Wow! What a weekend!

   I feel like I’ve written this a thousand times already in the comments section, Facebook, phone calls, etc. but I am truly humbled by the support you all have shown me. The fabulous Miss Molly Jones called me out the other day though. Said I should’ve expected more than three of you to read my last post. I admit it. You were right, Molly. I did expect more than three readers.
   I expected four. ;)
   A couple of you have asked me what the events leading up to this past Friday were like, so here it is: an inside peek of the big cover reveal.
   First, it in no way resembled what I envisioned in the years leading up to it. Ha. 

  The truth is I had been planning to tease you all a little bit more and earn your ire for delaying the inevitable. I had what I considered a fantastic plan to lure you all to my website for the reveal. Once here, you would hopefully sign up for my newsletter (do that, BTW, if you haven’t already. Never know what goodies I might send out), then, a couple days after, I would release the cover on Facebook and Twitter anyway to pickup stragglers. 
  Like so many plans, it didn’t go down that way. You’d think I would stop being surprised at some point.   

 The editing goddess that is Annetta Ribken emailed me Thursday night to say we had finished our work together. After bawling my eyes out because I would no longer have her emails to look forward to, she emailed me again.
   “Quit crying, little girl," she said. "I’m not leaving. Why? Well, I’m just that awesome. It’s time to toss this bad boy out to the world and see what comes back.” 
   Unfortunately, I wasn’t as prepared as I expected to be. I stayed up all night refiguring my website, updating social media sites, etc. And yes, I can visualize you techie friends of mine shaking your heads that this took me all night to do. Remember though, this is me we’re discussing. The same guy who still considers it a miracle he can navigate Facebook.    

   I finished all these updates around 5 a.m. Pacific time. My daughter would be up in a couple hours and, man, did I ever need the sleep. Still, I couldn’t believe I was actually about to release this news. Up till that point, I could always back out. Not many would be the wiser that I had this crazy dream of becoming an author. 
   Then I realized many of you already know I am a crazy man, so what could it hurt? I’ve failed in so many other pursuits, what could one more hurt when added to the count? I uploaded the files, published my first blog post ever (scary!), and made the Facebook announcement.
   Then I went to bed.
   Crazy, right? I always envisioned I would hover at the computer all day waiting to see if any of you liked the cover, the post, etc. I’d just be there waiting for the hammer to drop that none of you were interested in the slightest. 
  Instead, I woke up to the most incredible surprise a few hours later. I had over fifty notifications from Facebook. Private messages. Text messages. Missed calls. And all of them telling me what I should have known all along…
  You people DO believe in me.
  There really are no words to describe what that feels like. I would venture that many are not nearly so fortunate as I to learn the number of people truly in their corner. Your show of continued support astounds me, friends. I’ll try not to let you down. ;)
  So follow me down this road, if you’d be so kind, and see where it leads. It should make for some wonderfully entertaining stories. If I fail, at least you can learn from my missteps and laugh along the way. You know I'll take it in stride. On the other hand, if by some miracle I make this baby soar you were with me from the beginning. 
   I can’t begin to thank you all enough for that. 

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