Busy days at the Fogelburger’s! 🙂
I am very close to finalizing the first draft of my novel taking place in Jakarta. Yesterday our girls came back from their holiday in Sweden (Yay!). Tomorrow we leave for a mini vacation together in Malaysia.
And the cover for Beautiful Affliction has been finalized, the final pages approved and my book has gone to the printer!
My publisher and cover designer chose the beautiful blurb excerpts to go on the cover, and I am very happy with having four blurbs on the back cover and one on the front; five in all!
I have gotten more endorsements than I dared dream of: twelve beautiful blurbs that are to be featured on the first three pages of my book under the headline “Praise for Beautiful Affliction, A Memoir”.
I was hoping for three blurbs when I sent out letters asking for endorsements to around fifteen authors that I admire, never would I have imagined that I would receive twelve! I know how busy people are, and endorsing a debut author is a huge favor, but everyone was so kind.
Here are some of the things they said in their e-mails, that wasn’t in the blurbs, a sneak-peek “behind the blurbs” if you will: 🙂
- “Wow, your story is insane.”
- “I enjoyed your book so much!”
- “Holy moly, what a story!”
- “I couldn’t put it down.”
- “To parent with such grace under such circumstances is beyond heroic.”
- “Your letters to your daughters slayed me. Just slayed me.”
- “Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read your stunning new memoir.”
- “I read it all in one day, I was THAT captivated!”
- “I’m awed by your courage.”
- “Your writing is absolutely gorgeous.”
- “I had so many positive things to say I couldn’t fit them into one blurb.”
- “It was truly a privilege to read and endorse it.”
I am so humbled and grateful for each and everyone of the amazing, kind and generous authors who took the time to read and endorse my book. It really means a lot, especially perhaps when you are a new author struggling with feelings of “what-on-earth-am-I-doing???” It is a roller coaster ride of emotions to see your story grow up and prepare to launch into the world, and it is with a lot of agony one prepares to “let go”. But the support from wonderful fellow authors certainly makes it easier.
And also the support from my publisher and of course, my sweet blogging friends!!
Hugs to you all!
Lene
I’m so happy for you. This is a big achievement and it comes with so nice accolades. Knowing people read and were touched by your book, especially since this is your life story, must be… I can’t even imagine, but I’m so happy for you 🙂
I’m very curious about your new book. I don’t think you ever told us what’s it about.
Thank you so much Sarah, always so kind! You’re right, I haven’t told exactly what my new novel is about, and I think I will need a little while longer before I am prepared to reveal the story… As long as I’m working on the first draft I prefer not to talk much about it. I need to keep it to myself I guess, while it is still being created…
Omslaget är så jättefint! Och jag ryser när jag läser baksidan. Ser fram emot att läsa din bok, Lene 🙂
Tack snälla Eva! <3 Vilken spännande resa det varit med omslaget. Skönt att det äntligen är färdigt!
Lene: The cover looks beautiful! Congratulations and I’m looking forward to reading it. I’m jealous you already have the first draft of your novel done. I haven’t really been writing much lately, with all the hoopla of publishing and all. I need to be more disciplined. Thanks for inspiring me. Leslie
Thanks Leslie! <3 The hoopla of publishing! Love that; it describes it all! 🙂 True: it is very difficult to focus on anything else, but I’m thinking it might get even more difficult in the fall after pub day, so I wanted to give it a go this summer. I still need to go through the draft again though, to tweak it some more, and after that comes the rounds of editing…
“…the cover for Beautiful Affliction has been finalized, the final pages approved and my book has gone to the printer!”
DOES THAT FEEL INSANE, OR WHAT??? So huge. Can’t wait until I get to say the same thing about one of my projects…
And you’re almost done with the novel?! The past couple of weeks must have been fruitful!
Guess what – this week I got a package in the mail with some beautiful jewelry. Thank you so much!!! And I loved the Beautiful Affliction sticker (I’m taking marketing notes…)
Have fun in Malaysia! Remember to breathe and relax! You’ve definitely earned it.
Yay, it’s kind of insane! It’s a huge relief and at the same time a panicky feeling that I can’t make any more changes in the book. No more editing possible!! It is what it is now. Hopefully no spelling errors left!
This summer was all dedicated to finish the first draft of the next novel. Now awaits lots of editing!
Great that you received the package from Indonesia (sent via Sweden)! Happy you liked the Balinese jewelry, I always swoon over handmade stuff. I have some wonderful Balinese handmade Christmas decorations for the next campaign coming up for subscribers of my newsletter… 🙂
The inability to edit the manuscript further…yep, that sounds like something I would worry about too…But if there are any additional mistakes in BA, I’m sure they can be fixed in future editions. 😉
And editing the novel…hope it’s not too crazy, like changing the entire plot, or adding a main character. I’m sure that will happen to me on one of my projects. Or maybe it already has and I’ve repressed those memories!
Looking forward to seeing more handmade stuff from Bali! Reminds me of my visit to Cambodia and Thailand…
Oh, you’ve been here in Asia! Fabulous! I’ve never been to Cambodia, but Thailand was wonderful! And yep, hopefully not too much editing needed in the new novel, but one never know…
Wait, I didn’t say anything about the cover! TO DIE FOR! 😉
Ha ha, I almost did! 🙂 (My kids don’t like it when I make these kind of jokes, but lately we have all been making them anyway… A way to handle the craziness of my story I guess…)
Good for you that you’re able to joke about your almost-death! That said, next time I hope I’ll remember to choose a better expression. *doh* How about swoon-worthy? 🙂
Please, no censoring on account of me! I also use those kind of expressions all the time. But I’ll also take swoon-worthy any day. 🙂
Looks gorgeous, and I’m excited to read! The first line of the back cover description really grabbed me.
Thanks Jill! Happy to hear you liked the back cover description, always tricky to capture the story in just a few sentences…