Shepherd’s Call is Out

This Angie Counios blog is a meandering of thoughts. Sometimes there is a destination and sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes I talk about the food I ate yesterday and sometimes I talk about my author life—that life I’m trying to nurture and grow with all the love and effort of an attentive parent. And like a parent I care how my “kids” turn up in the world. I care about the feedback I get and how the books David and I write are received.

Recently David and I put Shepherd’s Call out into the world after a two year gestation. And it was awesome. I forgot about the hype and excitement of a book launch. The people who engage. The new ones who show up and trust us. I forgot all about that. But recently I was sweetly reminded.

We had our book launch at a local pub. Friends, family and readers showed up to buy the long awaited Shepherd’s Call. We had a line up. People mingled. We signed books, took photos, hugged people. It was quite amazing really.

Two days later we were at our neighborhood arts festival. Annually the Cathedral Village puts on an arts festival that starts on Victoria Day long weekend and ends the following week with a street fair. We had a prime spot with a stall in front of the big Holy Rosary Cathedral. We spent the day talking to people, selling books and just having fun after two years of being restricted because of the pandemic. These days have been a breath of fresh air.

The fair was followed by packaging books to readers for on line orders—which once again confirms that we’re on the right path. One particular order was pretty cool. A woman had stopped by our stall. She purchased Along Comes a Wolfe. She loved it so much that she went to Indigo and purchased Shepherd’s Watch and Wolfe in Shepherd’s Clothing. She ate those two books up in no time and couldn’t wait for the book store to get Shepherd’s Call so she ordered from us. I always say our books are to reading what Netflix is to binge worthy programing.

I’m doing it

Perusing through old journals, I have often found lists of goals. Some lists had goals like: meet an author, or interview an author or have a book signed by an author, or write a book. If I could only have seen my own future. I am an author. I sign books now. I have written not one but four books. Getting these things done was an extremely organic process. I just kept moving forward and growing the experience. And, well, that itty bitty dream keeps growing.

What’s next?

I keep thinking about the next step. What happens next? What is the bigger dream? Where will the Shepherd and Wolfe series take us? What does it mean to have one more book out there? It means the book family is growing. It means that the commitment to the story of Charlie Wolfe and Tony Shepherd is a serious one. It means that I’m doing what I’m supposed to (along side my writing partner, David). I sit and think sometimes about the four books. Four books! That’s not one or two, but four. And there is a fifth coming. If it wasn’t meant to be it wouldn’t be.

If you asked me when I was little what I wanted to do, I never said I wanted to be an author. I never said I wanted to be a story teller. But, here I am. Writing. Storytelling. Happy.

As always, thank you for reading lovelies.