First the children played in the snow.
Next, Christmas came early.
Unable to wait more than three months, Elysha gave me my Christmas present early, which was more than a little surprising. But when I saw the gift, I understood why.
It’s incredible.
Elysha sent photographs of all of my books, including the British edition of The Other Mother, which won’t publish in the US until January, along with some other important books from my wife, to an artist to create this incredible rendering of them all.
Mixed in alongside my own books are:
The Tale of Despereaux, which was the very first gift Elysha ever gave me,
The Van G0gh Cafe and A Wrinkle in Time, from where both of our children’s names originate.
Breakfast of Champions, one of my favorite books by my favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut, and a book that I often credit for opening doors in my mind and allowing me to find my path to becoming an author.
It’s beautiful and stunning. It’s thoughtful and creative. It will make any attempt at a Christmas gift this year pale in comparison.
I love it so much.
It also did something unexpected for me:
Since the fall of 2009, I have published five novels and a nonfiction book on storytelling. In January, my sixth novel will publish here in the United States. But when you’re in the weeds, as I so often am, currently working on two new books of nonfiction, my next novel, and a memoir, it’s sometimes hard to look back and take stock in the past decade.
Back in 2007, as I was trying to find my way through my first novel, Something Missing, if you had told me that I would someday publish a novel with one of the “Big 5” publishing houses in America, I would’ve been ecstatic. Never in my dreams could I have imagined that I would publish a total of 7 books over the next dozen years, nor could I even dream that these books would also be published in more than 25 different nations worldwide.
It would’ve been unfathomable.
In some ways, it still is unfathomable. But when I see them all here, mixed in among books that seem more real and eminently more important than my own, it’s a beautiful reminder of the path I’ve traveled and the pride that the person I love most in this world feels for my accomplishment.
That’s really it.
I write first for Elysha. I write to make her laugh and cry and mostly to believe in me.
This gift is a beautiful, brilliant sign that it might be working.
