I did a booksigning a couple of weeks ago. Now, you may think this involves long lines of adoring fans, a cushy chair, an assistant kneeling next to you presenting each book to be signed, and a fountain pen. Maybe this happens in someone else's world, but it sure doesn't happen in mine. Yes, I dressed in my best, put on a big smile, and greeted customers in the lovely Christian bookshop. I hobnobbed with our own Camy Tang, and had some major laughs with her, Kristin Billerbeck, Brandilyn Collins, and M.L. Tyndall. Pretty famous company, huh? I thought so, too.
Then I went home and mucked out the chicken coop.
Portrait of the author: Lumber jacket, stained pants, flat-bladed shovel in hand, tossing out gobs of you-know-what, surrounded by interested hens looking for seeds to fall out of the newly opened hay bale. Now, this is real life!
It's also why I'll never be a diva. I used to worry about this, believe it or not. I used to be concerned that I'd take myself too seriously, would forget my old friends and where I came from. That was before I began rescuing chickens. The good Lord seems to be using them to keep me grounded. Anytime I think I deserve someone else's contract terms, someone else's eight-pocket floor display, or even the rose my writer's group gives for every new sale, I just remember that I have to get out there and clean the coop every other week. It keeps me humble.
It's hard to be a diva with hay in your hair. And I think God knows that.
Shelley
whose new website launches next Monday!
http://www.allaboutusbooks.net
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