USA Today Best Seller!!!

So I'm sitting here tonight pondering life.  Unusual, right?  Not really, lately.  I've got a lot to ponder because there is still so much going on and it's such a time of transition that it seems like all I can do is ponder life!

The biggest news is that I am officially a USA Today Bestselling author!  That is

something to cross off of the bucket list for sure!  The box set that I did with four other amazing ladies, "Loving the CEO", hit the USA Today list last week at #77 and this week we moved up and are #56.  All in all, it's pretty darn exciting.  To celebrate last week I wore a tiara to work all day!  Every time my boss walked by my desk he said, "I can't believe you are wearing that all day".  Well, believe it, buddy, because I'm doing it again tomorrow!  

I released book three in my Montgomery Brothers trilogy, "Stay With Me" and it was my highest debuting book to date!  It released last night at 11:15 pm and by noon today it charted on Amazon at #1,932 and as of 10:00 pm this evening it is at # 892 in the overall Kindle Store!  That is just MIND BLOWING!!!

Then, because that's not cool enough, my author ranking on Amazon has blown up, too.   I am #35 out of all of the authors on Amazon.  I KID YOU NOT!  I am in the top 100 on five different sub-genre author rankings and I have to tell you, it's pretty cool when I see myself on a page with authors whose work I love and admire. 

Now for as exciting as all of this is, it's weird.  I can't quite put my finger on it but somehow...it's not quite what I was expecting.  It's fun and exciting and yet the reality is that it seems to only be fun and exciting...to me.  I don't know what I was expecting but the response from family and friends has been a little disappointing.  I'm not really an attention whore or someone who has to always be in the spotlight but I just was expecting, I don't know, a little more enthusiasm from people at what I have accomplished.

I'm being petty, right?

And I hate that!  I  don't want to BE petty but it would have been super cool if my husband would have gotten me flowers to congratulate me or if someone in the family called and was like "Oh my god!  Good for you!"  But it's been kind of quiet.  That's not to say that no one has been excited.  My co-workers at the office have been amazing.  They indulge my giddiness and I know that I am going to miss them all so much because over the last two years they have become family to me.  They have celebrated, laughed and cried with me and supported me in ways that I never expected.  It's going to be hard to not see them on a daily basis.  

I bought myself flowers.  I made myself a collage of all of my books - Frank suggested that I have it framed and so I did.  I love looking at it.  I'm treating myself to dinner out tomorrow night with a friend.  I may treat myself to a pedicure.  Is it wrong to be excited?  I mean, this is the culmination of a LIFE LONG dream!  I wrote my first short story when I was in the third grade and from that point on I knew that I wanted to be a writer!  Now, here I am and I keep looking around for people to jump up and down with me when I reach these milestones and for the most part the response has been kind of lackluster.

But it's okay...I am going to celebrate me and keep trying and reaching for new goals and milestones.  I made the USA Today Bestseller list with a group project and now my goal is to reach it with a single title.  I'm making a full-time career out of my writing; I'm taking control of my life and loving it.  

I want to encourage everyone to pursue your dreams!  You are never too old!  There is a commercial out there (and I can't remember what it's even for) but the tag line is "Not everyone hits their stride in their twenties" and to that I say a big AMEN!  Ashton Kutcher made an acceptance speech this week at the Teen Choice Awards and normally I am not a fan of his but so many people were posting the link to the speech that I decided to take a look.  Here are the highlights and I think it's something to really live by:

1. I believe that opportunity looks a lot like work.
2. I never had a job in my life that I was better than. I was always just lucky to have a job. Every job I had was a stepping stone to my next job and I never quit my job before I had my next job.
3. Steve Jobs said when you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way that it is, and that your life is to live your life inside the world and try not to get into too much trouble. But life can be a lot broader than that when you realize one simple thing, and that is that everything around us that we call life was made up by people that are no smarter than you. You can build your own life that other people can live in. So build a life. Don’t live one; build one.

I worked hard for this opportunity to be an author and all that I did before this helped me get to this point and I am building my life my way rather than by what anyone else tells me I should be doing.

What is your dream?  What is your passion?  Are you doing it?  Are you encouraging those that are?  Have you high-fived anyone lately because they are taking a chance and doing their best to live their dream? 

Look around - live, love, encourage...