Sending Your Baby (Book) Out into the World: Put Your Feelings in Words

Ta-dah! We have winners of the signed copies of Goodness & Mercy: Josey Bozzo, Karen K., Karen Schravemade, Cherry Odelberg, and Lori Benton. I'll try to contact you but let you know if I need to hear from you. Thanks for all of your great comments.

Before I start my post, I must thank the readers of Novel Matters for stepping up and doing a brilliant job of writing Amazon reviews of Goodness & Mercy. You're the best!

Dearest Goodness & Mercy,

Today is your big day. Yes, I've been horribly clingy. It’s terrifying to let you go. You've been in my brain since you were but a wee seed of an idea. And there you are, all 322 pages of you, ready to launch into the great big world. You will try to understand my protectiveness, won’t you? It’s not that I don’t trust you. I only fear I didn't prepare you well enough.

It’s not you; it's me.

And yet, I can’t help myself. I flip through your pages, only to find a cumbersome word or an awkward phrase. As with any parent author, I've had to accept that you’re not perfect. How could you be? I created you. We’re two flawed peas in a pod that way. But please know, while in my hands, I served you heart and soul.

Darling, not everyone will love you like I do. They’ll say cruel things--some deserved, some not. These people believe it’s easy to be a story. We both know that’s not true. You've paid your dues—you've been red-lined, cut and pasted, and deleted. People who call themselves critique partners have pointed out your weaknesses and written letters when they saw that you’d faltered.

I know that stung.

I must also warn you that people will use you as a coaster for sweaty glasses or to level a wobbly table. Others will read you—and this is difficult to say—in the bathroom, where you will be subjected to all sorts of insults to your senses. These kinds of people are out there. I would be lax in my authorial duties, if I didn't warn you.

You go with my blessing, my darling. I’m already proud of you. Just be yourself. Readers will love that about you. Don’t hang out with anything in shades of gray or blood-sucking, and you’ll be fine.

It doesn't hurt that you’re free on Amazon today. You’ll make lots of friends. 

Should I have read through you one more time?

No, you’re going to be fine. Go. Go.

Don’t look back, okay?

Signed,

Your loving author

xoxoxo

P.S. Don’t tell the others, but of all my stories, I love you best.

Goodness & Mercy is indeed FREE as a Kindle book on Amazon today through Friday. Feel free to spread the word by copying the image above and pasting it on your FaceBook timeline or visiting my FaceBook page to simply click and share. 

To WIN one of FIVE SIGNED COPIES of Goodness & Mercy, tell me your favorite flavor of pie in the comment section. I'll draw winners randomly on Thursday, 5:00 pm MT.