A funny thing happened on the way to this morning

                                                                      Woman writing – Edouard Manet, sketch

This week I was a guest blogger on B.C. Brown’s Books site. Her home page says “Because weird is good….”

Not sure what that says about me, but I am open to all interpretations!

Here are a few excerpts, but please go to B.C’s page and read the whole thing.  Even better, please leave a comment there to show your appreciation to B.C. for sharing her blog.

Excerpts (don’t look for continuity…these are just sentences picked out of the actual blog.

A funny thing happened to me last night. Funny as in strange or unexpected. Not “funny ha-ha” as my dad used to say.

So, there I was working hard at not thinking. The only problem is that when I work hard at something – no matter what it is, even relaxing – I end up wide awake. Last night was no different, except that I was wide awake and really angry.

I could literally feel the anger in my forehead….

I was filled with anger and I hated myself for it. Not because I am such a good and kind person and I knew the anger was mostly about feeling sorry for myself. Equally, not because some of the anger was justified and righteous and I was mad at myself for not expressing it to those who deserved to hear it.

And then something shifted. I decided to think about love. Not romantic love, but the other, bigger, broader kind of love – love of life, love of nature, love of the universe.

Yes, I do have a sort of love affair with the universe – all that space with stars and planets and energy and possibility that somehow brings people and ideas together and fuses their energy into something new.

Within minutes, I had a feeling that I have not had since my book was picked up by a publisher more than a year ago. I felt peace. Most particularly, I felt peace about the book and its potential readers…the people who would appreciate it would somehow find it. The message that I hope to spread would be heard by those who will respond to it.

It doesn’t have to be a bestseller… It can simply exist. I can let it go out into the world without me. I can focus on the next thing I write, instead of trying so hard to promote this one book. I can let it do its own thing.

In a way that I can’t really explain, a sleepless, angry night brought me insight and peace of mind. Sure, I hope people want to read my book. But I no longer need them to.

http://www.bcbrownbooks.blogspot.com/2014/01/guest-post-jan-krause-greene-i-call.html

Funny thing is I had no idea what I would write about when B.C. offered me a guest blog spot. I didn’t think it would be about not worrying about how well my book does. I thought I would write some lofty words on what it means to be a writer. Yet, I ended up writing about not needing my book to sell.

Ironically, at the very same time that I was writing about not worrying about how the book does, I was also getting a lesson in how to promote it. B.C. provided me with a really simple, obvious, straightforward, no-gimmicks method. I can’t believe I had overlooked it. She included a description of the book and she posted the buy links! And, guess what, sales picked up again!  Genius.

So from now on, I will post them at the end of my blog too. Only makes sense, right? If someone, clicks on a link and buys the book, fantastic. If no one, does, that is not quite fantastic, but it is no longer something to lose sleep over!

Amazon:  http://amzn.to/19uhw1p

 

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/i-call-myself-earth-girl-jan-krause-greene/1115388792?ean=9781782790495