Today is the publishing birthday of Watcher: Book I of The Chosen.
It’s been nine years since I pushed past my fears and pressed the Publish button on my first book.
Yes, Watcher is the first book I’ve written. Not just the first book, but the first FICTION of any type I’ve created since elementary school.
Putting it out there for the world to read – to like or to hate – took tremendous effort and a bravery I wasn’t sure I had.
And to my great surprise, most people liked it, and some even loved it.
To be more specific, they loved Sunny, and cheered her on as she struggled to restrain the monsters within her and keep as much of her humanity as possible.
So why did I choose October 4, 2011 to put Watcher on display for all eyes to see?
Yesterday’s Facebook post mentioned the importance of the number nine in Watcher. During the writing of the story, I became aware of how the number nine kept popping up in my life, in coincidence after coincidence (like my zip code, my phone number, etc). And in mathematics and the practice of numerology, nine holds a special significance.
One of its interesting features is that when you multiply any number with 9, the answer results in individual digits that when added together also equal 9 or a multiple of 9. Keep repeating that until you reach a single digit, and that digit will always be 9.
Example: 9 x 5 = 45 –> 4+5 = 9. Or how about this one: 9 x 22 = 198 –> 1+9+8 = 18 –> 1+8 = 9.
Watcher was originally published on 10/04/2011 –> 1+0+0+4+2+0+1+1 = 9
Yes, I chose a “nine day” for my publication date.
Interestingly enough, today’s date, nine years later, just also happens to be a “nine day.”
10/04/2020 –> 1+0+0+4+2+0+2+0 = 9
See what I mean about coincidences, and the weirdness of the number nine?
(For more musings about the number nine and its relevance to my writing, see my March 2010 and my May 2010 posts.
In Watcher, there are nine Council members on Nicolas’ council. And there are multiple other instances of nine throughout the story. For example, Sunny checks the clock nearly every morning when she awakens to determine how much time she has left in the day to conduct human business, and how long until dusk when she can safely go hunting.
In each case, the numbers on her digital clock add up to the number nine.
And on a last note about the number nine, much of the music soundtrack for Watcher includes songs and their remixes by one of my favorite bands. Yeah, you guessed it – Nine Inch Nails.
I challenge my readers that in the event they read (or re-read) Watcher, to make note of any reference to nine or a nine number, and send me an IM or email with the total number of occurrences. We’ll see if you caught them all.
So Happy 9th Birthday to Watcher: Book I of The Chosen.
And Happy Birthday to me as a published author. 🙂
