If Amanda Hocking can do it, why can't I?

For the past six months, as I prepared my first attempt at ePublishing, I found my inbox stuffed full of little plugs about this girl...

Amanda Hocking.

It seemed every time I checked my mail there was a message telling me to check her out... look at her blog... read her fabulous new series...

I'll admit, I didn't know who she was and I did my best to ignore her. Partly because I have very little spare time and partly because the person doing all the plugging was my mother.

Hello, Jealousy...?

Check ME out... look at MY blog... read MY books!

Ahem - anyway - It wasn't until I finally got my Nook book up and running and sat back thinking now what? that I took the time to put my big-girl pants on, scroll back, and finally click on all those little links my mother sent me and... holy macaroni, oh my God, wow, this girl has got it going on!

She went from Nobody-epublishing-her-own-book to Multi-million-dollar-books-in-print-movie-talks-sensation in roughly four years!

(Ok I think that calls for another exclamation point...)

 !

 (Thank you for understanding.)

She has done it.

She has lived my dream as a reality. 

She has done it well, and she has done it on her own. 

So, now I sit back and think, why can't I?

I'm sure hundreds... maybe thousands... of aspiring authors out there are thinking the same thing, but you see Amanda hocking and I have a lot in common. 

What, you may ask? Well... um... we are both from small towns.

Yup.

Ok, sure, the town she comes from is famous for creating Spam (the meat not the mail) but the town I grew up in, Chester VT, is famous for something, too.

What, you may ask?

 Um... well... we have a village, and we call it the Stone Village.

All right, I'm not sure if that counts as famous, but there is a postcard.

Yessiree, a postcard.

And....... I have eaten Spam (the meat not the mail) and I even kind of liked it.

Honest.

So there you go. Practically twins. I mean for all we know we could have been Switched at birth. 

(Haha, get it? Switched her novel? Yeah, I'm sorry)

But seriously, I find great inspiration in the fact that this woman was able to take something she loved and with her own hard work, dedication, and positive determination turned it into a dream come true.

Ok, I'll say it... MY dream! But if she can do it, so can I. Right?

Right.

Thank you, Amanda Hocking for giving me hope.