NOW AVAILABLE!

NOW AVAILABLE!
A HERO'S SPARK: the final book in the Wicked Women series!

Monday, March 15, 2010

It's just occurred to me...people are actually going to read the book!

Good Monday everyone!

So Saturday the first box of my book showed up on my doorstep. I did the happy dance and I cradled a copy while I wept softly. Then I realized something.

People are going to read it!

It started with my friend Barb, who actually alerted me that the books were arriving. She got hers about 6 hours before I got mine, mostly because she gets her mail way earlier than I get mine. I figured, "Hey, Barb's going to read it! YAY!"

Then my mother called. She'd ordered five copies and wanted me to sign them. Now, every author longs for the day they have a book signing. I think back to writer's group meeting where we discussed at great length how we would be at our first book signing. I'm going to lay down money that no one thought their first signing would be in their own living room, while mom's snapping pictures from every angle and the precocious niece is begging "Auntie Sarah" to get the mouse trap game out.

As I was signing the copies for mom, who apparently bought them for my elder female relatives, I realized something. People who know me are going to read this!

Crap!

I don't think any of us really thinks the general population is going to read our writing. I think a lot of writers, and I include myself in that, write and write and write. Then we submit and submit and submit. We have three perfect chapters ready to go for any contest or partial request. We know those get read. We have the rejection letters to prove it! But once we get past that thresh hold and into publication, it's a different game. People are going to read it. I'm not so afraid of strangers reading it. I know there will be reviews, positive and negative. I'm ready for that.

I'm not ready for the mothers of my Sunday School kids to start reviewing my book in church.

It's so funny that this never occurred to me as I was sending out emails to people I know, updating them on the progress Dream made through the murky waters of publication. It never occurred to me that they'd read it, for real. Not until my mother opened the first page and said, "Oh, I see you've used the word s+++ on page one."

Crap.

Well, hey, it's Biblical that a prophet isn't accepted by those who know him or her best. Shoot, Jesus' friends and neighbors tried to stone Him to death and all He did was say he was the Messiah. (Not that I'm comparing myself to Jesus...not a chance!) He didn't use the S+++ word on page one! LOL

Hey, don't let the idea of your mother/grandmother/great aunt reading your book with a disapproving eye stop you from telling the story that's in your heart! What can they do? Not mail you a Christmas letter? Is that such a bad thing?

Happy writing all!

2 comments:

  1. Wait, there's profanity? On page ONE????

    Thankfully, I haven't gotten past the 'write write write' phase.

    And when I show up to get my copy signed, I expect it to be someplace classy. Like the Culver's parking lot.

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  2. Yep, Page one, six, eleven, forty four...hey, the hero is an aging rock star. What, he's going to say, "Oh shucky darn!" Doubtful! And yes, I would LOVE to do a signing in Culver's parking lots! :)

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