By Andrew Kensley






Friday, May 30, 2014

SEEKING BLUE...PUBLISHED!!!!!

Okay, the all caps title should tell you what you need to know: Today I officially published my first novel, Seeking Blue. It is available for purchase on Kindle, and will be available in print within a couple of days. (I'll let you know when that happens.)  Here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=seeking+blue+andrew+kensley


By the way, if you have an Apple device, you can download the free Kindle for Mac app and read on your iOS device, (iPad, iPhone, Mac).

Hitting the enter button to publish

Pardon me for a moment...

...YAAAAHHOOOOOO!!!

Ahem, now that I've got that out of my system...well...there's not much else. I finally did it, and I'm damn proud. And you all should be too, for waiting patiently all these years.

After nearly 12 years of writing and editing and revising and revising and revising and revising, and several weeks of tedious formatting and re-indenting paragraphs and removing hard returns and adding page breaks (I still have no idea what those are), and learning by trial and error (mostly error) about how to turn a Word document into a Kindle-ready document, Seeking Blue is up and running on Amazon.com for purchase. I'm still waiting for my Proof print copy to arrive in the mail. As soon as it hits my mailbox, I'll flip through it and give it the go for publishing and send it out to the world of actual books.

Of course, I would be thrilled if you all bought a copy and told everyone you know to check it out as well. With self-publishing, the author has to do all the marketing him or herself, so if I want to sell this thing, I have to make it happen myself.

With your help.

I know that literature is subjective and not everyone is going to like Seeking Blue, and I'm okay with that. I would love it, regardless of whether you loved it or hated it, if you'd take 5 minutes (or less) to write a review on Amazon.com when you're done reading it. Whether you give it 1 star or 5 stars doesn't matter to me, honestly. The more reviews a book receives, the higher it will eventually populate on searches, thereby making it more visible to people who don't know me but are looking for something to read. So thank you in advance.


Please forward this blog post to everyone you know, especially those in book clubs everywhere. And give them my email address: I would love to provide a list of questions and topics, and if it's reasonable, be happy to discuss Seeking Blue in person with my readers.




I'm still amazed at all the love and support I've gotten from friends and family during this journey. Writing a book is hard and takes a long time, and can be challenging and insanely frustrating, but in the grand scheme of things, it's no more daunting than any other labor of love. With a boatload of persistence and patience, and support from those around you, anything is possible, and that is not by any means hyperbole.

I dedicated Seeking Blue to my daughters, Ella and Sophia. When I showed them the dedication page, I'm not ashamed to say I cried. Partly because this is an emotional experience for me, but also because of their reactions. I honestly didn't think it would mean that much to them, but, as has happened many times in my 11 years of parenting, I was wrong. Sophia jumped into my arms and thanked me repeatedly. Ella, as is her mien, calmly tiptoed over from the other side of the dining room table and hugged me. With Tanya watching quietly from across the table, the tears of joy and pride building in my eyes, and my two precious girls squeezing me like only children can, I realized that if I never sold one copy of this animal that has occupied my nights, days, lunch hours, and every possible time in between, I'd still consider this experience to be successful.

The true take home message of my adventure with Seeking Blue, and one I hope to impart to everyone I can possible reach, is that there is nothing more satisfying and empowering than following your dream. And while the message in the dedication was directed to my girls, the message applies to everyone. Here's your first sneak preview:


The world is what you make of it.

Make it good.


Seek your blue.