Life With Three Kids - Welcome Home Annabelle Rose!

It's been almost six weeks since we welcomed our third child, little Annabelle Rose, into the world. Life has been crazy...as is expected with three, but we're so blessed and happy to have her here.

The third baby is easier in some ways. I feel like I know what I'm doing, and caring for a newborn is something I've done twice before so there is a level of confidence. In other ways it's harder. With the first and second I didn't have any older kids in school. Meaning we could all sleep in until 10am to catch up on the hours missed throughout the night. It also meant I didn't have to worry about any older kids bringing home colds or the flu from school.

Having my oldest in Kindergarten has me up at 6am to make lunch and hustle him to class no matter how rough the night was, and I've had constant stress that he's going to bring home the flu...I'm not ready to deal with a newborn and a house full of sickies just yet...

Despite the new challenges, Annabelle is an easy, happy baby, so I got very lucky there. My boys are just as in love as we are, and I realized on one of her panic-crying car rides on our way to school, that having siblings is teaching my children to care for others. As Annabelle cried, my oldest hushed her, speaking with a comforting voice, telling her it would all be all right. Her sobs quieted and she fell asleep to his "Shh shh shh" sound. Moments like that help remind me that even though my time and attention is spread thin and divided by three, they will (hopefully) find companionship in each other and be better people for having to care for and share with their siblings.

Life with three is fun and crazy and chaotic. I'm a mess most of the time, but learning and loving it all the time...even when it's hard (which is often).

Well, back to juggling babies, books, and business... wish me luck people ;)

MY PUBLISHING JOURNEY: Author PJ Colando

Have you ever wondered how authors get their start?
How do they get agents?
How do they get published?
Is it luck? Talent? Drive?

This segment is an attempt to satisfy my immense curiosity...to answer the one question I'm dying to ask every author out there: How did your book become a book?

Visit the full catalogue of "My Publishing Journey" interviews HERE.

Today's Featured Author

PJ Colando
www.pjcolando.com

Author of

The Winner's Circle

RELEASING TODAY!
2-1-19

FAITH… FAMILY… FRENZY!

Life in rural small town can dull the senses. A trio of gal pals—mired in middle age, Middle America, and other people’s problems—long to escape.

When Bonnie wins the Boffo Lotto, her circle of friends urge her to lawyer up, invest, and sequester herself. 

But secrets are inconceivable in small towns, so Bonnie and Carl invite close friends to witness their Vegas wedding and honeymoon in Hawaii with endless vagabond beyond. The sky’s the limit!

The allure of travel is fun for a while—hilarious, in fact. But when the husbands are jailed, wanderlust is no longer a romp and things get complicated when you’re halfway round the world, untethered from all you know and love. 

Life has its consequences… and there’s no place like home.

Hello PJ! Thanks for agreeing to share your publishing journey. First, please give us a brief summary of how you got where you are and why you chose this path.

I was a speech-language pathologist for many years. I wrote thousands and thousands of clinical reports – and some of them contained fabulous fiction (wink-wink). 

It was a career I adored, but it was time to ease into retirement, which my husband and I had promised we’d achieve by age 55. Writing creatively has freedom, fulfillment, and leisure-pleasure, as well as compassion for characters, a feeling that carries forward from my work with patients and their parents. I adore my encore career of writing as much as my former career as a speech-language pathologist! I call my genre ‘loose-with-the-truth.’ It’s fun to fictionalize!

HYBRID PUBLISHER

How did you find Acorn Publishing? And what made you decide to go with Acorn?
I consider it a ‘co-find process.’ One of my best decisions ever! (after deciding to marry my husband) I feel blessed. It’s an important relationship. I am more than pleased to be shepherded and guided within the ACORN Publishing team.   

What do you like about hybrid publishing?
My decisions are independent yet fostered within a framework of choices based upon the hybrid publishers’ prior experiences. There’s less scatter of my efforts and attention, less hunt-and-peck. I feel as if ACORN is funneling me into success and I am glad to be on their path.

Which formats (hardcover, e-book, paperback, audio) are you putting out and why?
Hardcover – my first time! – because I love my book, The Winner’s Circle, cover and I want my book in libraries. eBook and paperback will also be released because these are more affordable options for my family and friends to buy. You, too, blog reader!

Did you choose to do everything yourself (such as website design, formatting, etc.) or did you hire out?
Because I am Boomer-aged and less technologically savvy than the present generation of writers, I enlisted the services of others with these skill sets. The best service delivery model for me and my age and stage of life.

MARKETING

What marketing tactics did you focus on and why?
Because I’d been involved with my local – and densely-populated – writing scene for many years, I chose to rely upon personal relationships and interactions to market my book, The Winner’s Circle. I like connections and look forward to Book Club conversations. Bring ‘em on!

Thirty years ago, I’d built a highly-successful private practice in speech-language pathology with steadfast work and initiative, so I had a well-honed paradigm for achievement: provide quality service to meet others’ needs and they reward you with loyalty, blowing your horn for you. 

I call myself a plodder, neither a plotter or a pantser when I write, and the term applies to my marketing non-tactics. I believe that’s called ‘organic reach’ nowadays.

Do you have any advice given your experience marketing your past books?
Stay abreast of current best-practices for book publishing-and-marketing by following blogs. As with all aspects of life, the thing that is changing the fastest is change. Conversely, don’t adhere to fads and formulas, but rely on your own instincts and style.

ADVICE

What lessons have you learned? Any advice for those about to go down your path?
While indie publishing worked for me, hybrid publishing is better because you have a team to rely on.