DJ,

I don’t even know where to start. I’ve screamed so much in the last two days that I ended up with a splitting headache. What I call my happy head. It’s not that anything major has happened, I haven’t signed a deal or suddenly won the lottery. No, all that’s happened is that my life has been filled with possibilities. I didn’t realise that I was feeling despondent with my progress of trying to raise awareness of Imagine This until all the offers for readings started to come in.

I guess I should start from the beginning. For the past week or so, I’ve mounted a campaign to do a series or readings at libraries. Pam, my sister-in-law gave me the idea when her and the kids came round to see me. Once term starts, she’s going to speak to the Headmaster of my niece’s school to see if they’d like to have me come in and do a talk. Don’t ask me what on, but I did consider it for awhile. The problem is, my niece is only nine and I don’t really think Imagine This is suitable for that market. But being the avid reader that she is, she insisted that she wants to read the book written by her favourite auntie.

Anyway I digress a little, so Pam comes up with the idea of doing a reading at the library near them because they’re always putting on events. So I thought why not, I called, arranged an appointment and met Sandra Agard who was really enthusiastic about promoting Imagine This. She wants to introduce it to the library’s reading club, which to me equals more readers which equals more disciples. More people to spread the word, of course it’s occurred to me that they might actually hate the book, but for once I’m going with the positive.

Going with the positive is such an unusual occurrence where I’m concerned, but I can’t help myself especially after managing to book about 6 readings so far. Sandra suggested I call up all the London Boroughs because now is the time that they’re organising events for Autumn. I’ve been online and on the phone, the response has been brilliant. They want me baby. 🙂 I’m still waiting for a response from some of them, but on the whole everyone I’ve been in touch with has been very positive.

I’ve been telling them all I also do workshops on creative writing and self-publishing. Yikes. Never thought anyone would take me up on it. Yesterday I got an email from one of the libraries wanting to know how much I charge. Yikes again. I hadn’t the foggiest, so I needed to make a quick call to an author pal who does this for a living. He told me the going rate and was I shocked or what. For an author reading, I can charge £150 for a 1 1/2hr session and a workshop starts from £250 for 3hrs. Not bad huh.

Anyway, on to my screaming fits. The lovely Scott Pack who I met just before the launch of Imagine This has finally gotten round to reading the book and he absolutely loves it. You can read what he said here. I woke up Monday morning switched on my laptop and there were 4 new orders in my inbox. Trust me, this is an unusual phenomenon. I was too happy to wonder how 4 people in one morning heard about my website, that was until another email popped in from an acquaintance congratulating me on my mention in Scott’s blog. Yep, that’s when the screaming started and has barely stopped. The fact that he read it and actually loved it is music to my ears, it also helps that a lot of people listen to him and read his blog. So I’m hoping that as a result of the positive review, I can open another door. Yep, my life is filling with possibilities. 🙂