Books and Baby News

 I feverishly wrote a book back in 2005 and though I sent it to a sleuth of agents, I couldn't find any help.  I let it sit for many years, but for some reason, I up and decided to self-publish it recently.  The book, titled "Someone Always Loved You" is about a guy who, on his first day as an ambulance driver, hits a pedestrian.  He then sits by her side, keeping vigil while she is in a coma.  Their pasts interweave together as we see a story of love over time unfold.  Honestly, when I wrote it, I only had the prologue in mind.  After that, the characters and their situations took over and the book kind of created itself from there.  I never knew where it was going from day to day.  I wrote it in about a month.  I just couldn't stop until I got it out.

Anyways, I found lulu.com, a website that allows you to self-publish books for free.  It's print on demand so whenever anyone orders the book, it gets printed and shipped.  It only took about a week and a half for my first copies to arrive to me so I was pleased with that.  I also started looking for book reviewers to take a look at it and I will paste the first review link below.

http://bookmavenpicks.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/someone-always-loved-you-by-brooke-golliher/
I was sorry to have made her cry, but any book that brings about emotion must not be all bad.

I really did the self-publishing thing so I would have copies for myself, family, and friends.  If anyone else reads it, that's wonderful.  It's something that I just recently started reading again myself.  I had forgotten much of what I wrote.  It HAS been 7 years, after all.  What surprises me the most is how much of my own story is in the book.  There are a lot of flashbacks from the woman in the coma and some of those experiences are exact replicas of things that happened to me.  Others are mere fiction,  If you ever read it, see if you can tell the difference. :)

The book is available on lulu.com at the following link:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/brooke-golliher/someone-always-loved-you/paperback/product-20447265.html

I'm glad to have finally done something with it, though I wish I had had time to read through it before I published it as I have run across several mistakes.  Perhaps someday I can go back and fix those things.  For now, what do you do!

In other publishing news, a book I had a large part in has come out from the company chainbooks.com.  "Small Town America" is about a woman on the run who ends up hiding in the small town of Plattsmouth, Nebraska.  I wrote chapter one and, at the time, had no idea why the woman was running.  There are 23 authors involved from all over the country and some from other parts of the world and they got to decide the woman's fate after the first chapter.  My husband actually took the cover photo and the overall look of the book is fantastic.

I have taken this book around to a few stores locally and even brought it to a church fundraiser.  Everyone is very interested since its premise is located here and it's an overall fun book to enjoy.  I continue to sell them out of my car. :)  In fact, I think I'm about ready to order some more copies soon.

Here is the link for Small Town America on chainbooks and amazon:

 https://shoppingcart.chainbooks.com/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=85&osCsid=da4def1ec7606e36b822f720f114fe58

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Town-America-Gregory-Humphrey/dp/1619900025/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350137200&sr=8-1&keywords=small+town+america+chainbooks

GOD IN THE KITCHEN

As for my own recent writing, I finished the novel I was writing titled "God in the Kitchen."  My parents took my daughter for a couple of days while my husband is in Atlanta and I was able to go back through the book and edit.  It's about a radio personality whose father dies and he is just all around down on his luck.  A man who goes by the name of Evan who has "spiritual authority" starts appearing to him in his kitchen to help him along the way.  

I signed up to attend a Christian writing conference in November near Kansas City and I hope to get some interest in the book there.  We shall see.  I signed it up for a "first pages" portion of the conference where a panel reads the first page and then critiques it and states whether, based on that first page, they would read more or stop there.  Might help give some insight.  I also signed up for time with an agent, who is supposed to come prepared having read the entire first chapter.  He or she will then offer advice from there.  

So hopefully that will be an entertaining conference and worth the time and effort to go.  My husband is taking a Friday off to watch Kaelyn so hopefully they have fun as well.

 Speaking of Kaelyn, we have been having a blast at Vala's pumpkin patch this year.  We go once a week and are dreading the end of October when it will be closed again for the year.  She enjoys sending the ducks back and forth, playing in the corn, jumping on the pumpkin jump, riding the peddle tractor (which I have to peddle, very tiring!), the tractor train ride, the big chair, what she calls the "scary thing" which is a face that pops out of a window and says boo hahaha, and many other aspects.  Last time we were there, we ran across Mickey and she had to touch his ears and give him lots of fives.  Really, they are fours because Mickey only has four fingers. :)

I thought the zoo was tiring, but Vala's definitely takes the cake.  Not only is it hilly, but it's a farm so there aren't really any paved roads.  Pushing the stroller up and down and around is exhausting so maybe I'll be glad for the end of October after all. :)  Next year will be a whole new adventure since we'll have another kid along with us.  But for now, we enjoy as much time there as we can and buy a bag of kettle corn every time we go.  Yum!

Kaelyn has become a Husker fan this year.  Well, she now sees the big N places and says, Go Big Red.  So if that means she's a fan, so be it.  We looked for a Husker shirt for her and this was the ONLY one we could find in her size.  I think it's hilarious and she likes footballs so she enjoys wearing it too.  The first time she put it on she HAD to go play football RIGHT away.  It was funny.

She has grown into LOVING preschool.  Most mornings, when I get her up I say, hey, you know what we're going to do today?  She's like preschool!  But she's only right on Tuesdays and Thursdays. :)  On the other days she has to hang with me at the zoo or somewhere else, the poor thing.

Anyways, at preschool, she mostly talks about the snacks she has.  That is always the highlight.  She also enjoys playing hopscotch outside and going down the silver slide.  She used to like the green and yellow slide, but lately the silver one is the favorite.  She also talks about counting the days of the week, looking outside to see what the weather is like, playing train, doing puzzles, reading books, and her latest favorite, the pumpkin game.  She gets to choose what type of eyes, nose and mouth a pumpkin has on a wall computer smart board and then the pumpkin (and she) dance.  I have a video of it from Grandparents day.  It's quite cute and a big highlight for her right now. I hope they have a turkey that does something similar for after Halloween time!

I had a doctor's appointment a couple of months back and they did a quick peak ultrasound.  It looks like we're having another girl!  I'm thrilled.  The doctor didn't seem as sure as the last time around with Kaelyn.  Last time, the lady said she had been doing ultrasounds for 20 some years and she had never been wrong.  This doctor said it's ALWAYS a guess, but at that point in my pregnancy, she was guessing girl.  She said either it's a girl, or a boy hiding his stuff because she saw no evidence of boy parts.  I have another bigger, longer ultrasound coming up the first of November, so hopefully that will confirm things.  We have started a list of girl names, but it's a struggle.  I like more unusual names and Sean is more normal. :)  Just like our everyday life.  haha  But we'll come up with something by that time or just pick from the names we have left on the list that we both semi-like. 

The pregnancy seems to be going well.  I have a lot of heartburn, which is SO much fun at night when I want to sleep, but I remember having that last time too.  I also struggle with restless legs, also at night when I want to sleep.  It feels as if I have not gotten up and moved ALL day and my legs just HAVE to move RIGHT now.  Which does not allow me to sleep very easily!  With a 3 1/2 year old around, I certainly do not sit around all day.  My legs get plenty of motion, thank you very much!  It's a weird thing, that's for sure.  Otherwise, the baby enjoys doing flips and pushing on my bladder.  An onery one already. :)

When I'm not playing with Kaelyn, I'm trying to get as much writing in as possible.  I know once her little sister is born, all of that will get pushed to the wayside for who knows how long.  I enjoy it so much I hate to see it go, but with any luck, I will get back to it again someday.  They WILL both have to go to school eventually, you know!  Which is a sad thought in and of itself!

In the meantime, we wait, I write, we play, and the days tick by!