It's the day before the official release of my debut novel, Breathers: A Zombie's Lament, and I'm sitting in my apartment in San Francisco feeling a bit like a character in a movie whose dreams are about to come true and who can't quite wrap his mind around it.

I look over at my bookshelf, where I have a framed quote from Henry David Thoreau, a gift I received years ago when I'd first embarked upon this journey that has taken most of the past two decades:


Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you have imagined.

So here I am, on the cusp of those dreams, quoting David Byrne in my head and wondering:


"Well, how did I get here?"


It's a bit of a paradox, really. When I wrote my first short story back in 1990, I never thought it would take so long to reach this point. And yet everything has happened so quickly.


For eighteen years I wrote with occasional publishing success, producing four dozen short stories and four novels, searching for an agent who believed in me, someone who could help me live the life I'd imagined. And then, in less than eighteen months after Michelle offered me representation, everything I'd dreamed about is coming together at the same time, coalescing into a surreal, celebratory nexus.


My book is being published by Broadway Books.


I quit my day job to be a full-time writer.


And the film rights to Breathers have been acquired by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

While I've had a year to prepare for the publication of Breathers and to get used to the idea of seeing something I've created in the New Fiction section next to the likes of Christopher Moore and Chuck Palahniuk, I've barely had more than a week to process the movie deal with Fox. So I still occasionally find myself walking down the street and suddenly bursting into delightful fits of laughter, not caring about the other pedestrians who give me a wide berth as they pass.

What I'm still getting used to is the idea that the parties involved in the film are excited to work with me. I thought I was the one who was supposed to be excited, the one who couldn't wait to meet them. So it's wonderful to realize that my novel has been embraced with such enthusiasm.

I also realize that I wouldn't have reached this moment if it weren't for Michelle's belief in me, for Laura Swerdloff and the fabulous team assembled at Broadway Books, and for the efforts of Sarah Self at The Gersh Agency. I’m fortunate and grateful to have everyone's support and guidance in helping me to realize my dreams.


But to be honest, I don't know if I imagined they would be this much fun.


-S.G. Browne