The Call

So here's how it started:

May 22, 2006, 4:15pm: the phone rang. I was finishing up some work for my day-job and had my phone headset on, which meant that I didn't see the caller-ID so (A) I didn't have that precious extra second to prep myself for a life-changing phone call and (B) I answered with a very dorky sing-song: "Hi, this is Sarah."

The voice on the other end said, "Hi, this is Andrea from Harvey Klinger. I have some news. We have an offer from Razorbill." (Andrea is Andrea Somberg, my magnificent agent, and Razorbill is part of Penguin Young Readers.)

Like Armstrong on the moon, I commemorated this moment by saying something very articulate and composed, such as: "Great! Really? Wow. Oh, wow, really? That's so great! Really? Wow."

Then I instantly called my husband (who, for purposes of this blog, I'll call A). I must have dreamed of that moment a million times: calling him with THE NEWS -- the news that I'm going to get published. But all of a sudden, the moment was here and it passed so quickly that I nearly didn't realize I was dialing.

As soon as I finished the call to A, I had the terrible thought that maybe I had dreamed this moment one time too often and now had actually hallucinated it. (Not that I have a history of hallucinations, but hey, there's always a first, right?) So I scrolled back through "received calls" on the phone... And there it was. She really did call. As if to prove it, she called a second time with more details.

In record time, A zoomed home from work. We pranced around the house, called our parents and our siblings, and then pranced some more.

It is an incredible feeling when you are in the middle of a day, and you know in that moment -- not in retrospect years later, but right then while you're living it -- that this day is a turning point. You can feel yourself turning, and you know that from now on, you'll point to this moment of this day and say, "Here's how it started..."