A Big Announcement

I turned 30 this year and shortly after my 30th birthday I stumbled across my Bucket List.  I wrote this list years ago and have accomplished some of these goals already:
-Running a Marathon
-Falling in Love
-Being a Mom
-Skydiving
-Learning to cook
But there are several things I have not yet attempted and publishing a book was one of them. I figured this was the year for me to tackle this goal. If we are friends on Facebook, then your already know the news I am about to share....as of last week, my book Finding Love in Nature: Heart Stones is officially published!  I may or may not have been logging into Amazon.com to search for my book multiple times a day just to see my book there. I can hardly believe that it is actually printed. EEK!! It is real.

I found over 70 heart shaped stones on our trip to Maine last July and after putting the first few in my pocket or purse (depending on the size) I started taking photos before I took them with me. This book is a compilation of those photos. I also insisted on taking all of these stones home with me (much to my husband's dismay). We had these stones in our carry on bags, our checked luggage, my purse and my daughter's diaper bag, but I am happy to report that we got them ALL home with us. I am no stranger to the orange HEAVY tags that are usually attached to our luggage anyway:)

rock hunting in Maine

my little girl helping me hunt for heart stones

After a stress fracture forced me to lay low this winter, this really jump started the prcoess. I finally organized and edited my photos and got this project underway. I was rather frustrated to be unable to be so active, but I put my energy into this book rather than focusing on all the things I could not do with an injury. And I am glad I did.
Although this was not the book I had orignally planned on publishing (I would still like to publish a children's book that I wrote years ago), this was a great first book to help get familiar with the publishing process. And it sure beat paying $24.00 to print a very similar photo book through Snapfish (which I already did just because I wanted this in book form so badly). I used the platform Createspace which in an affiliate of Amazon. If you have ever had the inkling you would like to be published, I would highly recommend Createspace.
And although I will never get rich with my publishing and plan on keeping my day job, that was never my intention anyway. I just wanted my book in print form. And I can cross that off my Bucket List.
~Angela