Saturday, July 19, 2014

Big Summer Vacay

 Every summer we take a vacation with the Shaw clan up to Lake Tahoe for a week. It's always a great time of family, fun, and rest. Here are a few highlights:

We loved hanging out lake-side


Westly learned to throw a frisbee

We lived it up in our hotel room

On the way home we stopped for two nights in San Jose and spent a day at Happy Hollow, a zoo and amusement park geared for little guys like Westly

Westly was hesitant to try the Frog Hopper ride, but after Daddy took him on it once, he decided he was brave enough to go a second time by himself

His favorite was the Endangered Animals Carousel. He rode it three times: crocodile, dragon, then dinosaur

We made it home happy but tuckered out

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

I'm the Lucky One

Yesterday, July 7, 2014 (7-7-14) marked our 7th wedding anniversary. There's got be something lucky in that, right? Well, I am the luckiest girl ever because I got to marry Michael Shaw. I've gotten to spend the last 7 years building a wonderful life with him. In those 7 years we've traveled the world, pursued our dreams, expanded our family, and loved each other through storms and rainbows. 
Here's to the rest of our lives together! 






Thursday, July 3, 2014

A Lucky Break

Luck strikes when you least expect it, and perhaps that's what makes it so wonderful.

Last year I finished my Sherlock Academy series. It's done fairly well on a local scale, and I've learned so much about writing, publishing, and being an author the last seven years of creating Sherlock Academy. I've always wanted it to be more, but also resigned that it is what it is. Occasionally when I've had extra time I've sent the first book out to publishers in hopes of it getting picked up and developed commercially in a way I never could on my own. I didn't get any bites.

Until recently....

A few years ago we met an author who self-published his middle-grade book. We immediately became friends with Adam Sidwell, sharing the same passions for writing and kids. We admired his charisma and success with self-publishing. This year Adam started his own publishing company, and sent out an advertisement for writers to submit their work. I submitted Sherlock Academy, figuring I had nothing to lose.

Adam called me up with great news: he and his publishing team loved Sherlock Academy, thought it had commercial value, and offered a plan for publication, which includes selling my book at Costco and Barnes and Noble.

You can imagine how thrilled I am! I'm excited to have professionals take over the business end of publishing/selling Sherlock Academy, and of course I'm excited about Sherlock Academy reaching more readers through large sales at Costco, etc. Most of all, it's wonderful to have others see the value of my work and want to invest in it.

And I'm thinking there's more than luck involved here...