Countdown to Publication-Week 2: Publishers Weekly Calls Lessons from the Monk I Married "a gentle, earnest book."

I'm in Santa Barbara. Well, Goleta actually. I ran away on vacation. I needed some downtime from all the activity in my life. I also came to escape the thunder, lightening, hail, sleet, snow, clouds and rain we've been having in Washington. Plus, my parents are here and they extended the invitation. How could I refuse?

I'm trying to take in the moments while I am here, as I know very well that THIS moment is the most important one and the only one we ever really have. As much as I know that, it's easy to forget when there are 100 things going on.

I'm trying not to get too overly excited, but my very first book has shipped out to customers not only in North America, but worldwide! People in Australia, France, England, Spain and other countries have let me know that they've ordered the book. The book released several weeks early, so they'll be getting those books soon!

It feels like thousands of pieces of myself have just launched into the world and they are expanding out in all different directions. One part of me wants to hide under a rock and the other part of me wants to watch it all unfold.

I just received my first big book review from Publishers Weekly. I was scared to read the review. I think every writer has a bit of fear about how the world will perceive what they have written, especially if the writing is very personal.

But PW had very good things to say! They called Lessons from the Monk I Married "a gentle, earnest book" and my writing, according to PW, is "graceful and direct." You can read the entire review here: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-58005-368-6

I hope to see many of you on my book tour coming soon in April. See the side bar on this blog for details. Also, if you ordered the book, please send me photos of you with the book. I'm running a contest for the best photo. I haven't decided what the prize should be. Any ideas?

You can send the photos to my Facebook fan page. And if you get your copy of the book in the next few days, please let me know! And thank you so very much for following me on this journey, sharing this blog and my book with friends and for being here!

More soon,

Katherine

Countdown to Publication-Week 3: The Book Arrived in the Mail TODAY!

On Monday, my publicist e-mailed me to let me know that she was holding a copy of my book in her hands! She said, "It's beautiful" and let me know that she'd be mailing off a copy that day. Well, as you know from the previous post, patience isn't my strong point. So what did I do? I checked the mailbox....everyday. It didn't arrive until Friday. Here's a little video of that experience:

Unlike a baby, a book comes in the mail or from a bookstore (although those might have been stories children were told about how they came into to this world as well...like the stork story). Mine came in the mail way ahead of the April 3rd pub. date! Which means that if you ordered a copy of my book online, you might be getting your book(s) sooner rather than later! Hooray!

To write a book is one thing, but to hold the finished product in your hands is sort of indescribable and a bit surreal. It certainly made my day! Thanks to all of you who have purchased a copy and I hope you get yours soon!