Ten
Jenna Petersen
Today is an amazing day for me for a variety of reasons. For one, it’s a book release day and that is always an wild and wonderful thing because it’s exciting and terrifying and unbelievable all once. It’s an amazing day also because of how in love with the particular book that is releasing. Lessons From A Courtesan is exactly the kind of story I love to read (dark, highly sensual, really emotional) and I was lucky enough to write it. It’s one of the few stories where I think I got pretty close to the book that was in my head. I am thrilled to see it hit shelves and I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
But the BIG reason this day is amazing is because it is my tenth book release.
TEN!
You may not realize what a milestone that is. I once read this statistic that said something like 80% of Americans want to write a book. Then it’s just a small percentage of those people who try to actually write one. And another small percentage of those who finish their book. And another small percentage of those who publish their book. And another small percentage of those who ever publish again. I’d say the percentage of those who publish a second book in the romance genre is probably higher, but it’s still fairly amazing to publish ONE book, let alone make it to ten in the current market. I know there were lots of times when one seemed out of reach.
Ten seems to be a theme for me, actually. Last year I celebrated my tenth wedding anniversary. This year my tenth book comes out. Next year, not only will I celebrate my tenth book with Avon (Her Notorious Viscount, April 2009), but I’ll also celebrate ten years of writing seriously and ten years of running The Passionate Pen (how time flies!).
So thank you for sharing in my big day. Whether you buy Lessons From A Courtesan or not, the fact that you’re reading this at my MySpace blog or at Gather or at Passionate Pen means that you have joined me for a little while on my journey. And that’s made ten books or ten years or ten minutes all the sweeter.