My book release party is this weekend! Can you believe it's nearly here already? Not going to lie it crept up on me. I've been distracted by a whole host of things lately, not the least of which is my children having their thirteenth birthday! I have teenagers!

The good news is that I did take the time to order more books. A new shipment arrived last Friday. I made sure I'd have plenty of books on hand beyond the pre-orders so that I shouldn't run short.

I'm holding my book release party at a Pub called Padgett's Place in Belle so that I don't have to worry about refreshments, music, or entertainment. So that's all checked off the list.  I did order some bookmarks that I hope to put into books as giveaways with all my social media info, but *looks sheepishly at the floor* I'm not sure they will arrive before the party. I ordered them pretty last-minute.
 
I'm excited about, and love the idea of everyone coming out to celebrate the release of my book with me. I'm nervous about being the center of attention. I have a tendency to creep off around the corners of a room and mingle there, due to having some social anxiety. At an event like this there will be no mingling at the edges, it's my event! I'm a big girl. I've decided to embrace it. I'm going to wear a look-at-me dress and some bold make-up so that people can find me in the crowd. 

So, wish me luck. The only thing I have left to do is to figure out what excerpt from the book I'm going to read. If you'll excuse me I need to do that.

That's right, yours truly participated in a writer's workshops as one of the professionals that aspiring writers could talk to about our experiences. Look at me, sitting there like I belong and I'm not secretly terrified that the nice folks in the audience will learn that I have no idea what I'm doing.

Okay, I know that's not true. I do know some things about the business of writing. I've been an officially published author since March fourteenth. I mean, I have three solid weeks of experience trying to make a name for myself. Three whole weeks older, three weeks wiser. Three weeks.

Three weeks doesn't seem like a lot. What the heck am I doing sitting in front of people among these other novelists, poets, screenwriters, publishers, and journalists with years and years of experience?

Does it change the narrative a little if I said that my book was officially accepted by the publisher May 1st of last year? The time from May to March was spent doing the editing, revising, finishing, blurbing, cover design, and marketing plan that comes with the birth of a book. Before that I spent three years writing, rewriting, and rewriting again. I'm green enough as a published author that I still have that new-author-smell, (fresh ink with a slight undertone of panic in case you're wondering.) I guess if pressed I do have enough experience to sit among "real" authors. Does it help that I count these professionals as friends? Absolutely.

Did I learn as much from the experience as the audience? It's possible. Three weeks as a published author isn't much but I do know a thing or two about perseverance. I set 'author' as my goal and I'm going for it wholeheartedly. That is the only difference between a writer and an author, and the biggest hurdle. Pushing past the fear of rejection, the fear of failure, and becoming published. Submit, get an agent, find a small publisher, self publish; each is a valid path, and all will take a person from unpublished writer to published author.

Then the real work begins.