Cleveland Author Event 2014

I participated in my first big Author event over the weekend, which was fantastic!

I was so excited and did as much as I could to prepare, including signage, swag, hair, nails, and wardrobe. It almost felt like a trip to the Oscars!

First, let’s start with the wardrobe. I purchased five dresses for this event. FIVE! That is more than I have bought in two years and two of the dresses were the same, just in different sizes. I’m a short woman with a long torso and stubby legs, so finding dressed that fits me proportionately is quite a feat. Then when I finally picked “the perfect dress” of the five, it was too big, which I didn’t realize until after I was already at the event. All day, I was tugging and pulling, and at risk of having a serious wardrobe malfunction, which was frustrating! UGH! If I had done my usual black skirt and whatever shirt, I think I would’ve shown off less and been far more comfortable. 😦 Lesson learned!

But I was happy with my hair, nails, set up and swag. So that made me feel a tiny bit better about the dress issue!

As for the event itself, it was incredible meeting so many authors, bloggers, and readers who are passionate about books like I am. I was overwhelmed with how nice everyone was, and how genuinely supportive everyone was. One wonderful blogger even offered to buy me a shot to calm my nerves (Thanks Mayas!). I was so nervous in the beginning, I thought I was going to freak out, but my husband kept me grounded! Even though he was sick as a dog, he still made me laugh and helped me gain perspective on the day.

I’ve been networking and connecting with people for the past year via social media and email. When you make so many connections and share so much on line, and then actually get to meet face to face, it’s transforming! It makes all of the hard work and long hours of writing, editing, marketing, and networking seem completely worthwhile. It was wonderful to put names with faces and to be inspired by so many talented people who are living their dream of writing and promoting books! I felt very fortunate to get to spend the afternoon with such talented and successful people!

Overall, the event was a success for me. To even have the opportunity to be included, felt truly amazing! The House of Blues was a beautiful venue, the fans were fun, raucous, and amazing, and the event was incredibly well organized by Books, Coffee, and Wine and Mary Tatar! It was a smashing success, all around!

It was such an inspiring event, I went home and finished my third book, which is currently off to the beta readers, and then off the my amazing editor, Rogena Mitchell-Jones.

It has been quite a year! A big Author event, my blog turns one year old in May, and with my third book on the verge of release I realize that I am enjoying this journey so much. It has enhanced my life in such unexpected ways and I am so thankful to have been reminded of how much I love to write and the fulfillment it gives me to be able to do it.

I wish I would have taken more pictures at the event, but time was limited. I’m pasting the link below to the photo gallery on my website if you’d like to check it out.
http://www.jennifersivec.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=15542919

I don’t know what is in store for me moving forward. I have an event in May, but after that I’m open. I’m open to whatever new experiences this journey takes me on, and I look forward to continuing to share them. 🙂

Milestones…

My  birthday was yesterday.

My “pretend” birthday anyway. Like many adopted or abandoned children, I don’t have any idea what day I was actually born, although it is the date on my birth certificate. I don’t have a birth story and I don’t know what my first word was. I have often wondered where I was when I took my first step, if I was held and cuddled immediately after I was born, or if my birth parents loved me. I don’t have any recollection of the first bite of food I had, or any pictures of me right after birth, or video tape of any portion of my childhood.

All of these moments and milestones are missing, of which I am reminded on a day like yesterday. The day we actually celebrate my birth. I’ve never been big celebrating my birthdays, though I love celebrating others. Nonetheless, I have come to terms with my birthday and have even come to love and anticipate it.

Though my own childhood milestones are missing and I am quite terrible with remembering dates, I have come to appreciate milestones that I have reached as an adult. The day I got engaged, promoted at work, married in Vegas, and the births of my two children. I’ve had milestones this past year that I didn’t expect which were self-publishing my first book, the birth of my blog, and then releasing my second book.

In 2014, I anticipate the release of my third book, the completion of the “Eva Series,” and then who knows what after that? Someone once told me that life is a marathon and not a sprint. I know that sentiment has been around for quite some time, but for the past couple of years I have been learning to embrace it as one of my absolute truths. While life didn’t start with a perfect beginning for me, I believe that I have chosen the milestones that I’ve been able to reach in my adulthood.

I took a Facebook quiz recently that resulted in telling me that I use both sides of my brain equally. A dreamer, a thinker, a doer, and a romantic… I believe that I am enough of a dreamer to imagine and create, but disciplined enough to anticipate and “do.” All of these qualities challenging me and confusing me as a child, now finally coming together. The life that began so uncertain, now has meaning and direction as I continue to move forward toward Milestones that I am not even aware of, yet.

It’s funny how I often wonder when I will finally “feel like an author.”  With two books, and a third on the way, I still have to pinch myself that what I have fully completed works out there. I don’t even care if they never top any best sellers list. I am just so excited that I got to write them and that there are people out there that have even bothered to read them. I don’t know when I will feel like all of this has been real and that I have been able to accomplish something that I’ve always wanted to do. Will it be when I have released my third book, my fourth, my fifth? Actually completing and then releasing the first book was a huge milestone, one that I have been dreaming of my entire life.

Every year around my birthday I start to wonder what day I was actually born. It could be the difference of a matter of days, or weeks, or even months. I’m guessing that someone had to estimate my age when they found me, and then someone assigned a date of my birth. That someone in this world who was there when I was born, taught me how to walk, talk, eat, and live, is someone that I will never know. There are days when I let myself feel a little sad about that, but most days I just look ahead to what is in front of me.

I’m excited about the prospect of what lies in front me and the milestones that I have yet to reach. Even though with each passing year, I get a little bit older, I know that it won’t matter as long as there are things to look forward to. With each “pretend birthday” there will be exciting things to celebrate… driver’s licenses, graduations, more books to release, grandchildren, and who knows what else? I know that one day I may finally feel like an Author, and I am looking forward to it. But for now, I am just thankful that I get to celebrate more birthdays.

But I am the most thankful for those BIG moments that I get to remember, now, with the people that I love the most.