Happy Easter

Yesterday, my family got together for Easter. My friend Allison joined us as did our friend Philip and also our friends, Meaghan & Jeff with their two boys. Both of my brothers were there and they had their new babies with them. Baby Vito is almost six months and Baby Charlotte was born about ten days ago. It was so great to have all the kids there... All in all, we had a two year old and three little babies and a very cute Easter Egg hunt...

This past week was a fairly big week for me with a few wins sprinkled in. I've been trying to grow my followers on Twitter, so that when I finish this book, I've got a pool of (if I've I searched and chosen correctly) single mothers and an audience for the book. So far, I've got about 256 following Twitterers and I maybe only know a handful. I LOVE THE INTERNET! Are we following each other on Twitter? Go to www.twitter.com/NextOneManClosr

I went to the f'book page of The Morning Mashup and asked if we could poll the listeners for horror and success dating stories of single moms. Stan from the show said they were going to talk about this soon. "Soon" as in later that morning or "soon" as in later in the month? Hmmm.... Very cool to get a response, regardless.

I also got the website up. It's ALIVE! I've accumulated 26 facebook fans for the book fan page and the really cool thing is that I don't even know some of them. http://tinyurl.com/ygv93vc

On the website, you can request the first chapter and after receiving one request, I figured I had better get chapter one proofed and ready to go. Go to www.NextOneManCloser.com if you would like for me to email you a copy of the first chapter.

I printed a copy of chapter one out and brought it to my moms yesterday. Everyone seemed really excited for me and anxious to read it. I left it there. I wonder if my mom will take it on her trip with her skiing? My Dad has been really supportive. My mom hasn't said much about it. She wishes I were selling more real estate, no doubt.

Noah, my son said that when he first saw what the cover of the book was going to look like, he thought it was perfect for me since my iPod earphones are covered in pink crystals as is my iPhone...

My brother, Michael, asked if the title of the book was final. Well, I guess nothing is ever final until it's final, right... I've got to recreate the photo anyway so that it's truly mine and I don't encounter any copyright infringements, but like I said, he was talking about the title. I told him, that yea... I was 99% sure that was it and he said it sounded slutty. I almost peed in my pants when he said this... "Next!" - like I'm moving them through on a conveyor belt.

I laughed and told Michael that my primary market wasn't men and that I didn't think women would have the same first impression. My friend Allison, my cousin Julie and my sister-in-law, (also) Julie were there to back me up.

So, where did I get the title, you may be asking? This is actually a great story, I think. I was at a Tony Robbins event several years ago; maybe 4 years ago. I was chatting with my friend Jessica and she was telling me about this great experience she had had with one of the trainers. She was having a hard time getting over this guy she'd been dating. Truthfully, as Jess would tell you, she just didn't want to let go. She was talking with the trainer and he was showing her that this guy wasn't worth the salt in her tears. That there's was someone amazing out there, waiting for her, and that all she had to do was let go and move toward her future. Towards whoever was next for her. As a metaphor, he made her go out into the hall of the convention center and yell at the top of her lungs NEXT!. Every time I would date someone and it would end, I would just think to myself, "Well, Next... I'm one guy closer" and believe it or not, it's given me a bit of peace throughout the years. Not as much peace as finding the guy would have given me, but I'll take what I can get. Anyway, it always stuck with me, so when I decided that it was time to write this book, the title seemed obvious.

My target date for finishing the book in by the end of April. Whew... I figure, editing aside, I'm about half-way through... Should be interesting to hear the comments from the first chapter.

stay tuned...