As most people on the planet know, today is the book birthday for Royally Lost. You may wonder what that means. Do authors spend the day celebrating? Do we put our feet up and eat chocolate all day in tribute to a job well done? Not quite.

I think I speak for a fair share of authors when I say that we fret in the days up to our book release, and even more on the day. Why? We’ve worked for many months, sometimes years on a book, put our heart and soul into it, and are terrified the world won’t love it as much as we do.

So how have I spent my time? I tried to plan my whole day away from my computer. I began with a pedicure. It turns out that the gal who did my pedi, Leah, is the same gal from over a year ago. She remembered me because we talked the whole time about youth hostels. Thanks to Leah, my research on hostels in Europe was a snap, and on the release of the book she helped with, I was back in her pedi chair. How wild is that?

With my toes cute and polished, I drove downtown to A Room of One’s Own where they are handling requests for autographed books. They have Snapshot and Rock and a Hard Place, too. I signed the book orders that had come in, so they can ship them out to the eager readers. That was very fun!

Afterwards, I hid out at the movie theater and watched the Grand Budapest Hotel as I gorged on overly buttered popcorn. It was a quirky movie with lots of stars. Fun, but far from a blockbuster. On my way home I stopped at two different garden centers and picked up my first plantings of the season. It’s 60 degrees today, balmy. Not. Putting my hands in soil is great therapy and distraction from checking rankings, reviews and social media.

Tonight I’m forcing my husband to take me out to dinner and later we’ll watch taped episodes of The Americans. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. Love it!

As you see, I’m trying to keep my mind off the book. Still, I sneak peeks once in a while and tweet my thanks to bloggers and readers. What will I do tomorrow?

Start writing the next book, of course.

~

If you’ve read Royally Lost and enjoyed it, one of the nicest things you could do is write a short review on Amazon. This author would be forever grateful.