So…Authors Rock!

So…you remember how I said that I was a contributing author to The Motherhood Diaries? Well, this weekend, I had the opportunity along with several of the other authors to participate in a book signing in Houston. IT WAS AMAZING! I’ve been to book signings and been simply awed at being able to meet with amazing authors. Well, this time, it was my turn! Each day, I’m still amazed that I was given a chance to participate and be a part of a team. It was completely AWESOME!

This past weekend, we came to Houston and the ladies of Motherhood Diaries shut it down! Friday, the book signing was held at Dionisio Winery in Downtown Houston. I can’t describe the feeling except to say that I felt like Cinderella at the ball. Originally, when this was suggested, I REALLY wanted to go, but I knew that it was NOT in my budget…(hey..my story is Diary of a Struggling Mom…my budget is limited)! Anyway, my mom didn’t understand why that should stop me. She GRACIOUSLY offered to purchase my plane fare. My best friend helped and got a great deal for a room and a rental car for the weekend and a prayer partner gave me spending money. The trip was all planned and sponsored by friends and family! My sister even hooked me up with her iPhone for the weekend. It was sooooo awesome.

Now to the business. The authors of MD have been communicating online for the most part since right before the book was released. We’ve bonded and come to know one another over the past month or so and have really gotten close. One of the ladies (my sister writers) and I chatted that we would all get together and feel awkward probably because meeting folks online and then in person can be completely and totally different because people aren’t always the same online. I am glad to say that while at first we were ALL a little shy, we broke out after a few minutes into the same folks we have shown ourselves to be online! It was soooooo friggin’ cool! One of the sister writers, L.A. Lewis had this to say:

“Imagine you’ve always loved acting. Now, imagine that one of your favorite actors who you’ve admired for as long as you can remember, chose you to be a part of a movie that they’re starring in. Now, one would say that’s a very big deal, right? Of course it is. Now also imagine that this big time actor also invited you into their home, and fed you and made YOU feel like a star! Can you imagine that? Well, that’s exactly what this weekend felt like to me. Not only meeting, but actually being able to socialize and eat with authors that I’ve known and read for as long as I can remember reading, is just WOW! Not only that, but to top it all off, I was also able to meet other women who are about their business.”

Yup. That about sums it up. I straight felt like Cinderella except midnight didn’t turn my carriage back into a pumpkin! I was living a DREAM! I really, REALLY can’t believe that I was schmoozing with STARS (did you not know that authors are stars? You better reckanize! lol…)

To add more icing on the cake (this cake was seriously sweet!), Victoria Christopher Murray came out to support Reshonda and the rest of us and popped up at the signing! What she said that completely blew me away, was something that I’d said. SHE said that SHE was star struck! WHA?? She said that she now understands how her readers feel when they squeal with delight upon meeting her. I was completely flabbergasted. I got to meet most of my sister writers and I was cracking myself up because I recognized EACH AND EVERYONE of them…well, mostly. Pat Tucker threw me for a loop though! (lol)…she got all super sexy on us! HAHAHAHAHA! (hey…you ain’t see her!).

We all had so much fun! Roishina helped me live a little and get outside my box. IF it had not been for her, I would LIKELY have been in the room all weekend with my nose in a book until it was time for our two events. This was my first time going west of Alabama! I already knew that Pat Tucker and Crystal Brown Tatum and I shared a special bond because we’re members of the same sorority, Sigma Gamma Rho. I also found out that another sister writer, Felicia Williams, is a member also! WHAAAAAA!!! I’ve told you before that this is a talented bunch of ladies. I was sincerely overwhelmed and just star struck! YUP! I SAID IT! STAR STRUCK!

I’m honored to know these ladies. I feel like I’ve known them forever and I know that they are praying for me just like I’m praying for them. Big things are happening. Make sure you come along. You don’t want to miss it. Check out the links below. These are some of the things we’re up to. Now, some of them, I’ve already linked to above. Just click their highlighted names. The others, I’m posting below. Check them out!

