The Life of a Self Published Author/ What’s New in 2020 for Patti Diener?

Stepping off the sidewalk and through the door, I first encounter the colors, then grapple with the many displays and choices. I slowly cross the floor and struggle with my many options. Which to pick up first? It’s both a blessing and a curse standing in a place that leaves me weak to control my pocketbook. I’m in a bookstore!

Since publishing my book, I’ve been to many independent bookstores to set up consignment contracts for After the Fire. It is considerably harder for me than I thought it would be. NOT because I have a hard time establishing contracts. It’s because I have a hard time NOT buying books while I’m there!

I’m a sucker for books. I can’t get enough of them. Some women buy shoes, others like dresses or pretty knickknacks. I, on the other hand, love to be surrounded by the collection of pages and pages, bound by spines with titles and author names, displayed in every color and font imaginable. It might be a sickness, but as long as there isn’t a club called, book buyers anonymous, then I think I’m ok.

It is not only a New Year, but also a new decade. 2020 is giving me a feeling of not just renewed hope for better things to come, but I truly believe that there is a shift in my persona. The things I want from life have changed. The way I see the world and what I can contribute to it are far different than what I felt like a decade ago. In some ways I’m more intense, but in others, I feel a strange calmness of certainty. You might think that sounds like conflict, but it’s quite the opposite.

The intensity I feel is what I have come to realize. The dictionary says intense is a great sensation of feeling or emotion, having a high characteristic quality, as in strength. Well that’s about right. Also, the calmness of certainty is that I am certain of what I want in my life. Putting those two emotions together has been my epiphany. I am in the midst of a transformation.

I’ve told my students at the school where I am a librarian, that I never understood it when other educators would ask them, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” I tell them, it’s because you will be… you! The better question would be, “what do you want to do when you grow up?” For me, I’ve liked doing many things, but what I’ve most enjoyed has been writing. Then I realized, I’ve always been a writer. It’s what I do.

Now that I’m a published author, I do feel more accomplished as a writer simply because I finished a project and vulnerably put myself out there with the thousands of other people who exposed their souls to the world in 2019. This doesn’t mean though, that I’ve only just now become a writer. I’ve been a writer since I was ten years old. It’s just now that I’ve shared my novel with the world and very gratefully, and humbly joined that club of debut authors, do I feel like the door to a new universe has opened for me.

So what can you expect from me, Patti Diener, in the year 2020? I plan to jump off more cliffs. I will share with you all, the first chapter of my new novel very soon on this blog. I will do more public speaking at author events in an independent bookstore near you, (places and dates to come), and I might even change the format of my book blog come March. In the meanwhile, thank you for always reading and sharing my information with your friends.

If you have read my book, After the Fire, then please leave a review on either this blog or better yet, go to Amazon and leave a review there. It is greatly appreciated. Also, if you are on social media, say something about it. Your friends that live outside of our little bubble called Lake County, where I live, might decide to buy a copy and share with their friends. One day, people won’t be saying, “where is Lake County?” Instead they will say, “oh I love Lake County!”

Thanks for reading everyone, and make 2020 not only your year, but make it the start of a great decade. If we are happy in what we do, we will make our world a happier place to be. Remember what Leo Tolstoy said…”Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

Happy reading.