Happy Birthday Geli

Before I do anything else today, I want to wish our beautiful, talented, highly accomplished, and all-around amazing daughter-in-law Geli a happy birthday. This wonderful lady means so much to us and we love her with all of our hearts. I wish we could be there to share the day with you, Geli, but know you are always in our hearts.

I hit the ground running yesterday and got a lot accomplished in a relatively short amount of time. I started by posting yesterday’s blog announcing my new Tinder Street book, The Hard Years, to my regular Facebook page, my Facebook author’s page, and to several book groups on Facebook.

Then I sent out my free author’s newsletter to nearly 2,000 subscribers, and I also added about 25 new subscribers after I posted about it on Facebook. I also added another 20 or so subscribers to my BookBub author’s page. A while later, I got a message from BookBub saying that they would send out an e-mail announcing the new book to all my subscribers on that page today.

When I was done with that, I sent out notices about the new book to a bunch of online book review sites. I always tell new authors who ask me for advice that the hard work begins once the book is written. It doesn’t matter if you wrote the best book in the history of mankind, nobody is going to know about it unless you tell the world. It always surprises me how many authors look down on marketing. This is a business, and you have to approach it that way.

All of that effort, along with the support of so many of you who read my books and tell your friends and family members about them, paid off. By the end of the day yesterday the new book was rated at  #9,921 out of all of the millions of e-books in Amazon’s Kindle Store.

With all the book promotion done that I could for Day One, Terry and I went to our accountant to pick up our tax returns. We talked to her for a bit about the way we are doing things, making sure that we are on track to keep the nice folks at the IRS happy. Then we went to the post office and sent them a check with a couple of numbers and a whole bunch of zeros on it. I hope some senator who will be sitting on a gold-plated toilet seat in the Capitol appreciates my donation toward his or her comfort.

After that, we decided we deserved a nice dinner, so we went to Goodrich Seafood, getting there just before the rush. We started off with their Boom-Boom Shrimp appetizer, then I had a shrimp combo platter, half fried and half blackened, while Terry chose blackened swai fish tacos. As always, it was delicious.

Back at home, I had several new names to add to the mailing list for my author’s newsletter, and then Terry and I spent a couple of hours relaxing in our recliners and watching TV before we called it a night.

Now that the rush of getting the new book out and telling the world about it is over, we’ll have some time to catch our breath before we launch ourselves into our next projects.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of More Than Human by my friend Heather Ashbury. It’s a blend of fantasy and paranormal romance that begins when a young woman returns to an enchanting town in New Mexico following a mysterious death, where she is unexpectedly pulled into the mystical world of gods, demons, werewolves, nymphs, and more.

To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

Thought For The Day – I can’t imagine the self-control required to work at a bubble wrap factory.