Congratulations, it’s a book!

Hello, friends.

And you are friends, even though we’ve never met. How can I prove this? Because friends look out for each other, get excited about each other’s good fortune, support and encourage each other, even go out of their way for each other.

No, I’m not talking about every reader of this blog purchasing my new book. That would be nice, of course, but friends who pressure friends to do that are dick-friends. Don’t be a dick-friend, kids!

What I’m talking about is the many lovely, wonderful, encouraging, gut-busting comments so many of you have left here over the past several weeks leading up to the publication of my new collection, which is off the press and in the publisher’s hands today!

Photo: http://www.blueicebooks.com

But then — but THEN! — there are a couple of women who went above and beyond, who answered my shot-in-the-dark request: “Hey Denise. Hey Mandy. How would you feel about writing an advance review of my book for Amazon?” Did they jump? They jumped! They are quite lithe, those two. And they turned in sweet, blush-inducing words. I wanted to wait until this thing was real before publicly thanking them. So thank you both, so much.

I love all you guys. I love this place. It’s a good day.

Gotta go before I start leaking on the keyboard.