The older I get the more I take delight in having a new experience, something that in my memory at least, I have never done before. For example, last winter - this is not a cliché - at a family event I participated in roasting and eating chestnuts over an open fire.
Having my first book set for publication in January 2023 and having to set up a website and social media this Spring given the strong urging to do so from the marketing department at the University of Alabama Press, while definitely new experiences, they are not totally delightful.
In addition, in the last few days, I attended a one day writing conference - my first, and as of today in response to another communication from the Press I am in the middle of evaluating and choosing an indexer for the book. Lots happening. At the conference, one of the successful authors there told me that, yes, I will have to go into major bookstores, present myself, and ask to do a reading. Unless one is a bestseller author with a big house publisher this is the way it is now. The indexer choosing task is more my style. So, you can see the challenges. And you can see why a bit of my delight at new experiences, maybe a lot if I'm honest with myself, is sliced off by the learning curves and hard work.
Whether I ever get to doing Twitter, Instagram, and whatever else also encouraged by the marketing department, is for another day. Right now, Facebook and a website seem plenty enough for me. I do hope you will please ask your friends to follow both. It will be helpful.
As I write this first blog my mind keeps drifting to the small but lovely banks of primroses that have just started blooming along the edges of my gardens. I call them Alabama primroses because they were a huge delight of my childhood. Swathes of them covered banks of roads and edges of yards. They cheered me. This all cheers me.
I've come to realize that the Alabama primroses represent the happy parts of my youth in Birmingham. If you look hard into the golden center of the blossom and let yourself slide into the throat, you will see glory. At least that's what happened to me when I was little. I did not have words for it then but now I know.
Marcia E Herman-Giddens, Author
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