The wait is over, the book (well the paperback at least) is published and on sale. I’ve done it. The Kindle version? Well that’s another story entirely so let’s not focus on that for now. *sigh*

We had the book release party this weekend and that was great. Almost every one of my local friends and loved ones were there to celebrate with me. It’s the first time everyone was together since before the pandemic, so it was nice to have a reason to gather and enjoy each other’s company once again.

I guess a good question now that that’s all done would be – how do I feel? Interestingly enough I’ve gone from being anxious/excited about – ?will they buy it? – now to “but will they read it?” When will I hear what they think of it?????

It’s probably not much of an assumption to think that the people I love will buy the book to support me. It’s only $15, it’s my baby, and people know that. Fifteen dollars is not much of an investment to show someone you care.

But the time it takes to read a book? That’s something different. That’s A LOT more of an investment. If I had to venture a guess I would say that for every 5 people that buy it, 1 will read it, and that may be generous.

So that’s the next brand of “hard” about writing a book, but especially a book like this that is so very personal. First type of hard is the pouring out of your soul onto a page. That took me over 4 years. The second kind of hard was actually going through the process of publishing (which in and of itself is painful), because now people can actually see what you wrote. That took me almost 2 years. The next type of hard is will people buy it (I’m still living in that type of hard because while loved ones will buy it, will anyone else ever do so??) The next type of hard is will they read it and what will they REALLY think of it (not what they’ll tell me but what they actually think, good, bad, or ugly.) That’s where I’m at now.

I hope people will read it. I hope they will enjoy it, or at least find value in it. And I hope they’ll share their thoughts with me. I’m afraid no one will like it, but I hope they’d at least be honest about that. I’d rather just know it’s crap.

But only time will tell, and you know how much I love waiting……