The Undiscovered Country

How Much Fun Is This?

Most writers tend to be introverted. No surprise there, since writing is a solitary endeavor.

Because of this need to hide in the shadows, the thought of promoting ourselves and our writing can be downright terrifying.

There's also the constant doubt hovering at the edge of our psyche. What if everything we write sucks. What if I'll offend people? What if . . .

My own list of doubts is long and ever-growing.

That makes the enjoyment of starting my website, publishing my novella, designing and purchasing promotional materials, and running a contest all the more surprising.

I never thought self-promotion could be so much fun.

What has helped is the number of people who have entered the contest. I'm stunned. The number stands at twenty at this moment. After only three days, I consider it a resounding success. I honestly didn't think a dozen would enter after thirty days.

My thanks to all of you for entering. I can't describe well enough how much it means to me.

Another surprise is how little I doubt people will enjoy the book. Ever since I decided to publish "A Reason to Hope", it felt right.

Only two other times did I get that feeling: when I married my husband and when we decided we wanted children after all.

I mentioned this to a friend in an email the other day as well. It's as though the moment I approved the proof, the book no longer belonged to me. I've done my part, the rest is in God's hands. Sure I have more work ahead of me as far as continuing to promote it, but in the end God will decide how it's used.

I believe the book will reach the people it's meant to reach. Whether it's ten people or a thousand, I honestly don't care. I don't even think about whether or not I will earn back the money I spent. I only wanted it available for a lot of people to read and enjoy the story.

Although, the more I think about it, publishing this book helped release a deep fear of mine.

In this day and age of political correctness, talking about and writing publically about controversial issues is not only difficult, but scary. We take the chance of being attacked at least verbally when we take an unpopular view.

I do exactly that with this book.

While the fear niggles at the back of my mind, it doesn't alter my course. It's like learning how to drive. Getting behind the wheel and pulling out into a busy street for the first time can make us break out into a sweat. Yet we go anyway, because we know driving is neccessary.

Publishing this book for me was neccessary.

That I'm having fun at the same time is pretty cool.