Today, March 29, 2013 is the one-year anniversary of my debut novel.  It’s on sale at Amazon for a mere $2.99.  Click here!

Yeah, it’s been a year.  In that time, it’s been quite the ride.  Here are some things that struck me as I looked back.  Exhausting.  Overwhelming.   And in bullet points, for your viewing pleasure.

Bullet points of having a book published. Year one.

• The joy of a book I can no longer revise.
• The horror of a book I can no longer revise.
• The bliss of handselling.
• The horror of handselling.
• How online hours marketing eats away at my soul, a little bit at a time.
• How wonderful it is to have strangers read my book and give their honest opinion on Goodreads.
• The horror of strangers reading my book and their damn opinions.
• I’m not sure I’ll ever get tired of people saying they cried while reading my words. I must’ve done something right.
• Most people celebrated my book and my accomplishment. Most people, but not all.
• Everyone likes a celebrity, even minor ones.
• Having a book out in the world is better than having a book alone in a basement.
• The terror of sitting at signing tables with authors who are much more talented, much more accomplished, much more popular than I’ll ever be.
• Seeing the flash in someone’s eyes. “You’ve written a book. Really?”
• Hearing about people praising you behind your back. Thank you, Colorado Springs.
• Getting calls out of the blue, “Would you like to come talk at our book club?” Would I? Do you even know who you’re talking to?
• The sad fact that I can’t write all the books I wanna write. Not enough time. Too much to do.
• Seeing my name, with an ISBN, on a novel that actual people are going to actually read.
• Reading my words at a book event, and loving them because I’d spent years and buckets of sweat to bring them out and shape them just so.
• Two words: Tax deductible. I thought I had five years for my fiction writing business to be profitable. Turns out, I can pour money into this venture for decades. I keep telling my friends, “I’m going to write until the money is gone.”
• If nothing else, when I die, I will leave a book behind. Not only a book, a book that is uniquely me. A love story with angels, demons, drug addicts, and atheists. That’s my book. That’s me.
• The game has changed. I can’t go back. More than that, I don’t wanna go back. I will write books and publish books until I die. And if all goes well, even after I take that short walk home.

 Happy Birthday, Never Prayer!  Want to give this little baby the perfect gift?  The ebook on Amazon.  Hurray!