reset

squinty-eyed and mole-like

The book launch - still in progress - is an exhausting, exhilarating, mind-blowing, fascinating and soul-crushing experience.

You hear all this stuff when you're on the other side. The virgin side. About not reading reviews, and about pacing yourself, and about distribution nightmares and sales. And now that the powers that be have announced that there is, indeed, blood on the sheets, the marriage into published has been consummated, I can tell you first hand - it's all true. You go from being in control of everything, to being in control of not that much.

I love Dani Shapiro's thoughts on the difference between the doing and the promoting. She says, "This writer has stepped out from her dark cave — that shadowy, hallowed place where she created her work — and now she is squinting, shading her eyes from the sunlight."

I relate to that quote completely. I love my dark cave. I want to go back there. Not only am I physically fair-skinned and sun-averse, I'm psychically that way. I will say, social media has been a bit of therapy for me - allowing a daily practice of whispering into the vast and clotted world of people and their lives, but my preferred environment is a solitary room, the sun beating on the closed curtains behind me.

This past couple of months my mole self, the squinty-eyed introvert that I am, has been teetering, rather than walking, the tightrope of doing versus promoting. Friends, I am out of balance.

This morning, a Sunday - typically NOT my favorite day of the week due to the parade that it often is - I forced myself to meditate on how to fix this. And I have a start. As always, the remedy to too much promoting, is more doing.

I've started something new. (And yet, even now, when I write that, in my mind is the hashtag way of saying it: #amwriting. God.)

How do you maintain the balance between being part of the larger conversation and talking to yourself?

TMB blog tour and a week of fun

Happy Monday! Anyone have a Red Bull they're not drinking? Here it is, the eve of publication, and you'll find me crazily washing my hands every three minutes to avoid potential H1N1 contraction. (An OCD Lady Macbeth, maybe?) The hubs is coughing upstairs, and I can't even get through a line at the Fred Meyer without a spew of germs sprinkled around me like fairy dust. These next couple of weeks? I cannot get sick.

My brain feels like how Bill Clinton's voice sounded during his campaigns. Anyone remember that? The frog voice? 

Okay, enough about my afflictions. It's LAUNCH WEEK! First off, let me just say that waking up to this lovely post at 5:00 am today was enough to catapult me from the warm covers and head to my K-Cup machine for my first cup of drugs coffee. And that's just the tip of iceberg this week. Diversion has put together a comprehensive tour for me, and I'll be doing several additional interviews this week as well. 

But that is not all! To celebrate the launch of TMB, I have some fun games planned, the first of which will take place later today, on Twitter. 24 hours of True Confessions (thanks for the idea, amyg!). It'll look like this:


"The Moment Before ____, I remembered ____." & tag w/ #TMBjan14 (My favorite wins a signed copy of the book.)

For instance: The Moment Before my first solo trip behind the wheel, I remembered I'd never practiced driving on icy roads. #TMBjan14 

Last week's pre-launch sharing and caring social media game was a blast. Thanks to you all, things ramped up nicely with the pre-order stats. And starting tomorrow, if any of you are moved to, you know, slap up a few words on Amazon in the review section, I'll send Ruby to your house to give you a complimentary foot bath. 

Speaking of Ruby, time to go for a slog through the January mud with my pocket full of sliced up hotdogs. xo

Blog Tour for The Moment Before

1/13: WHAT DANIELLE DID NEXT – Review, guest post
1/13: YOUNG ADULT BOOK ADDICT – Review, digital copy giveaway
1/14: CROSSROAD REVIEWS – Review, digital copy giveaway
1/15: ASHLEY FARLEY – Author interview
1/16: BOOK AHOLICS – Review
1/16: CHRISSI READS – Review, digital copy giveaway
1/17: COLD TEA AND CRUMBS – Review, digital copy giveaway
1/17: OOPS I READ IT AGAIN – Review, digital copy giveaway
1/19: LIVE, READ, BLOG – Review
1/20: CUBICLE BLINDNESS – Review, guest post
1/20: THE BOOK BABE’S READS – Review

let's play a game

I'm pulling out all the stops, right? Exploiting my puppy (you can't tell, but she's wearing a cheerleading skirt), barraging everyone I know with posts and newsletters and tweets.

Picture me encased in some sort of foam get-up, proffering forth a tray of candies. There I am again, at the Safeway, shoving samples of better-for-you corndogs in your face as you try not to make eye contact. And again, megaphoning on the circus floor, imploring you to step right up! Witness the spectacle!


Selling a book can make a girl hoarse.

So, I have this idea. You all are so great, my regular buddies and followers and whatnot, and I know you'll all buy The Moment Before at one venue or another. So thank you in advance. Oh, and thank you for the meaty, smart reviews you'll be posting on Amazon beginning January 14th. I love you all in advance.

Okay, let's spread the word to some newbies. Let's do that viral thing all the social folks scream about. Let's play a game. With prizes, even. Good prizes. Here's how this works. I'm going to be posting every day here,  here and here, (even here) using ye olde hashtag #TMBjan14 and if I've managed to knock you down and tie you up until you say "uncle," you'll probably be getting one of my pesky newsletters today (if I haven't yet added you, you can add yourself in the Subscribe box on my home page). Face-hook shares, RTs, share-with-a-friend through the mail chimp - those deeds are all going to be tabulated by me (and Ruby, my constant companion who will do anything for a stinky Stella and Chewy cookie).

Every day, I'll gather up all the sharing and caring folk on the various forms of social media, and randomly give away a new prize. A book, some art, a random gift certificate. Your participation in the game means you're cool with that. You don't mind, for instance, if I lick your face announce that you won and invite you to send me a mailing address. Right? Cool.

Ya game? Thought so. You guys are the best. And may the odds be forever in my your favor.