I am still coming down from being high off life (chill out, no drugs here, just pure and utter euphoria)!!

Yesterday at the Book Lovers Expo in CLT was an incredible experience. One I hope to be apart of again should it roll back around to CLT. I met so many incredible authors, artists, vendors, and people that will forever be imprinted in my memory bank. 

However, I have to tell you, what really made yesterday a dream was watching Ari (my 9 year old daughter who inspired me to publish) get up on stage for her first open mic event. She handled it with not only grace, although nervous- you wouldn't have been able to tell, but also compassion and a voice that traveled the room. She read her poem that we collaborated on and she received a standing snap on her performance. A lot of mothers, fathers, grandparents, and those alike wiping their cheeks as they watched a young girl tackle her fears and BE HEARD.

But here is the real dream:

Ari WON the poetry competition and she will now be published with BookButler. To give a little background, BookButler was started by a father because his daughters' wanted to publish a children's book at the age of 7. As most author's know getting a publisher is a REALLLLLLLYYY hard task. In my own personal experience, I cried many tears at the frustration of such which lead me to becoming an Indie author. Well, Mr. Butler decided at that time to take matters into his own hands to publish his girls and let their dreams come true (sound familiar?) and so THAT is how BookButler came to be. Fast forwarding to 2025, BookButler has published over 100 authors AND those very daughters have become award winning authors!! How incredible is that? How incredible is it for me, Ari's mom, to watch her not only become an author but become a published author with a BookButler who is rooted in the very reason I started my journey in the first place, for my daughter? A literal DREAM *finger snaps*

Yesterday couldn't have been more rewarding, for me watching other artists create, get to hear some incredible stories, and meeting AMAZING people. All the way to watching my girl do her thing and SUCCEED.

But most of all, getting to share this moment with my daughter, the very reason I started to publish in the first place. 

All my love,

Shay