My book has taken on a life of its own. I know this happens to books, but it never occurred to me it would happen so soon. To be honest, I think I thought that maybe a month before it came out, there might be a little buzz on the internet, but I never thought this would happen eight MONTHS before the book came out. Don’t get me wrong, Oprah hasn’t called or anything. And there aren’t even any ARCs out yet, so it’s not like there are reviews (except two on Good Reads by a couple of my readers who got a sneak peek). But it is showing up here and there on writer and reader blogs. And what I am here to say today is that if you have a book coming out, be prepared!

You see, I was not prepared. I got extremely lucky, but I wasn’t prepared. What happened is this. Right after I sold my book (a year ago, now!), people started emailing me and saying, “Congrats! What’s it about?” So, on the high only your first book sale can give you, I pounded out the answer and posted it here on my blog. It was basically a rewrite of the hook I’d written for my agent, with some changes to make it fit the revision I’d done before submission. I posted it that day, fully intending to go back and write something better at some later date. And then I forgot about it.

Guess what? That blurb, the one I wrote fast and furious without a lot of thought, yep…it’s what people have started posting on their blogs along with the cover. It is even the description of my book on Good Reads that some wonderful person posted there.

I am somewhere between fairly and extremely careful about what I post on my blog. I proof things, I go back and fix typos after the fact if they get through, I hope for the best with commas, and so in a way, it was not just luck that this blurb I wrote turned out okay. It was a cultivated habit.

But it is a wake-up call to me in several ways too. What I post on the web (on my site or anyone else’s) is there for the duration. What I write might take on a life of its own (you’d think the Red Hair article would’ve already taught me this!). And while I was never a Boy Scout, the whole be prepared thing has got something going for it.

And just in case you’re interested, here are some of the wonderful blogs that have mentioned Restoring Harmony already.