Guest Post: Colby Marshall

Happy Friday!

Hope everyone had a great week. I'll be back on Monday with my usual post, but for now, I'm handing the blog over to Colby Marshall. Take it away, Colby!

The Top Ten Ways Preparing to Give Birth to a Book Isn't That Different from Preparing to Give Birth to a Baby

Giving birth to a book is an interesting thing.  As fate would have it, it was during the time I was in talks with my publisher to sell Chain of Command that I found out I was pregnant.  This sounds like just another "fun fact," but as I sold Chain and began to work with my editor to revise it and prepare it for publication, I realized how similar the two processes really are.  Thus, I present to you The Top Ten Ways Preparing to Give Birth to a Book Isn't That Different from Preparing to Give Birth to a Baby:

10.)  What started as a few long intimate moments between just you and your computer has become visible to everyone around you.

9.)  You occasionally wake in the middle of the night because the thought of impending book reviews has you feeling like you might wet your pants.

8.)  While a new book doesn't require propping your feet into stirrups and having strangers peer up your glittery hoo-ha, the reviews might make it feel that way!          

                      

7.)  There isn't a pain medicine on earth that will make you less anxious about the big day.

6.)   The anticipation builds over the course of months, but you're never quite ready.  Even years after it comes out, you'll still be learning.

5.)  During the months you prepare, you go through some bizarre changes you'd never have imagined you were capable of.

4.)  One minute, you're laughing, the next you're crying.  You yell at people for no reason out of frustration, and then you eat a pint of chocolate cherry ice cream to self-soothe.

3.)  It becomes difficult to determine where your keister ends and the Lazy Boy begins.

2.)  Typing causes your fingers to swell to the size of hotdogs, and both can cause carpal tunnel syndrome to flare up.  Your laptop gets so warm on your legs it causes you to have hot flashes.

And the number one way preparing to give birth to a book and preparing to give birth to a baby aren't that different:

Your child/book is the cutest, smartest, and most important thing ever created.  You recognize that most people are biased, but in this case, it's really true.

What about you—how is reading and/or writing like something you do on a day to day basis?

Writer by day, ballroom dancer and choreographer by night, Colby has a tendency to turn every hobby she has into a job, thus ensuring that she is a perpetual workaholic.  In addition to her 9,502 regular jobs, she is also a contributing columnist for M Food and Culture magazine and is a proud member of International Thriller Writers and Sisters in Crime.  She is actively involved in local theatres as a choreographer as well as sometimes indulges her prima donna side by taking the stage as an actress.  She lives in Georgia with her family, two mutts, and an array of cats that, if she were a bit older, would qualify her immediately for crazy cat lady status.  Her debut thriller, Chain of Command is now available, and the second book in her McKenzie McClendon series, The Trade, is due for publication by Stairway Press in June 2013. 

CHAIN OF COMMAND is currently available

on Amazon here: http://tinyurl.com/c36b6ja

Barnes and Noble: http://tinyurl.com/abynbjz

Directly from the publisher with free worldwide shipping: www.stairwaypress.com/bookstore

Have a great weekend, everyone!