me, the world opened up like a new Nancy Drew, with me as the heroine and untold adventures hiding around every corner.

On Tuesday, February 17^th, I will experience another first. The Deep End, will release.

I wish my father could hold onto the back of my banana seat and whisper advice – Don’t obsess over rankings, honey. Don’t drive your children crazy checking reviews on Goodreads. Remember, not everyone will like it. He’d be right – about all of it.

He'd also be right if he told me to look out for adventures hiding around every corner.