Since my blog is falling right on the edges of “change” and “abundance” – our themes for August and September respectively, I thought I would bridge the gap. Besides, lately my life has been particularly abundant with change!
Have ya’ll noticed I have been absent lately? Well, I do hope so! What a crush to the ego to not be missed! I feel truly awful about my distance, though, since visiting here with my friends and our followers has been an important part of my life for over 2 years now. This is where those concepts we call “change” and “abundance” come in to play. For me these past 2+weeks have been all about our chosen themes and even though it was of my instigation and even though I am thrilled about what has been going on, I have had moments of questioning my sanity!
“What is she babbling about?” you ask. Well, like many of our momentous developments in life, this one started with a simple conversation. My good friend and fellow Sourcebooks published Austen-fiction writer Abigail Reynolds and I threw out this crazy idea to start a group blog of our own for Austen genre authors. That was at last year’s RWA Nationals. Time passed and the idea was shoved into the back of our brains. Then, at this year’s RWA Nationals, we started talking about it again. Halfheartedly at first, kind of like when you say to someone, “Let’s do lunch!” when you have no plan to actually call them!
Yet as we hung out together over those 4 days the topic kept exerting itself. We vowed that this time we would follow through on it, and miracle of miracles, we did! Deb and Danielle were 100% in favor of the idea even with our wish to open the blog to all Austen authors regardless of their publishing house. Aren’t they fabulous? I will pause to tell you all right now that without their support, advice, forwarded emails, donations for giveaways, and publicity assistance, I know we would not have succeeded as easily as we have.
That hint pretty much reveals that our wild idea has taken hold. Within a week of returning home we had a list of names and invitations sent. A week later we had 20 authors committed to be regular contributors and Amanda Grange lined up as our Spotlight Guest for our big launch! Can you believe it? I am still in a state of awe. I shouldn’t be, of course, since my relationship here on Casablanca and with other romance novelist has shown me how wonderful we are as a whole.
With authors flocking to the idea, it was then a mad race to get everything organized. Let me tell you, getting a blog started from zero is a humongous undertaking! It doesn’t help that I am slightly – cough, cough – Type A and a teeny tiny bit of a perfectionist. Who let loose that sarcastic guffaw? Okay then, I am a serious perfectionist. Nevertheless, in this case it paid off. Or I may be hallucinating from lack of sleep. You be the judge. Pause here and pop over to our amazing blog and let me know if it is as amazing as I imagine it to be~~~
Austen Authors
Yes? Am I right? Not insane? And did you see who we have on our lineup? And what about those prizes!?!
As of today, August 28, it is 9 days until our go-live day. Starting on Monday, September 6 the Austen Authors will host a massive, month-long launch extravaganza. Every day we will be blogging. Every day there will be entertainments. We have 3 of our authors with novels launching in September so they will be celebrating. We have close to 70 prizes to give away throughout the month. It promises, in every way, to be EPIC ~ LEGENDARY ~ FUN!!
Everyone is invited. Please share the news. Tweet it. Facebook it. Blog it. Email it. Post on Loops. Take our cool badge and paste it on your site!
I, in the mean time, along with the other 19 authors will be diligently attending to the abundant tasks that must be accomplished to successfully bring about this change in our lives. You knew I would get back to that, right? Yes, change is good and I am pleased at the abundance added to my life through new adventures and new friends. I know I will revel and delight in the joy of it all, once I get some sleep.
Have ya’ll noticed I have been absent lately? Well, I do hope so! What a crush to the ego to not be missed! I feel truly awful about my distance, though, since visiting here with my friends and our followers has been an important part of my life for over 2 years now. This is where those concepts we call “change” and “abundance” come in to play. For me these past 2+weeks have been all about our chosen themes and even though it was of my instigation and even though I am thrilled about what has been going on, I have had moments of questioning my sanity!
“What is she babbling about?” you ask. Well, like many of our momentous developments in life, this one started with a simple conversation. My good friend and fellow Sourcebooks published Austen-fiction writer Abigail Reynolds and I threw out this crazy idea to start a group blog of our own for Austen genre authors. That was at last year’s RWA Nationals. Time passed and the idea was shoved into the back of our brains. Then, at this year’s RWA Nationals, we started talking about it again. Halfheartedly at first, kind of like when you say to someone, “Let’s do lunch!” when you have no plan to actually call them!
