Just kidding. I hate talking about myself and I’m actually not that exciting. I mean, I’m funny AF but in a redundant, you-get-sick-of-her-quick kind of way. So instead I’ll tell you a story.
Picture it, Alberta, 2020…
Covid-19 shuts down the school systems and puts me and countless others out of a job. I sit. I write. I write some more. Before I know it, I’ve tapped out the first draft of my third book on this very computer. I turn 35 somewhere in the middle of it. And as I’m writing it I wonder, “what is this all for if you’re too much of a chicken $h!t to do anything about it?” So I do a little research on publishing. I realize it takes a lot of time and likely a lot of rejection and heartbreak. I’m not that patient. I don’t handle rejection well. Not to mention I don’t like not being on control of the things I make. So instead, I choose the glamourous path of independent publishing. I fix up the last few edits of book one, Backward, and release it in both E-book and Paperback on Amazon. It’s a rush so intoxicating, I follow up not long after with book two, Forward, which has also been complete for a while. I order a few copies of each and they arrive days later. The only people in the world who know about it are my two daughters, who are just as excited when the box arrives on my doorstep. The older one, thirteen years old, dives right into the series. The ten-year-old doesn’t; Chris Colfer books are her jam.
But in the days to come, my sister is getting married. She’s already gone through so much— she’s had to weigh several options in the time of Covid. Do they cancel? Do they postpone? Ultimately, they choose to scale down to a select few immediate relatives and very close friends. She asks me to be the photographer. Our brother, the officiant. And with the planning and preparations and celebrations, I can tell no one about my personal achievement.
Weeks later, I make a video that’s a few minutes long to announce to the world (and my Facebook friends and family) that I’ve written and published these books. And this video was how almost everyone in my life including my newlywed sister, both brothers and their wives, and my three parents, found out.
Since then I’ve made several videos, given away several books, created several social media pages and posts, and received several compliments from friends and family and colleagues who have read my work.
I regret nothing.
XOXO
MM
