Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver

As you know, I am Editor for MasticadoresUSA. I just love connecting with writers and publishing their works. I also write reviews of their books. Although they send PDF’s, I purchase the books so that I can be a verified purchaser when uploading reviews on Amazon. The authors are so appreciative. Why? In my reviews I look for ways I myself have connected with their themes, and I pay witness to what really matters to the author.

It was like Christmas this week when I received an autographed book by Cindy Georgakas, author of her recent book just released on Amazon. She and I share the publisher, EIF-Experiments in Fiction. I had written her to tell her I had purchased her book and also sent copies to some people. I also wrote a review of her book, which you can read here.

Cindy is a life coach, so the book came with a cute bag, her business card, and yet another sweet note!

I posed these sweet gifts on the keyboards for my iPad and Dell computer because these tools are my writing tools and, thus, my connections to the authors.

I certainly do not expect gifts of appreciation. However, I would like to express my gratitude to Cindy for reaching out with such kind recognition of my efforts to help promote her work. I believe in promoting and supporting authors because I feel the competition to publish is so incredible that it can be overwhelming.

Writing and publishing a book is like birthing a child. The book will not walk to the customers. I’ve found with my own book, which was released last October, that book promotion involves looking for places to read my poetry, get interviews, and find other opportunities to get the word out there about the book. The book is Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir (EIF-Experiments in Fiction, 2022). This blog has all my news about the book.

However, the pandemic and my health issues have presented me some hurdles.I’ve been doing a lot of connecting online, rather than in public, to promote my book. Now that I feel more comfortable with not masking, I can do more in public, but I recently had a knee replacement, which is taking weeks to heal from because knee-replacement surgery recovery requires lots of physical therapy. I’m working around all that the best that I can.

My point is that book promotion is a challenge, especially if you have an independent publisher who owns a small company and doesn’t have a team of media people. I love having control of my book promotion, nonetheless, and my publisher, Ingrid Wilson, is supportive by attending some online open mics I have participated in to promote the book. Also, I had made a decision to go with an independent publisher rather than a traditional publisher. Another story.

I’ve wandered from my original point in a way. I feel Cindy knows I support the MasticadoresUSA authors despite my own physical challenges at this time. And I realize how much help new authors need to promote their books. Thus, her gifts warmed my heart. I just had to share her act of kindness.

Thank you again so much, Cindy! Your gifts warm my heart and lift my spirits! You are well loved, and I know why. You show gratitude and make extra effort to reach out to others. On top of a house renovation, mothering, life coaching, writing poetry for several publications, and writing a book!!

By the way, I reblog the reviews here on extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog. You can find them by searching under the category “Review”. I also share the reviews on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. On occasion, I repost and share the reviews because readers may have missed them the first time through.

Amazon Best-Selling Author, Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir (EIF-Experiments in Fiction, 2022); Pushcart Nominee

Facebook: Barbara Harris Leonhard /barbara.leonhard; Instagram: @meelosmom123