As you know, I am on a yearlong quest to do something once a month that is out of my comfort zone. Since the entire month of May has been out of my comfort zone in a BIG way, I’m going to do a recap. I released my first novel, I Am Justice at the beginning of the month. I was nervous and excited about having my book out there in the world. In fact, I stayed up until midnight day before into day of in order to mark the exact moment that I became a published author.

Shortly after I published I, along with my book, went on an online book tour. Basically that’s something you do in the privacy of your home that makes you feel really exposed. You know that feeling, so I won’t pull out the simile I was going to use. It was a little perverted. During the tour, I was asked a lot of interesting questions about my book, including one of my favorite from BookPage: “How do you write action scenes that are compelling and not confusing?
This question makes me so happy. If you’re asking that, it means that I succeeded in doing something that I worked very hard at. When I first started writing action scenes, they were a bit too detailed. It slowed down the pacing with unnecessary description and emotion. I went from this abundance to paired-back scenes that my agent, the wonderful Michelle Grajkowski, kindly pointed out were too light on detail. So basically, it was through trial and error that I found, and continue to try and find, that sweet spot in writing action scenes.”

I was also interviewed on the radio by the wonderful Cindy Dees, former pilot of the US Air Force and current NYT and USA Today bestselling author. She’s so cool! We talked about my novel and about gluten free cooking. It all pretty much rushed by in a blur. She made me very comfortable, but I was nervous. Later  someone with experience in acting told me that I needed to step up my game. I wasn’t excited sounding enough. Huh. How’s this?

If the interviews and hoopla and book tours weren’t enough getting out of my comfort zone, I also took part in my first book signing and the Giant Book Fair at RT18. It was a huge event with a lot of romance fans. And my publisher supplied everyone at the Romantic Times convention with my book, so I had a bunch of people stop and chat with me about how excited they were to read the novel. And though being an author and talking about myself and my book is definitely out of my comfort zone, I quickly got into the swing of things. I’ll have to admit that I loved it!!

So the month of May was chock full of first, but I’m super excited about June. I’m going to do something a little crazy. Yes, crazier than rock climbing, flying a plane, getting a tattoo, teaching a college course, or launching a romantic suspense series with lots of hot sex. I’m not saying what it is out loud yet, because I’m not sure I’ll have the guts to pull it off.

Thanks for all the encouragement this month. Thanks for buying my books and liking my posts and being your wonderful and supportive selves!