One Year Anniversary & A New Release!

Just in time for my one-year publishing anniversary--I not only have a gorgeous new website and blog to celebrate the date on, I also have a new release to celebrate it with! Lots going on today!

In the previous post, I celebrated the new website and blog, which I just love, so here I'll celebrate the anniversary and the new release.

One year ago--almost--I published my very first indie title, Pearls of Passion, a 6000 word super-spicy short story, which is available FREE wherever ebooks are sold. It released on February 29, 2012, so technically I'd have to wait another three years to have the first anniversary, but yeah, I'm not doing that. ;) Today is the day! And in keeping with an anniversary, I am looking back over the year and ruminating on what I've learned and how I've grown.


Mostly, I am just so thankful for my family and friends, for my fabulous critique partner and my beta readers, and for all of the knowledgeable people out there already way ahead on the indie publishing path, lighting the way for the rest of us. But an anniversary calls for introspection, soooo...

The list of technical items could be quite extensive, from formatting books to upload, including my nemesis, the hyperlinked TOC (I've successfully slain that dragon, but there was a time...), to creating my own covers and all the rest. Pearls of Passion's cover, to the left, was the first one I ever created, and I focused on keeping it simple and clean. It's not fancy, but it's still one of my favorites. Compared to the one for my new release, Cupid's Mistake, however, they are not even in the same ballpark. What a difference a year makes!

Beyond the learning curve, though, I discovered even more about myself as a writer. I discovered that when I let the words flow, instead of nitpicking every step of the way, I can actually start and finish a project. Amazing! I discovered that, with the support of my friends and colleagues, I am brave enough to dip my toe into the indie pool. And I discovered that I like it! I like the control being an indie allows, I love the community of people I'm involved with now, and I absolutely adore the people I've met since beginning this journey, including the readers who have gone out of their way to let me know they enjoy my work. Now that's nirvana, and definitely worth celebrating!

Thank you to everyone who has stood by me, to everyone out there lighting the path, and to the readers, because without you, none of this matters. Here's to many more years, and many more anniversaries.