Whew! Other authors told me this was where the real work began and they weren't kidding. I'm so swamped with everything, I don't know if I'll ever get out. Thank God the sale of the book is going extremely well. January 31st kicked off the charity drive and I'm now pumped about raising money for charity, even though it means we may not make a huge profit. I knew this going in, but it's definitely something I wanted to do, especially with this first book. Especially while it's in my power to do so. There was no expectation to make a profit anyway, but we're hoping to break even on our investment. And since the career change, I'm volunteering for a reading program with a Cleveland organization. I want to give time as well as money. I'm looking forward at getting my own non-profit together this year and having reading programs for troubled youth and the incarcerated. I am so looking forward to doing something much more meaningful than engineering...something that will make a difference.

I was happy to have sold out of the prereleases in Januaury and to pre-sell the final release. Orders are coming in and keeping us all busy. But the toughest part by far is getting the book in stores to meet demands. We have definitely created the demand, but stores are slow to respond and stock it. So there's a lot of calling and following up. Stores say they'll stock, then I announce that readers can pick it up at so and so location, then they go there and it's not in stock. And the store says they can order it for arrival in a couple of weeks. Frustrating. But so are the ways of independent publishing.

I'm really pumped right now to do the best I can. Especially since most feedback has been very positive, I feel even more confident about pushing the book. It would be great to be able to donate 5K to each charity. I know it's small compared to the corporations that donate to these two charities, but it will be huge to me and I'm sure to each inner city child that will benefit. And you know, I actually keep that in the forfront of my mind. I think about being a kid in St. Louis. I think about helping out the little kid that I used to be.

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