Winner of the Book Bomb and other news...

Congrats to the winner of Monday's "Amish Peace" Book Bomb! Carol G.

And also to the two winners of the Amish cookbook, Elaine J. and Janice P. I'll send you an e-mail for your addy and get those right out to you.

And thank you to everyone who participated in the Bomb! I've so grateful to each and everyone one of you who are helping to spread the word about "Amish Peace." There are 18 customer reviews up on Amazon...all five star! And I promise...they're not from my mother.

So I just finished two radio interviews and faced a worst-case scenario: a coughing fit. Can you imagine something more blood-pressure spiking than having a coughing fit on live radio? (Maybe a sneeze attack?) There weren't any commercial breaks so I had no easy opportunity to gulp some water or cough to my heart's content.



To top that off, there was an echo on my end, too, so I heard my voice twice.

I plowed ahead and didn't let myself over-focus on the distractions.

In some ways, that's been one of the biggest lessons I've learned in being an author/dealing with promotion. It's getting comfortable with imperfection. Not that I've ever been much of a perfectionist (not a successful one, anyway), but when you're in a public setting...you sort of hope you can give off the impression of having it all together.

I so don't.

My favorite memory is walking into a speaking event and having a good friend of mine, Peggy, grab a velcro curler that was stuck to the back of my blazer. "Here," she said quietly, handing me the curler. Such a kind act forever endeared me to her.



After all, it's hard to look hip in curlers.