The Value of a First Impression

I just moved into a new house last month. The doorbell rang the other day and I opened the door to find a sweet neighbor kid standing an appropriate distance away to give us some berries. His mother asked him to distribute them across the neighborhood, and he was pulling a wagon on the sidewalk, leaving them on doorsteps for everyone. We’d never met before and he gave me a weird look, but he was a tween so I didn’t think much of it as I thanked him and shut the door.

And that’s when I realized I was holding a foam Nerf sword in my hand (because I’d been fiddling with it before I answered the door) and wearing my masked Batman/narwhal shirt.

Sorry (not sorry) for getting the ol' Batman TV theme stuck in your head.

It just goes to show there’s nothing like first impressions. In the publishing biz, that means writing a stellar first book in the series to promise your readers a fun adventure.  Here's hoping I've got it down for Chasing Lightning!