Still Becoming

Sometimes I sit down at my computer with a very simple plan.

Today was supposed to be one of those days.

The plan was straightforward: upload a few books to Draft2Digital.

That’s it.

No major projects. No big changes. Just upload the books, fill out the information, and move on with my day.

Simple.

Except somewhere between logging into my account and submitting the books, I started looking at the covers.

Now, the covers weren’t terrible.

They were functional.

They were acceptable.

They were also generic enough that I could probably walk into a bookstore, find twenty books that looked similar, and not be able to identify my own.

Naturally, my brain did what it always does.

It said, “You know what would be fun?”

And that was the beginning of the end.

A little while later, I wasn’t uploading books anymore. I was redesigning them.

One cover became two.

Two became three.

Then suddenly I was staring at a crime thriller cover featuring a garbage truck and wondering why I was so emotionally attached to it.

A few minutes later, I was admiring a charming small-town street for a romance novel.

Not long after that, I found myself completely in love with a cover featuring a dock, a lake, a farmhouse, and a couple finding love later in life.

At some point, I realized I had accidentally spent the evening rebranding my entire author catalog.

This happens to me more often than I’d like to admit.

I start with a simple task.

Then an idea appears.

Then another.

Then somehow I’m three projects deep wondering how I got there.

The funny thing is that none of this was on my to-do list.

My to-do list included things like laundry, shirts that needed to be made, and checking on the status of a book currently being held hostage by what I’ve affectionately named the Great Spine Margin Gods.

Instead, I ended up creating covers that actually feel like the stories they represent.

A gritty crime thriller should look gritty.

A second-chance romance should feel warm and hopeful.

A story about a bakery, healing, and finding love again should make readers want to curl up with a blanket and a cup of coffee.

For the first time in a while, I looked at my books and thought, “There you are.”

Not perfect.

Not finished.

Just closer to what they were always meant to be.

The best part?

The books still aren’t live on Draft2Digital.

Tax approval is still pending.

One book still has to wait until tomorrow because of upload limits.

And the book currently sitting in KDP review is still… becoming.

In other words, after all that work, I’m still waiting.

But it feels different now.

Because sometimes progress isn’t about crossing the finish line.

Sometimes it’s about looking back and realizing how much better things are than they were when you started.

Even if the approval emails haven’t arrived yet.

And if nothing else, I now have a bakery cover that I can’t stop looking at.

I’d call that a successful day.