With my family and Friends
Author’s Speech
Hello everyone! Thank you for joining me on this special day.
Not everyone here knows about my personal life, but I will give you a glimpse of what this pandemic means to me personally. The pandemic brought out the best in me. I got my childhood dream when the world was at a stand still and I thought it would complete me, but I’m still searching for more and want my life to have more meaning. I had that longing to chase my life’s purpose.
Then one night, I was with my niece Charlene, who happened to be a book lover like me, and asked her, “What if I write a book? which I had no training at all. Her response changed my life forever with just two words, “WHY NOT?”
When I started writing, my intention was to make a short story. Maybe ten chapters, then I would have looked for a printer and make it into a book and give it as a Christmas gift to my family and friends. That was the original plan.
When I finished chapters one to four, I asked Charlene if she could check my work. Lo and behold, she has so many questions like “who is your protagonist?”, “what’s the main plot of your story?”, “what’s the genre?”, etc. etc.
When she bombarded me with so many questions, I panicked and just told her to stop. I remember what I said to her: “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I only have my story and that’s it. ” So she stopped asking me. Then I realized that she was just trying to help me.
Rather than being sorry for myself for not knowing how to answer Charlene, I joined webinar, and I researched free downloadable guides. Then I stumbled into this Victoria-based publishing company which is a 100% employee-owned company. I entered my contact information and got the free guide.
After three days, inside a quiet office space, someone’s phone rang loudly. You can’t imagine how I reacted when I realized it was my phone ringing. My phone was usually mute except for that day. I answered the phone and heard someone say,
“Hi, I’m Jaime.” How’s your book?” I was shocked and confused. Who might the caller be?, my reply was epic. I said, “I don’t even know what my book is about.”
Then his next question was, “Do you want to self-publish your book?” and I immediately answered “NOOOOOO”. But then again, I did realized that this call might be my chance to have a new dream. This phone call may have happened for a reason. Before hanging up, I told Jaime to email me all the details about self-publication. I informed him that I was not interested in publishing my book. I was not confident that my book was bookstore ready. But Jaime was so patient in listening to my never-ending insecurities.
Then he sent me an email, the first thing I searched for was how much the publishing cost was. Thanks to CERB at that time, I was able to pursue this new dream of mine. So, I took the risk and entered into a contract with FriesenPress. But I was still not 100% confident that my book is bookstore worthy.
The risk I took gave me courage to finish my book in seven months. I thought, no matter what the outcome is, I will never forget that we have the power of self-reinventing.
I’m so grateful that all of you came to experience this moment with me. I never thought that a simple story could make it to the world stage, even if it’s only through online bookstore for now.
Revenge Mistaken was published June 3, 2022. Now we are here celebrating my new baby that I can call my own forever. Thank You.
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Jennifer Osuna Ausa 