Saturday So What: Labor Pains

So What's up? My book's FINALLY here that's what. It feels like it's been forever. (for you reading too huh. lol)

I have always liked the "book baby" analogy, so I think I am going to use it to explain my thoughts.

For me at least, conception was the easy part. It never takes me very long to get pregnant or write a book. The gestation though is a killer. When I was pregnant with my girls, I threw up everyday for nine months. After I signed the contract for my book, I wanted to throw up for the past 11 months. Who knew I was supposed to have a master's degree in marketing and computer science to understand a little thing called social media?

Each time I was pregnant, I gave up my favorite thing -- Diet Coke. I went off the caffeine and soda, and tried to be super healthy for my kids, not a natural state of being for me. It was not fun. I hated the restrictions. I hated the hip and back pain. I thought, "There's no way I will EVER do this again. It's just not worth it."

To try to do what the publisher asked of me, I had to give up my favorite thing. I went from being able to read a book a day, to being somewhat chained to my laptop and giving up my precious reading time. I have been warned by some other authory friends that if I don't figure out the whole blogging thing, then it doesn't matter how good the book is. It will die a slow death of obscurity. So for almost a year I've done the legwork. I've blogged, I've spoken at events, I've solicited endorsements, I've done interviews and podcast. Even got into Utah Valley Magazine. Towards the end when I was trying to gather bloggers for my blog tour,  I thought, "There's no way I will EVER do this again. It's just not worth it."

My first daughter came after 27 hours of labor. I looked into her little blue face (she had trouble breathing) and knew that anything I had been through was worth it for what I had in my hands.

My books I ordered for my launch party arrived on January 3rd, a year after I finished the first draft. I opened the box and looked at the cover in my hands -- and I knew it had been worth it.

The path of an author is never easy. It is filled with rejection, criticism, and sweat with printer ink mixed it. A piece of our soul goes into everything we write. And when that piece connects with some reader, somewhere -- all the pain, the nos, the long nights, the writer's block -- will be worth it.

Here are my babies


Thank you for sharing in my "pregnancy".