As many of you know who follow me on my facebook page – Sharalyn Loves Animals, I have been busy, busy, busy promoting Brave Nellie. I was fortunate enough to have two local newspapers write articles about me. One was in my local town’s paper, The Cape Courier. The other was in The Current, a weekly local newspaper for the South Portland, Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth, Maine area. Both articles were great. I am only able to copy the link for the Current paper to share with you:

http://www.keepmecurrent.com/search/?t=article&q=Sharalyn+Morrison-Andrews

I had two book launch parties. One was in my hometown of Hallowell, Maine. It was held Sunday, November 9th at the Hubbard Free Library in Hallowell.

Hubbard Free Library, Hallowell, Maine

It was a great turn-out thanks to all of my family and friends who made the effort to come.  Tim Lerette and Dick Dow played their guitars for entertainment.

Dick and Tim were great entertainment!

I had a slide show of Nellie’s story from the Dominican Republic to her new home in Michigan and there were refreshments.

Family and friends

Signing books

The second book launch party was in Cape Elizabeth, where David and I have our home. This was held the following Sunday on November 16 and it was another great success thanks to the support of my friends in the Portland area. Dan Matusco provided the entertainment on his guitar and again, I had Nellie’s slide show and refreshments.

I was also invited to read Brave Nellie at a couple of elementary schools. I read to second, third and fourth grade classes at the Union Elementary School in Union, Maine. I was a tad nervous as this was really the first time I had ever had children hear my book. I had shared it with many adults, who loved the story but I hadn’t shared it with any children! I wouldn’t recommend this as a marketing plan!

Anyway, I was nervous reading my story to the children. After all, they can be the best and most honest critics, no? Out of the mouth of babes! I am pleased to report that the book was well received.

The next class that I read Brave Nellie to was to the second grade class at the Hallowell Elementary School, the day after my book launch party. I am pleased to say that those children enjoyed the story, too.

I have been invited to read my book when I return to the states in February. I am looking forward to sharing Nellie’s story any chance I can get. If you are interested, please let me know. I will do my best to accommodate anyone who would like me to share Nellie’s story and/or read my book.

Brave Nellie is now available at the Maine Center for Crafts which is a lovely craft store for Maine artist.  It is located at the West Gardiner Service Plaza, at the junction of I-95 and I-295.  If you haven’t visited the Maine Center for Crafts, I strongly encourage you to.  They have some amazing and beautiful items for sale done by artist from Maine. It is a great place to do Christmas shopping.  It was very exciting to see Brave Nellie on display!  It is only the beginning of great things to come!

I have been having a difficult time with the second hardcover printing of Brave Nellie. The quality of the book doesn’t meet my standards. I cannot consciously sell a book that does not meet my approval. It was for this reason, that I pulled the hardcover book from Amazon. It was a heart wrenching decision as this is not where I had planned to be at this point in Brave Nellie’s journey.  The book will eventually be offered in hardcover but sadly, it will not happen until next year.  Lucas, my illustrator and I are in the process of researching companies to see which will give us the best quality product.

I believe that everything happens for a reason. It isn’t always obvious but eventually we will learn the lesson that we are supposed to when things don’t go the way we thought they should or the way it was planned.  I am convinced that Brave Nellie’s message to children is a valuable one and I will continue to strive to get it out to everyone.