Yet as we hung out together over those 4 days the topic kept exerting itself. We vowed that this time we would follow through on it, and miracle of miracles, we did! Deb and Danielle were 100% in favor of the idea even with our wish to open the blog to all Austen authors regardless of their publishing house. Aren’t they fabulous? I will pause to tell you all right now that without their support, advice, forwarded emails, donations for giveaways, and publicity assistance, I know we would not have succeeded as easily as we have.
That hint pretty much reveals that our wild idea has taken hold. Within a week of returning home we had a list of names and invitations sent. A week later we had 20 authors committed to be regular contributors and Amanda Grange lined up as our Spotlight Guest for our big launch! Can you believe it? I am still in a state of awe. I shouldn’t be, of course, since my relationship here on Casablanca and with other romance novelist has shown me how wonderful we are as a whole.
With authors flocking to the idea, it was then a mad race to get everything organized. Let me tell you, getting a blog started from zero is a humongous undertaking! It doesn’t help that I am slightly – cough, cough – Type A and a teeny tiny bit of a perfectionist. Who let loose that sarcastic guffaw? Okay then, I am a serious perfectionist. Nevertheless, in this case it paid off. Or I may be hallucinating from lack of sleep. You be the judge. Pause here and pop over to our amazing blog and let me know if it is as amazing as I imagine it to be~~~
Austen Authors
Yes? Am I right? Not insane? And did you see who we have on our lineup? And what about those prizes!?!
As of today, August 28, it is 9 days until our go-live day. Starting on Monday, September 6 the Austen Authors will host a massive, month-long launch extravaganza. Every day we will be blogging. Every day there will be entertainments. We have 3 of our authors with novels launching in September so they will be celebrating. We have close to 70 prizes to give away throughout the month. It promises, in every way, to be EPIC ~ LEGENDARY ~ FUN!!
Everyone is invited. Please share the news. Tweet it. Facebook it. Blog it. Email it. Post on Loops. Take our cool badge and paste it on your site!
I, in the mean time, along with the other 19 authors will be diligently attending to the abundant tasks that must be accomplished to successfully bring about this change in our lives. You knew I would get back to that, right? Yes, change is good and I am pleased at the abundance added to my life through new adventures and new friends. I know I will revel and delight in the joy of it all, once I get some sleep.
Sounds like a lot of fun, Sharon! And I'm thrilled for the change in your life!!! Mine is not so good. Our library is moving, one of my coworkers already quit and another is threatening to. We're already short staffed as it is and now they want us to work 2 more nights per week and Sundays too. And all of the changes in addition to this are STRESS filled....change can be good. But it can be oh so bad. I'm ready to take another vacation. When is the big event in NY??? Another year? :(
ReplyDeleteSounds like an adventure, Sharon. Best wishes to you all.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the new blog, Sharon! I hope you all have tremendous success!
ReplyDeleteMajor bummer, Terry. I hate those kinds of upsets. It is hard to imagine it worth going through all that hassle. I wish you luck with it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement ladies! I have confidence that it will be fantastic, but it will be nice once the ball is rolling a bit faster!
Now I am off to bed. My blog day fell between 2 nights of work so this girlie must sleep. I'll check in later this afternoon. Night! Sharon
Sharon, what a fabulous idea! And I'm so glad it all came together so spectacularly. Have fun reaching out to all the Austin fans in the world. I know they are in abundance!
ReplyDeleteI think the blog sounds wonderful, Sharon. Congratulations on getting it from concept to production. This is a great change.
ReplyDeleteTerry, yours...not so good. I don't like moving at all, but moving a library must be so hard.
It's wonderful - I love your new blog! I'm a sucker for anything Jane Austen. I wish you all the best with it's launch!
ReplyDeleteThanks again everyone. It has been a learning experience to be sure. I will be happy once it is up and going though!
ReplyDeleteSharon, the blog is gorgeous - so many fun things going on, and I love the music! It makes me want to get out all my Austen novels again...and yours! Congratulations on the new endeavor!
ReplyDeleteExcited for the kick off of the new site!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the blog Sharon (and Abigail). I adore all things Austen as that's where I got my start too. Can't wait until I have time to investigate the blog. When does school start again? Tuesday! Yay! My favorite day of the year!
ReplyDeleteWishing you all the best with your new group blog, Sharon. What a wonderful venture!
ReplyDelete