Girding Loins and Rocket Fuel...

Well, we have all made it through another week and, hopefully, without hurt or injury, so as it’s Sunday, I thought I might start by telling you all about my week and see where we go from there, I hope that’s okay with you. Although the week started normally enough, the usual round of household tasks, which, no matter how many times you do them seem to always need doing again! But then, I realised my book was going to be involved in a special promotion over the weekend and suddenly whether there were clean socks in the drawer or enough bread for the morning toast, seemed to pale into insignificance. As I think I have mentioned before, I am really not comfortable with this whole ‘put yourself out there’ idea, I am much more of a ‘hide behind the sofa and hope someone else tells people how good I am’ kind of person. But there was no hiding place this time, I knew that, so I girded my loins (which surprisingly isn’t a butchery or a gynaecological reference) and just got on with the whole thing. I have to report, thus far, it hasn’t been quite as painful as I had feared, for example, the book blogger community have just been amazingly supportive which has made my bold (bold? Who am I kidding?) foray into the public arena much less daunting.

It’s a strange thing, isn’t it? When you do something without fully appreciating the snowball effect your actions can cause. In my case, I wrote a book, but for some inexplicable reason, it never really crossed my mind anyone would ACTUALLY read it – even when I was published, I still never really stopped and thought, the wider world would read my words. For me, it was, (and still is), that document on the laptop which occupied so much of my time for so long, which caused me to run the whole gamut of human emotions ranging from frustration to joy, and relief to tears. But out there it is. Since I am forced to accept this reality, I now find myself occasionally eyeing people on the train who might be clutching a Kindle, and wondering if they’re reading my book. I should say here, it can make you look either slightly creepy or just plain weird, if you stare too long...as for trying to glance casually over their shoulder, just don’t..that’s all I can say.

As for the whole self-promotion thing, well, surprisingly, I have spent most of my working life involved with public relations, so I am very used to standing confidently in front of a room full of people and talking about a person or a product. Oh yes, I have talked with total strangers about a whole range of things with a view to garnering their interest, so you’d imagine, I would have no problem at all, ‘selling’ myself. But that couldn’t be further from the truth, I have thought about why, and maybe it’s because I am not entirely sure of my own worth in some way – although looking back, there were quite a few promotional activities I was involved with, which weren’t exactly value for money or especially worthy. As an example, I was asked to assist in the launch of a new health drink, on the face of it, it seemed a wonderful product, bursting with natural ingredients, it wasn’t until I looked closer, I realised there was enough sugar in this stuff to rot teeth. On top of that, there was so much caffeine too, no wonder they could claim this drink would launch you into your day – it could have launched you into space! But as I was being paid to do it, I stood there, grinning manically while I told the world about this ‘revolution in the health drink world’- that phrase does sound a lot more dramatic than it actually was, bearing mind, in reality, I was making this pronouncement to two elderly ladies who only wanted to ask me where the toilets were and a weary-looking mum with a sleeping baby – not exactly the flag-waving crowd you would find in the final heart-stopping scenes of ‘Les Miserables’. You won’t be surprised to learn, a few months later, the ‘revolution’ was over, as this drink was dropped by the manufacturer owing to the fact, its alleged health benefits could only be seen with a very powerful microscope.

So, anyway, back to the present, that’s been my week and it’s not over yet, even as I am writing this, I can almost here my social media accounts calling me to action, so I had better get back to the front line once more and stick my head over the parapet, while sincerely hoping it won’t find itself face-to-face with a marauding enemy of book lovers bearing pitchforks and torches, demanding me to immediately remove my little epic from the shelves.

So while I get loin-girding again…until the next time...

Take care out there xx