Legacy Writing 365:361

In the fall of 2001, the first Timothy James Beck book was released–the first published novel that I’d had a hand in. Tom and I traveled that Christmas, and when we visited Daniel’s mother Terri, she sat me down at the kitchen table and began handing me copies of the book to sign. She made me feel like a rock star, and since my sunglasses were still on top of my head from driving, I dropped them over my eyes and pretended I was someone special.

But the real someone special was four-month-old Steven, who I was able to hold for the first time during that visit. The somewhat stunned expression on his face is probably how I looked every time I remembered that our book had been published. I can’t go back and reread it now–I know there are a million things I’d do differently. Steven has undoubtedly aged better than It Had to Be You, but I’m still proud that something Tim, Timmy, Jim, and I began as an experiment among friends turned into five TJB novels.