Y’all Are Awesome

Really.

The title says so much of what I am feeling today.  The outpouring of support after my last blog has been amazing.  You have commented and emailed and shared the post on Facebook and bought copies of Close to Home and left some wonderful reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. Mostly, though, you have tugged at all my heartstrings with your messages of love.

I can’t tell you how good it feels after 10 days of worrying and waiting to finally wake up to such an emotional turn-around.  I’m so proud to be part of such a beautiful and caring community. I hope you all know I don’t take my responsibility to you lightly. I will never forget the love you have shown my family over the last few days.Thanks to all of you, Close to Home jumped into the top 25 of Lesbian Fiction on Amazon. Thanks to you, I feel like my hard work is going to be seen by the people I wrote it for. Thanks to you, I’m breathing easier about my family’s financial forecast. Thanks to you, I feel connected to something bigger once again.

And thanks to you, I popped the cork on the bottle of bubbly I didn’t get to enjoy the first time around. My wife and I were so bolstered by your wonderful responses, we decided to have a “do-over” on the release of Close To Home , on the actual release date, and because you all were such a part of that moment for me, I wanted to share some totally nerdy feel-good photos of that celebration with all of you.

First up, the guests of honors arrived, finally. Getting the book box never gets old.

There’s the new baby, with the proud mama. Isn’t that Ann McMan cover beautiful?

And now for the celebration to begin. Why yes, yes, that is pink moscato, and don’t even mention taking my butch card. You can have it. I’m gender fluid, and I like pink champagne!

And because I love you, and I feel like you rewarded my honesty and openness in the last blog, I am going to continue that streak by showing you this picture, too!

Go ahead and laugh, but you all know this is the face you make when opening champagne.  It is hard and frightening. That’s what makes it fun!

Also the drinking-it-part is fun, because I’m someone who drinks only  3 or 4 times a year max, so one pretty glass was more than enough to make me profess my undying love to all of you for making this do-over celebration so fantastically happy for me.

So here’s to all of you wonderful readers. I couldn’t have done it without you. Cheers!

Seriously, though, you give me so much more than I can ever give you. I promise to take your votes of confidence with me into my next book and the next one and the next one.  I have already pledged to give you all 8 books in the next four years, but I promise not to let up on that promise.

And in the meantime, one thing I can offer you (since the book box finally arrived) is a chance to win a free, autographed copy of Close to Home !  Just comment below or on my Facebook for your chance to win a free copy of Close to Home , or if you already have that one, a free ebook copy of any one of my 10 books!

I’ll let Jackson pick the winner on Monday.