EVERYONE IS officially BEAUTIFUL!

Everyone Is Beautiful  hit the stores today!

Here’s the blow-by-blow:

1. I woke up with that same feeling you have on your birthday.  Like, This is a special day.  This is YOUR special day! But people don’t necessarily know that unless you tell them.

2. So I told them.  Like my next-door-neighbor, who was heading out for a jog.  Everybody says the same thing when you tell them happy news.  When you say, “It’s my birthday today,” people say, “Happy birthday!”  And when you say, “My book goes on sale today,” people say, “Congratulations!”  And that’s fine.  Because it’s really just about getting to say your news over and over.

3.  Turns out, there’s a group of fans of my first book at my son’s school.  And none of them knew I was the author of that book until recently.

4.  I did a podcast for Beth Irvine’s BlogTalkRadio show.  My first podcast ever.  And it was super-fun.  It was a lot like chatting on the phone.  Which I can do in my sleep.

5.  I dashed off to a luncheon for the Women Ambassadors of the Shell Houston Open golf tournament.  Which–who knew?–gives tons of money to charity.  Ate the most delicious caesar salad, a delectable piece of cheesecake, and got some SWAG, including a leather wallet-slash-pencil case that I am still marveling over.

6.  I raced home and watched my son pedal his sister’s Barbie Big Wheel up and down the sidewalk, still in my fancy luncheon shoes.

7.  I picked up my daughter from kindergarten and saw a mom in the carpool line waving her new copy of my book.  I ran over to sign it for her through the car window.

8.  Took kids to Borders to get a gander at the book, now officially on sale, and snap a photo to commemorate the moment.  Three photos later, I got yelled at by a Borders lady who said:  “You absolutely cannot take pictures in here.”  She seemed to think I might be a competitor from a rival store.  Me, in my platform sandals with my two kids racing around the stacks like jackrabbits.

9.  Tried not to get huffy or sarcastic with the lady, who softened a bit when I explained that it was MY book I was taking picture of, even though it was HER merchandise.  (A bizarre distinction.)  But I did feel a little like she’d ruined the moment.  And I did decide to leave right that instant.  And it did take way too long, then, to round up the kids.  Who are remarkably fast.

10.  Here’s one of the forbidden pictures:

The whole experience left me feeling a little funky.  I was like, “You can’t talk to me like that on my birthdayl!!”

11.  But then I came home to this:

from my editor and publicist and all the folks at Ballantine.  And I was revived!

12. Then I checked my email and found lots of fun reviews for Everyone Is Beautiful popping up online.

One from On My Bookshelf that calls it a “concise, and touching look at parenting with young children and marriage.”

One from The Book Report that says, “Reading Everyone Is Beautiful is like catching up with an old friend . . . I appreciate the insight passed on by the author about finding the beauty and balance in our every day lives. This book is a fun read that will make you appreciate what you have.”

And one from Book Addiction for Bright Side  that says, “a very fast-paced, enjoyable, and heart-warming story that truthfully brought tears to my eyes.”

Plus a little shout-out from the Houston Dog Blog!

13.  And two guest posts that I wrote have also gone up online:

One about the challenges of writing a love story about married people at The Printed Page.

And one about motherhood at Reading Group Guides.com that makes me tear up every single time I read it…

Now we’ve gone out for Tex-Mex with the kids, and put everyone to bed, and I’m making cupcake toppers for the Mom 2.0 Summit in Houston this weekend.  Cupcake toppers with quotes from Everyone Is Beautiful.  Which I’m twittering, one by one!

Anyway.  Happy Everyone Is Beautiful Day!