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I had a great time yesterday, a lot of nice people work at Chapters. 🙂 Thanks to all the people who stopped by and picked up the book or just stopped by to talk about books.

Featuring Emily DeAngelis Elizabeth Pszczolko and Vera Constantineau

Anyone who expected an immediate personal recap of the launch of my book, Enlightened by Defilement, on April 15^th will have given up by now I am sure. In a word, fantastic!

The crowd in attendance was gratifying, the response satisfying, and the location was the place to be for me. If you had a nibble, you already know the food was beyond. In a word, *see above.

Anyone who puts a manuscript together, shops it, signs a contract for it, then holds the finished product in their hands, knows the “Oh Crap” feeling of the work just beginning. In the coming months, I will be reading, signing and hoping for the success of this almost memoir of mine. In the early response from readers, and I admit most of these are colleagues, all has been favorable. Early days though, let’s see what a few months brings.

If you’ve a yen to read my book and don’t have a copy yet, you can order it at the Latitude 46 online bookshop. If you want to wait and meet me at Chapters on the 27^th of May, I will supply a smile and a verbal tour of what you will get.

Have a photo or two to see what it was like at the beginning. Sorry you missed it if you did.   

We writers are all awash in social media. Some part of our involvement can be attributed to the isolation of our writing lives, another part is the need to network as writers and prepare for the day we launch our book babies.

There’s a fine line between marketing and overmarketing. I don’t want to be the person who one day posts for the fifth or twentieth time and, by doing so, causes everyone on my followers list to groan inwardly. That said, if we are published by a House, as I am, I owe it, by the letter of the contract, to promote my book and all that entails.   

Returning to the title above, and the issue of responses, it’s my belief that the old axiom, “if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all” really should be adhered to. I get that we all write in a variety of genres, but to be a Negative Nelly is completely unnecessary. There is nothing wrong with the decision to let the post on your friends page go by. Saying nothing is an option that is often not chosen enough. Not everything we writers set on a page is golden, we get that.

I recently read a book by one of my favorite authors and it was ho-hum. I added it to my list of books I’ve finished for the Goodreads challenge and gave it fewer stars than other books, but I didn’t go into deep detail as to reasons why. The star system charts the way for us on Goodreads, no need to be cutting. Also, it behooves us to remember that a lot of blood, sweat, and tears goes into the writing of a novel. If we have not walked a mile in that writer’s footwear under the desk, we have no business being judgy. Okay, hopefully there is no blood beyond the occasional paper cut involved in book writing, still you get the drift.

Sometimes I do take the time to ponder why such a simple post will garner a feisty, or rude, response. Today, for example, I’ve been pondering. At other times I let the rude slide and chalk it up to me creating a dialogue where not everyone has to agree. I did find myself torn by the latest occurrence in the Neg. Nel. vein, however. I’ve decided slide is the only option, someone else’s unhappiness is not my problem to solve, is it

The last thing I need is another calendar. I’ve got a big one devoted to keeping all my meetings on track and it works like a charm. And yet, I carted home a prop-up desk calendar yesterday, complete with an inspiration on each square. It was the title that hooked me, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.

I’ve got a lot going on, meetings aside. In a month and four days, I am sending my book baby out into the world. Every day I think of something new to wonder about. Will there be people? Will the book arrive on time? Will it be well received? You can see where I’m going with this, I’m sweating all the small stuff and a lot of it is the stuff I can’t control.

The venue is booked and the chef assures me the food will be great. The sample readings I’ve done of a few pieces got the response I was hoping for. Still, there must be something I’ve missed on the yards long list of things I must do before the day arrives.

Back to the calendar. Since today is March 11^th and the calendar is a 2023, I have some catching up to do. I started taking the previously passed days off the pad and stalled on the words of January the 4^th. That one square had impact. It was about first impressions. I wondered what kind of first impression I would make, then I remembered it was highly likely anyone who shows up to a book launch has already met you and, dare I say, liked your impression, or they wouldn’t be at your launch? I don’t mean that to sound egotistical, if it does, I apologize. I’m simply saying, those who know me, do. Those who don’t won’t likely be there. I ripped that sweaty moment off the calendar pad and moved along. I may have muttered, “Small stuff, small stuff.”

The updates on the launch planning etc. will arrive in a speedier fashion, or so I hope. I could get sidetracked by another piece of advice from my desktop calendar, or I could skip ahead to my birthday and see what that day says. I’m pondering. No, I believe I’ll rip them off two at a time and before you know it, I’ll be up to date and this paper antiperspirant will be working like magic.