Guten Tag!

Mein Name ist Kara und ich möchte Deutsch lernen… But it’s going very slowly and, naturally, my usage is riddled with mistakes (so challenging for the immediate-gratification monkey on my back!). Over the past week, I’ve flown to Germany and have settled in at the language school that will be my ‘home, sweet home’ for the next 5 – 6 months (if “settled” is loosely defined as: I know where I sleep and sort of where the nearest grocery shop is).

It’s still a bit surreal and overwhelming, so I’m trying to take small but regular steps to become more comfortable… Then, as I become more and more au fait with the territory, I can expand my efforts gradually. Genau.

Besides all of that, I’m reading The Assays of Ata for (what I’ve promised myself is) the absolute last time before submitting my final manuscript to KDP (sweeping for the last grammar gremlins that might still be lurking) as well as adjusting the cover layout of the print version (the proof copy I ordered has a bit of an issue spine-wise). 

The release date is soon, and my nerves are shot even though I’ve been saying to my family this is just a “fun” project in a noncommittal, breezy voice. I’m crossing my fingers and toes enough people review it to get the ball rolling on a somewhat decent readership, but also: of the 30-odd review requests I sent out, a total of 3 got back to me and were willing to read and review my fledgling story…

Thus, my hopes are relegated to my Goodreads Giveaway and LibraryThing Giveaway (feel free to go on over and enter! Please?). I feel very much like Molly in the film Late Night, in the scene where she has a moment outside and entreats the Universe not to tread on her dreams, but then gets smacked in the head with a bag of rubbish… Good times. So relatable.

All to say: my mind is now doing the thing where I’m fixating on how badly the book’s release might go, and it’s devolving into catastrophising (a little bit, anyway). Though, I’m not going to lie: holding the proof copy in my hands for the first time today had an unexpectedly profound effect on me, to a degree negating the hamster in my brain frantically running in its wheel.