I look forward to being ashamed of my first book.

Not because I think it will be bad. I’m ridiculously proud I’ve what I’ve done so far, and will be even more so when it’s ready for you all to read. It’s because I’ve read many a writer’s first book, and then their later books, and I know how vast the difference can be.

I will be ashamed of my first book when I have written ten, and when they’re far better than the one I’m working on now. That will mean I’ve made progress. That will mean I’ll have gotten better. That will mean I’ll be able to give you even better stories as time goes on.

I look forward to being ashamed of my first book, in the future when I’ll have learned ways I could have made it so much better, but what I’ll never be ashamed of is that I wrote it. You have to write one to write ten, and finishing something extremely difficult is a feeling I cannot adequately describe.

It’s worth the effort, and I’ll never be ashamed of that.