I'm excited!!

So, I got a call from B1 this morning... it was weird since I am on the East Coast and she lives in the Pacific Northwest, but she is an insomniac so it works for us. Anyway, she said "As your marketing and advertising director I am telling you to get on your blog and have a contest."

So here we are, having a contest. I can't believe I am doing this. Wow.

Now, honestly, it is very hard to launch a book when you self-publish. There is no big company behind you, there are no dollars being spent but your own.... difficult. Also, since I chose to publish to Kindle there is no actual book, therefore no readings in bookstores. SIgh.... I'm not sure which is harder, writing the book, deciding to put it out there for the world to read, or trying to sell it.

See, the writing of it was pretty easy. There were issues gong on with my ex, issues with The Hubster, we had just moved into a new house and I did not have access to my son (legal crap that I hated). I had nothing to do but pour my heart out into the computer. I called my Mama and B1 pretty much every day, several times a day to read them bits and pieces and finished products. It was cathartic. It was fascinating to me that I could actually have that much to say - don't know why I was surprised as I am rarely at a loss for words.

Printing it out the first time, well, I was on the phone with B1 and pretty much cried the whole time. It was giving emotional birth. Devastatingly beautiful. I remember taking a copy to Mama. I remember her sharing it with someone else... I felt kind of violated. I had held it so close, was so emotionally attached to it.... and I was terrified. It was one thing for me to write it, another to have family and friends read it, and still another to let someone I didn't really know turn those precious pages.

Thank goodness she liked it.

I told my husband about it. I'm not to sure he believed me. I'm not saying he thought I had lied, I'm just saying it wasn't real to him. After all, I am his wife, not some writer chick. He never asked to read it until he recently found out that B1's husband had. He has read some of it. He has laughed out loud at those same stories. When I asked him what he thought he said "I liked it. Of course, other people would have take it and made it much more complex and descriptive."I wasn't really sure if that was good or not and then he clarified. "I like it that way. You can say with 7 words what other people need 1,000 to accomplish." Between that and his laughing out loud I'm not sure which one I found to be the better compliment.

And I'm writing the second book. It is coming in fits and spurts, but those times are so productive that it is kind of scary. I think it might be easy because all the stories are true. I don't have to make things up, I just have to remember. Of course, there are some opinion and perspective stories in the new book - Men are Stupid is the title. Catchy, huh? I am branching out to keep to the general theme of the book. Of course, it will still have to go through Mama, B1 and Sunny before story order is set and we are ready to publish. They are pretty good at that kind of stuff and I value them for it and so many other things....

Anyway, here we are. And now I need to end this and post the contest rules.