The Other Intern

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to start this paragraph. It’s embarrassing, really. Should I be funny?  How professional do I sound? Do I sound competent? Does anyone care? What’s the issue, Josh? Oh, that’s your first sentence?  What was Nora thinking when she brought you on board? Is that a coffee stain on your shirt? How many times are you going to press backspace today?  

As the new worker bee for Scarletta Press, I just want to make sure that everything I do is perfect, perfect, perfect. I am so sweaty right now.  Profusely perspiring at my desk is not where I wanted to be at 9:30 on my second day in the office.

Oh, I’m a worrywart too.  That’s probably clear. 

What else, what else? 

Walker, Minnesota is where I grew up, learned to love small towns, and discovered my love of books. My mother owned the independent bookstore, Fishing With Your Mind, and it’s where I spent a great deal of my time, losing hours and days and weeks with Lemony Snicket and JK Rowling and Louis Sachar. I graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College where I studied Creative Writing and Psychology.  So, naturally, I wait tables at Union—our city’s newest restaurant sensation—for a living. That’s the joke, right? What can you do with an English Major? Well, as luck would have it, an awful lot! After all, there are plenty of places to be a barista or a server.

Poking fun is how I cope with my nerves. Self-deprecating humor is a lifestyle, one I subscribe to at all times—which is probably why laughter is the one thing I could never be without.

I suppose that’s a good enough starting point.  Laughter.  It’s exhausting and exhilarating, healing and intoxicating.  It’s the fuel that keeps me running. During my interview with Scarletta’s Managing Editor, Nora, I spent a good amount of time laughing, and it’s how I knew it was going well, that I was saying the right things and showing off my best sides.

So that’s how I ended up here at this desk, with too many gulps of Americano coursing through my body.  I’m especially excited to work with Children’s books.  They’ve always held a special place in my heart.  There’s something extraordinarily fantastic about the way text, illustrations, and story can create an experience for the reader that no other medium can. Our young readers are crucial to the success of the publishing industry; I am especially excited to watch our new spring titles latch on to the minds of children and families alike.

Starting this journey at Scarletta is a foot in the door of an industry I can’t wait to get to know better…hopefully I’ll learn some tricks and trades of the publishing world before my toes are crushed.