Shelby Alexander Griggs – Diary of a Mature Mom

Keleigh Crigler Hadley – Diary of a Wimpy Mom

Sadeqa Johnson – Diary of an Overachieving Mom (who needs a drink)

Makasha Dorsey – Diary of an Aspie Mom

Gina Phillips Johnson – Diary of a Praying Mom

Edna Pittman – Diary of a Special Needs Mom

Jamesina Greene – Diary of a Depressed Mom

C. Mikki – Diary of an Adoptive Mom

Tia McCollors – Diary of a Stay At Home Mom

Norlita Brown – Diary of an Abusive Mom

Gail Diamond – Diary of a Single Parent

Marcena Hooks – Diary of a Working Mom (the balancing act)

Lichol Ford – Diary of a Welfare Mom

Tanisha Tate – Diary of a Mom/Dad

Deborah Gaffney – Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

Miranda Parker – Diary of a Mom With a Disability Big Heart

Like I said, this is a talented group of ladies! We have lots going on. I hope you’ve enjoyed the book as much as we have. This weekend, as we signed books and mementos for each other, I felt like it was the last day of school and we were signing yearbooks! I was sad to see the weekend come to an end but I so enjoyed the time that I did spend with my sister writers. I am looking forward to the next time we’re all able to get together.

Until next time,

Hakuna Matata

So…a little about me — Part 3

So….The newest big thing to happen to me is that I’ve become a published author.  Now, before you go looking me up on Amazon, I am a part of a collaborative project called The Motherhood Diaries by Reshonda Tate Billingsley.  She is one of my favorite authors.  She put out a post on Facebook back in August calling for stories from moms parenting in the new millennium.  If you read my last post, you know that I wrote about the girl.  Well, imagine my surprise when November 5th, I got an email from Reshonda’s assistant telling me to sign the contract to have my work included.  I was completely shocked!  I thought, wait…what?  I did not even know it had been accepted until that moment!  As I read the contract, I thought that it was perhaps something that was sent to everyone who submitted a story.  I later found out that over 200 entries were submitted.  She chose 22.  I sincerely wondered HOW mine had been chosen.  Then I thought, “maybe it’s in a section on how NOT to be included…”

Hey..I have issues alright!  I was emotional when I wrote my story and sent it in on the last day, but not in a million years could I have guessed that my work would be chosen.  Coincidentally (or not), I had just started as a participant in Nanowrimo, which is National Novel Writing Month which happens every November.  Participants are challenged to write a complete novel in 30 days.  I saw the post on two friends’ Facebook posts on November 1st.  When I checked it out, I thought, “hmm…why not!”  I’d always joked about the people talking in my head and that I should write a book.  I never took myself seriously and never thought I would.  But seeing it presented like that in a challenge, I was ready to try my hand at it and so I started that very night.

So, getting word almost a week into my first novel that I was going to be a published author sooner than my first book, I was uber excited.  Of course, I remembered what I wrote, and started to get scared.  Once it was published people would know my business!  I was so afraid.  What will they think?  What will they say?  Will they think I’m a bad mom?  Will my mom be angry?  I kept it bottled up for about a month.  I told my mom, who happens to be an English major, retired high school Language Arts teacher and current Writing professor at a university back home.  She was absolutely thrilled.

My chapter in The Motherhood Diaries is called Diary of a Struggling Mom.  The book was published on April 9th and is doing pretty good.  I’m excited.  There will be more information about book signings and things of that nature as soon as we get some information finalized.  I’m loving this new chapter in my life.

As for my book that I started in November…I finished it.  I’ve been tweaking it ever since.  I hired an editor and got some precious feedback and I am feverishly working to finish.  I am hoping to have my book published in the next twelve months.  There are so many stories left to tell.  A lady at my church was ALWAYS telling me, “you should write a book.”  I had heard that so many times but I always met it with, “Oh, I’m not a writer, that’s my mom and my sister.”    She asked me one day, “Have you read the things you write on Facebook?  You have a way with words.  You have a gift.”  I told her that I had been praying about my purpose and what God’s plan was for this chapter in my life.  She was the 2nd person after I’d prayed about that to come to me about writing.  So, I’m flowing along with what God has to say!  So, until the book with my name on the cover comes out, you should definitely check out The Motherhood Diaries.  It has my name in the Table of Contents!  That in itself is exciting.  I have read it cover to cover and I swear, I read the other stories from the other authors, many of whom are already published or are already so prolific in their own right…that I STILL wonder how mine was chosen.  The only answer I can come up with is that it was God’s plan.  So..who am I to mess with His plan.

So…the next time you wanna make God laugh, tell Him your plans.  I know he is CRACKING UP at mine.

Until next time,

Hakuna Matata