Butterflies and Nervous Knots…and Fair Warning

It’s less than a week now before the first two new novels in the Women of Willow Bay series release, and do I need to tell you I’m a basket case? My heart is in my throat and in my socks and then in my throat again. I’m not sleeping much as my brain races through all the things on my list. This feels completely different from how I felt when Rule Number One released, probably because this time, it’s all on me. Indie publishing is uncharted and very scary territory, but it’s exciting and challenging. I’m terrified, yet truly confident that this is the right path for me and my writing.

I don’t know how to write hip young women. I know nothing at all about their lives or how they think or speak or what they do. I write about women of my generation because that’s what I know. Besides, I think Baby Boomers want to read about themselves—heroines and heroes who are older, wiser, and maybe a little rumpled for life’s experiences. I believe with all my heart that it’s never too late to find the love of your life for the second or even the third time around. So I write more mature heroines and since I couldn’t interest any of the big publishers in them, I’m putting them out there myself. It’s a good thing, but kinda scary.

This week and next, I’m busy, busy doing promotion, lining up blogs to visit, answering interview questions, trying to be clever with posts on Facebook and Twitter. It’s a fine line between doing book promotion and being just plain annoying—I’m treading it cautiously. I know some authors who just inundate their FB and Twitter friends with book promo, to the point that you want to scream at them, “Okay, we get it! You’ve got a book out! I bought it, shut up already!” On the other hand, social media is the best (and really the only) way to promote e-books, so as authors, we have to put ourselves out there and maybe risk being pains in the ass. I don’t do this easily. It’s not part of my make-up to shove myself in front of others and demand attention.

So, I’m warning you all now, I’ll be doing book promotion for the next month. Announcing the blogs I’m appearing on, shouting to the virtual world on September 26 that my books are available on Amazon, tweeting, and just generally making my presence more than known. I’d love it if you’d celebrate this incredible milestone with me. If you want to help me out by sharing the news on your Facebook page or tweeting links to the books or just telling your friends about them, that would be great. I’ll be eternally grateful. Most of all, I hope you enjoy ONCE MORE FROM THE TOP and SEX AND THE WIDOW MILES. Carrie and Julie are characters close to my heart and their stories are fun and touching. Thanks for all your support.

So it begins…