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September 15, 2016

(One Year)

anniversary

One year ago today was pub day for Beautiful Affliction! So much has happened this past year, more than I dared dream of, and I am just so grateful. Grateful to my publishers; the whole team at SheWrites Press, my team of agents and especially David, my readers, bloggers, friends, and family; everyone who has supported me on this journey of publishing my debut book! Thank you!

Even before pub day, September 15, 2015, I was overwhelmed by the endorsements given by authors that I admire, and then on pub day, my book got a review in BookPage, which left me speechless and tearfully grateful. Some ten weeks later I was contacted by David, who would become my literary agent at Abrams Artists Agency, and one week after that, Beautiful Affliction climbed to #3 on The Wall Street Journal Bestseller list. I had told myself early on during this process that I would try not to expect too much, but rather learn as much as possible, and by this time, around Christmas, I just wide-eyed soaked it all in, while we relocated from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur, with a stop in Sweden on the way.

Now Beautiful Affliction has been sold to a German publisher, and it has won awards, even National Gold Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards 2016, and just yesterday my article was featured in the The Huffington Post, something I could never have imagined a year ago.

Sometimes I still feel like the Swedish girl living in Asia who has no clue how to publish a book, but then I remind myself how far we have come, my book and I, and how much we have learned (and I’m still the Swedish girl living in Asia! 🙂 ). Before Beautiful Affliction was published I came across a quote by Wayne Dyer: “The future is promised to no one, so go for it!” and it really helped me realize that success is not only promised to already famous and successful authors, but anything might happen, and it is always worthwhile to work hard for a goal one is passionate about.

These days I am working on editing my next novel, and I love it! This is my favorite part of the writing process, but also very time consuming. I easily get lost in details, so I have to push myself to move forward instead of rewriting the same words over and over (and over) again. I really do love writing, and I am grateful that I get to spend my time doing what I love.

Thanks for stopping by and celebrating my book baby’s first birthday with me!

With Love,

Lene

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