Amazon’s open, so’s that door

Barnes&Noble, Target, shops galore

Who knew we had so many online book retailerrrrrrs

(Sing in the style of Frozen, of course).

“A Firefly’s Journey” is officially released today! And the lyric above is true; I had no idea so many online book retailers existed around the world. You can buy it in Australia, mates!

I’ve been asked several times about my “preferred” place to purchase a copy, which is very kind (especially since authors have very little control over what happens on the big sites like Amazon, Target, etc.).

Now that we are “live”, the book is officially launched on BookBaby Bookshop! This is the Indie Publisher, and would technically be my preferred way to purchase. We have a special coupon code to apply between now and August 31st too! Just enter “BACKTOSCHOOL” during checkout in the Coupon Code field, and you’ll save $7.00 off of your purchase. This is enough to cover the shipping and a little extra.

LINK TO BOOKBABY: bit.ly/BookBabyListing

COUPON CODE: BACKTOSCHOOL

(Expires 8/31/21)

Thank you so much to those who tuned in and supported the “presale” process over the past month. I truly appreciate it!! Your copy should be shipping out to you shortly, woohoo!

As an innately curious person, I always enjoy hearing the backstory of anything. Remember Vh1 (in general) and the show “Behind the Music”?? God I loved that series. Or MTV’s “Making the Video”, back when they focused on musical things and not teen pregnancy. Those were the good ole’ days!

I started writing little snippets of stories several years ago, when my daughter was born. Anytime inspiration hit, I’d pick up my phone and jot it down in the “Notes”. Some were just quick, fleeting thoughts and ideas, others were a few poetic lines, and some had potential for longer tales. It wasn’t until my daughter started insisting on a newly crafted bedtime story every night (EVERY.NIGHT.) that things really started to take shape.

“A Firefly’s Journey” began as one such bedtime story, completely off the top of my head. It was version 1, a very rough draft, but became a regular request from my then 3-year-old. I had written a few other short stories by that time but kept coming back to this one.

Fast forward to early Covid Pandemic days. After making the tough decision to leave the workforce (temporarily, at least) to focus on the family and home life, I felt compelled to revisit my creative passions. Perhaps what inspired me most was the daily reminder of how short, precious, and fragile our time here is. This virus knocked the whole world off its feet. Every human on the planet was impacted by the same thing. This is deep stuff! I was inspired to plunge into something new, soul-fulfilling, and to stop sitting on this little dream I had.

And here we are on publish day! From version1 of the manuscript, through many edits, through the illustration process (which is fascinating all on its own!), to the final digital copy, to receiving the author copies, all the way to the retail listing, the process took about 1 year. I am by no means an expert, but if anyone out there is looking for any tips, resources, advice or just a place to bounce some ideas, I am always happy to connect!

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The way I see it, best case is that it becomes a “best seller”, but BEST case is that my kids, their kids, and their kids’ kids, will have something special to read at bedtime.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back soon with some long overdue music recs!