Nervous

Quite nervous, in fact. In 17 days, the first issue of the Highwaymen will hit stands. And readers. And, despite the many assurances to the contrary—to a person, everyone who's read it thus far really likes it—I'm still sort of petrified.

And it's not the idea of strangers reading my work. I've written hundreds of pieces for Entertainment Weekly, feature stories, reviews, essays, you name it. And our circulation is something like 3.6 million eyeballs per issue. So I've put myself out there before.

But this is different. This is the first time that a story I've told is being released into the Wild. This is unzipping my fly and allowing myself to be judged. And its not a little unsettling. And drafty.