Today I am celebrating my first anniversary as an author of The Focused Fight! Oh, what a year it's been. I am wildly blessed despite the medical challenges I faced last year to finally, after many months and years of writing/editing/twisting my hands, and everyone else's around me, to push the "publish" button for the ebook on the Amazon website. Two weeks later, the paperback version followed (March 25, 2021).
Can you see my mile-wide smile? Can you feel the floor bounce as I do the happy dance in celebration?
In 2016 I wrote the outline for the book. I wrote some preliminary chapters that year and in 2017, but nothing materialized as when the world was in lockdown in 2020. I joined Seth Godin's Akimbo Writing in Community in June and never looked back.
There, I flourished with writing every day along with a powerful worldwide cohort of people writing their books. There was accountability. There were Write Nows (writing simultaneously with several others through zoom calls) and Out Loud sessions where we read our words to each other in 5-minute increments (about 700 words). I was pushed to do my best, then inspired by many beautiful people writing their own powerful stories of every genre. We read each other's work and gave comments and recommendations to what did or did not resonate to make our stories come alive. I highly recommend joining this community if you have the desire, or even an inkling, to write something…anything!
In addition to the daily writing, it behooved me to establish a team to publish; an editor, formatter, line editor(s), beta readers, and more. I could never have accomplished the behemoth to publish if I did not have my outstanding team in place. My husband, Bill, my rock, was at my beck and call to flesh out details, find me a photo, or sit and listen while I read OUT LOUD hours of my transcript to him.
As you can probably imagine, gratefulness is the first thing that comes to mind while reflecting on the past year. Even in the thick of Covid-19, I was still able to meet magnificent people at book signings, book clubs, a couple of speaking engagements, and making guest appearances on several podcasts. I am happy to announce that I will be a guest on a couple of upcoming podcasts this spring. Please stay tuned as I will provide more details here in my blog.
So, if you are wondering what I learned this past year, I will share with you some powerful reactions and responses to The Focused Fight. The biggest triumph was my family: Bill and Olivia were thrilled to have their side of the story represented, and Ryan walked around the house with pride with the book in his hands for the first few weeks as he read every. single. word of it. My mantra all year (to reach): One-Person, One-Family at a time is happening! I also kept learning the power of community, connection, and belonging (and the power of a chocolate chip cookie).
My goal to reach out and provide hope and inspiration leaves me glowing and my heart bursting with heartfelt appreciation to all the support over the past year more than you know.
Thank you one and all!
Please raise a glass (of water is always welcome) to The Focused Fight's First Anniversary out in the world in ebook and paperback versions (paper is the traditional first-anniversary gift, how apropos!). Note: The last of the trifecta in book publishing is an audiobook. Several people have reached out to me to record one, so I have put that on my radar with the hope of recording one this year. Cheers!
bSoleille!
Terri
