Made It Moment: Colby Marshall
We’ve featured around 275 Moments in this forum, so you will understand why it comes as a surprise for me to say that I have never read anything like this one. Colby Marshall got to do something with her first book that I don’t think anyone else has. To say much more would give the surprise away, so I am going to turn things over to Colby. But I’m also going to add this. May we all get the chance to give such joy as writers. If we do, we will all have truly Made It.
I’ve dreamed of that moment when I would sign a copy of my own book for someone since I was a little girl. I wrote a “newspaper” for my mother on loose-leaf notebook paper using a number two pencil with articles about the family dog and my sister and her best friend’s school science project. Years went by, and it seemed like the dream was far away. That is until one day recently, when I found myself sitting inside the Cheesecake Factory in Birmingham, Alabama, waiting to hand-deliver StairwayPress.com’s 10,000th book sold—a book that happened to be written by me.
The lucky fan arrived, unaware I’d brought a special surprise just for her from my publisher. I had with me a check for a thousand dollars. I whipped out my book during dessert, and I wrote, “Here’s to many more cheesecakes together,” absolutely clueless what to write in such a milestone of a novel. Our waiter took my book as his cue to bring out the obnoxiously large fake check to use for pictures, and as the fan said, “Oh my gosh!” over and over again, I handed her the real check for the money. She was beside herself, and I was beside myself, too, when I heard that with this money, she plans to take her grandkids to Disneyworld.
As I rode back to my hotel that evening, I couldn’t help but giggle out loud. What other job in the world could I have where I would get to do something that much fun? I’d just gotten to make someone’s day and send a few kids to Disneyworld all because one reader had supported me and paid $14.95 for my work. I laughed some more, and maybe even shed a happy tear as I realized not only had I done that, but I’d gotten to sign my book, too.
Writer by day, ballroom dancer and choreographer by night, Colby Marshall is a contributing columnist for a local magazine and a proud member of International Thriller Writers as well as Sisters in Crime. She’s active in local theatres as an actress and choreographer. She lives in Georgia with her family where she is hard at work on her new thriller.