One Month After Before Ever After: How it Really Feels

Before we get to the real post, I need to lapse into a moment of shameless self-promotion:

Do you have any burning questions about Before Ever After? Chat with me LIVE on Goodreads on Wednesday Sept 7, 8PM EST  (if you are based in the Philippines, that's Thursday Sept 8, 8AM). My editor, Kate Kennedy and my agent, Stephanie Kip Rostan will be there to join the fun!

If you are already a GoodReads member, all you have to do is follow this link and join the Read it Forward group.  If you aren't a member – what are you waiting for? Sign up now!

Looking forward to chatting with you. See you then!

Shameless self-promotion over. And now back to our regularly scheduled program…

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I've been putting off writing this blog post for a while now – not because I didn't have anything to say, but because there has been way too much. How could I possibly put the roller coaster ride I've been on into words? I go through every imaginable shade of emotion on a daily basis. Before I can even start processing what I'm feeling, a new emotion bumps the old one out and takes it place.

And then I remembered my ring.

My husband had this ring made for me as a present to celebrate my book deal. The mosaics I wrote about in Before Ever After inspired its design.  Each stone has a meaning and pretty much sums up everything I've experienced so far on this odd journey.

Ruby – The ruby is my birthstone and is known as the stone of love.  Anyone who knows me, however, will attest that I do not have a romantic bone in my body – despite having written a love story. What I like about the ruby is that it is supposed to give a person the courage to be the best person that he or she can be. And believe me, now that my little book is out in the wild and has to fend for itself, I need a double shot of courage straight up.

Finding your book in the bookstore may look like this on the outside…

But this is how you really feel.

Which is why this next stone comes in handy.

Some say that the emerald helps soothe a troubled mind.  I thought that the most fretting I would do in my life was when my book went out on submission to publishers. Boy, was I wrong.  This past month has gotten me well acquainted with the unparalleled terror of * gasp * REAL READERS.

Complete strangers are reading my little story – the little story I wrote because I needed to kill three hours at Starbucks while my son was in school. I'm worried that the gig will be up and people will find out that I'm not a real writer – just a mom who didn't want to drive back home after dropping her son off in school because she lived one and a half hours away.

And this is why my tiny green gems need reinforcement.

The sapphire gives peace of mind to the wearer by opening their minds to real beauty. It's easy to lose sight of joy if all you focus on are the stars you get or don't get on Goodreads.

 And finally we have the diamond. I looked it up and it's supposed to be good for, er, cough and mucus problems. I, um, don't know exactly how that fits into this post but since it's nice and sparkly, l decided to leave it in.

But the real message this ring has to share isn't its stones.

Look closely.

"Now."

It's a three-letter reminder to take a close look at the second I'm standing in and see the happiness outlined by the day's shades of gray.