Last week was a downpour of blessings upon my writing career, showing me how God’s plans for my life are far greater than my own. This post will be a bit longer than normal, but I hope you can forgive me as I really want to take a few minutes to share this experience.
On July 8, a review of my new book, Julianne, was published by Lonita Cook on the Kansas City Examiner website. Ms. Cook’s kind words for the story and writing style gave validation to my writing dream, but what really made my heart sing was how the reviewer really captured the essence of why I write, which is to tell stories that will minister to those who are already followers of Christ and provide a warm invitation to those who aren’t yet believers. However, it wasn’t just the positive review, the response to the review was also overwhelming. As of this writing, the article was shared via Twitter 149 times and Facebook 34 times. I hope these numbers are encouraging to Ms. Cook as well, because it is a testament to her own beautiful writing.
Just as the glow and excitement of the review were fading, I started my first giveaway via Kindle Direct Publishing’s Select program. On Wednesday and Thursday, July 11 and 12, my business manager and I worked to promote Julianne being available as a free download for Kindle. I admit I was expecting to get 20, maybe 50 downloads. When I first logged on Wednesday morning I was floored to see there had already been 193. When the promotion ended at 3:00am on July 13, a total of 1,749 books had been downloaded worldwide. The idea so many people chose a book I haven’t hesitated to promote as Christian fiction has given wings to my creative spirit. Since my first book sale, I made a commitment to myself to pray for each person who makes a purchase. This past week certainly made the prayer list longer, but I treasure each of those unknown lives.
Despite being emotionally and physically drained after all of this wonderful excitement, I had a taste for strawberry scones. I made them Sunday afternoon after getting caught up on all the mundane tasks pushed aside to focus on my marketing. They smelled absolutely wonderful in the oven and were the perfect end to a dream week. The recipe I used can be found here if you want to take advantage of the end of strawberry season yourself.