Book Launch Party

I’ll let you in on a secret⁠… until I threw my own book launch party (with the help of my talented event-planning sister), I had never been to a book launch before. It was likely the first one for many of the people there too.

It was a lot of fun! I’m so grateful for everyone who came. It meant a lot to me. I heard positive things from people who attended, which was great. I wish I could have talked more to everyone who came. It’s crazy to be in a room where I am the only one who knows every person.

People started to arrive just before 6:30pm. At 7pm, my sister introduced me. She mentioned the importance of stories and I reiterated the same sentiment in my speech.

Stories are important. They change us. Shape us. Move us. Inspire us. Grow us. A story can have a lasting impact. That’s why sharing our stories matters.

I cried while I was talking. I assumed I would since every time I practiced it, I ended up crying. Nothing wrong with tears.

Then I performed my spoken word poem. The poem is important because it’s written out in the back of my book and it’s the poem my memoir is named after. My nose started to run part way through my poem, and I had to pause to wipe it. Attractive, I know. It was inevitable after crying during my speech. My husband grabbed me a napkin then I handed the dirty napkin back to him. He gracefully took it and threw it away for me (he’s the best).

At another point, I screwed up a line from my poem and had to restart. But that’s okay. It happens. The night was a good reminder that it’s okay to not do something perfect⁠—embrace whatever is happening and don’t get too bent out of shape about it. It’s a lot more enjoyable that way.

There must have been over 50 people who showed up. I didn’t have time to count, but I sold out of all my books. I had 60 printed. Some people bought more than one. I had hoped for a good turn out and that happened!

I signed a lot of books. I got a little stressed about signing and second guessed all of my spelling and if I even knew people’s names. I did know everyone’s, but it didn’t stop me from double checking. I really didn’t want to spell a name wrong. I wrote something different in each person’s book. I have no idea what I ended up writing, but that’s good now… one less thing to overthink.

While I signed books, people played in a Dutch Blitz tournament. It looked like people had fun with that. Two of my cousins came in first and second place overall, which doesn’t surprise me. We’ve played a lot of Dutch Blitz in my family.

I was so hyped up after the event that I couldn’t sleep. I’m really good at overthinking. It’s a talent. I couldn’t help but go through all the details in my head. Once I was finally asleep I slept for an hour before my hungry baby woke me up. After I put her back to bed, I couldn’t sleep again. I think I got two hours before she was up and ready for the day.

Despite the lack of sleep, I was still excited the next day that I finally got to have a book launch party. It was worth the wait!

If you weren’t able to make it to my launch, you can buy the paperback on Amazon or my ebook for Kindle or Kobo.