Look What the Mailman Brought

The other day, I moseyed on out to the mailbox, opened the small black door, and was greeted to a very odd site.

My picture was in my mailbox.

At first, I looked around. Was this a joke? What in the world?

Then I pulled out the lone slip of cardboard and saw what it was.

A flyer for my FIRST instore booksigning! (I’m on Lifeway’s mailing list… thus I received the flyer! WOOT!)

I might have done this little jig dance in the driveway before I feared that the neighbor across the street who likes to sit on his porch would see me and thinking something was wrong, like a spider had gone down my shirt or something.

So I calmed myself, walked to my van where I’d already buckled Annabelle in, closed the door, and squealed very loud. Poor Annabelle.

It got even BETTER a few days later when I drove by Lifeway (it may or may not have been on purpose…) and saw a sign like THIS on either side of the door. The cool, fun thing is that it was right below the poster for Karen Kingsbury, who will be signing for her new release just a few days after me. Yeah, talk about pressure to perform! I feel like I’m her “pre”show at the bookstore! HA!

And then…

Reality sunk in.

I’m going to have to…

sign….

my books…

in public….

at a bookstore…

and submit myself to possible failure because of what of no one comes and what if I sell zero books and what if they boo me out of the store and what if I mess up any signatures I do get and what if I knock over the whole entire table or sneeze on someone or burp when someone goes by or accident lean on a bookshelf and make the whole thing topple over…

*big gulp*

Oh, and how many copies did Lifeway have??? TEN!!!!

I’m a little nervous.

Let’s just put it that way.

I’m ALSO getting the privilege to speak at the Southern Festival of Books this Friday at 4pm in downtown Nashville. HOW COOL IS THAT.

I’m nervous about this too… but am kind of not letting myself think too much about it yet. No need to be too nervous too soon, right??

And I’ll be signing books after that, so if you’re in the area and aren’t busy that afternoon, I’d love to see you! I’ll be speaking with the wonderful Julie Cantrell about strong heroine’s in faith-based books.

On a very sad note, we were to be a 3 person panel, but sadly, fabulous Julie Cannon, author of Twang, went to be with Jesus suddenly this week. I was so looking forward to meeting her, I’ve heard fabulous things about what a wonderful woman and author she was, so yeah. Please keep her family in your prayers. She’s survived by her husband, daughter and 2 sons, one of them only 14 years old.

A reminder to me about how short and precious each day of our lives are, and to make sure we live each day with no regrets and to its fullest.

DISCUSSION: Are you a “last minute” get nervous person, or do you fret and stew about things for days/weeks/months in advance? Or are you one of those crazy people who are fearless and have nerves of steel??


***I FORGOT!***


I forgot! I’m SUPER excited to be interviewed today on the USAToday Happily Ever After blog!!! It is USAToday’s blog that focuses on romance novels. HOW COOL IS THAT! A huge thanks to Serena Chase for the opportunity!