Sleepless in Auckland...

I know not where to begin, so I'll make this brief.
Life is crazy for me right now.
Sometimes I simply cannot sleep from all the things racing through my brain: book worries, things to do, life with kids, party prep.

Self publishing a book is like opening Pandora's box. You have no idea what you're in for until it's too late. this by itself will keep you up at night, channel-flicking.
And Google locked me out of my admin account the other night, which actually made me cry. There I was at midnight crying over my keyboard - who does that?
People who can't sleep, apparently.

[Power cut in Auckland last week - the kids play Dominoes while I rush madly to light candles]

My poor dyslexic brain has been thrown in the deep end with figuring out US tax requirements, PDF creation, calculating profit-loss and agonising over how many books to order (How many is too many? How many is not enough?)

[my gazillion jar lanterns came in handy during the power-outage]

I have just had to decide, enough is enough.
I can't turn my book into a bestseller overnight through sheer force of will. I simply don't have the numbers. (How many times can I ask my friends to "share" and "like" my book? I'm sure some of them have turned my feed to "mute" already.)

I've done what I can. It's on Amazon. It's on Kindle. I'm selling them through my blog.
A number of kind blog friends have given me a shout out on their blogs.
So what if umpteen of my emails have gone unanswered?
I have done what I can in the very short time I've had  - I only discovered how to do it two weeks ago, after all.

[Miss Fab gets a certificate for "a great effort all year and a sunny positive attitude"]

There's always next Christmas - it's not going anywhere.
And who knows? It could take off all by itself. It could.
But I can't make it happen myself, as a one-woman PR crew.
And there's no point lying awake at night agonising over it all.

[Jar lanterns at Guy Fawkes Party,  where my camera finally died and all proper photos were lost - hence no blog post]

I have children to parent; parties to plan, a birthday of my own to "celebrate"... and then before I blink it'll be Christmas already.

So let the chips fall where they may and the book sell itself... or not.
I need my sleep. I've prayed and put it in God's hands. I think He gave me the story two years ago when I sat down and wrote it as a gift for my kids. It's up to Him now (He has way more FaceBook friends than I do).

And if you want the book? Go here
I'm off to have a weekend, and live my life (and hopefully GET SOME SLEEP).