As you can see, I’ve been remiss in posting with any regularity these recent days. No excuses, I finished  writing my book, I have space in the early morning (it’s 5:45 am) to spill out some musings about work and life, life and work, life at work and every so often an unrelated iphoto snap.

What happens, I fear, is that when the daily momentum is interrupted it’s difficult to call it back. Just like working out or doing anything physical. The body so easily reverts back to curling up and never wanting to leave a cozy bed in exchange for muscle strain.

Can you blame it?

Discipline is a funny thing – for me, anyway. When I charm it my way it can be so responsive and dutiful. But it’s like a motor placed in front of me that begs for my fuel. It’s always there. Just up to me to energize.

What’s that got to do with “what a week” in my headline? I’m not entirely sure but I did want to remark on the week that ends today at the strike of 5:00 pm.

We didn’t have 72 inches of snow here in Florida like my cousins in Maryland. Or get to stay home and be woken by spinning tires on ice in my sister’s neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Or close down our government like in D.C.

Didn’t have to ship in snow like the Olympics people in Vancouver. (So strange how the dispersion of snow mixed up its coasts this winter). From what I’m told, snowboarders and skiers will be gliding over bales of hay with layers of artificial snow donning the surfaces.

How wild is this new century, anyway?

The week. Ok. The week.

We launched VOWS. You read about it. Once again I’m privvy to a brand new idea in publishing from the company who loves to forge new terrain in the industry.

Let me brag on the company I work for for just a moment. HCI ushered in the genre of recovery publishing in its very beginnings. (Another renowned player, Hazelden co-pioneered the category at the same time). Then, facing near death, they had the wisdom to sign a little series of books called Chicken Soup for the Soul  What exactly 133 publishes missed that HCI didn’t has been the subject of endless news stories.

The fact is, we didn’t miss it.

Our “third coming” in the realm of phenomena, we believe is in VOWS. Take extraordinary love stories from ordinary human beings and romanticize them into steamy novels commandeered by veteran novelists in the field.

What a great Valentine’s Day gift to celebrate. Love in its everyday permutations tranformed into books. Again, as in Chicken Soup, anyone is candidate for a place in the new VOWS series and everyone will be able to identify with the end result – a romance novel.

I’ll stop kvelling now (look that up in my post about Yiddish words if you don’t recognize it) about how I get to be a part of some pretty wicked cool developments in publishing. No, we’re not New York slick. We’re not even very literary when it comes to keeping up with the upper crust of the book world.

But we’re accessible. We’re still encouraging people to read REAL books. With a Kindle version here and there, we’re staying current, looking at the inevitable ebook as well- flat out- we’re a mean, lean machine doing our best to keep publishing alive.

Did I get a little hoaky? Forgive me, but I get emotional at times when I think of this little Florida publisher that could.  Staying out of the habits of the publishing traditions of the great north i.e. New York has made us who we are.

Our reward, never having to shovel snow.

We’re thankful and hope you love VOWS.

p.s. I heard a rumor that we’re getting a generous VOWS mention in the legendary blog today of Crazy Aunt Purl, one of  my favorite sources for guaranteed laughter. Check out her new book while you’re there. Enjoy! (she’s on California time, so be patient!)

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