Julie Regency Romance

I have been participating in book clubs for over 25 years so the question from my editor should not have been a surprise. But it was! The voice in my head said, "Only really good books would put book club questions in the back. Don't flatter yourself that even one person will want to read your book let alone a whole group wanting to discuss it in a book club!" So I told that old voice to beat it and wrote some questions. It was fun. I wrote nonsense until something stuck and then I went to get ready for bed and while I brushed my teeth I jotted down the new ideas for questions that flooded my brain and then I slept on it. The next day I edited what I had written the night before and added some of the new ideas I had and in the end I had 12 questions! For some reason, this made it all the more real. My book is really going to get published!

I have written about this before but it's worth mentioning again. I feel like a fraud. And it's not just me. A niece recently shared a NY Times article  (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/your-money/learning-to-deal-with-the-impostor-syndrome.html?_r=0) about this very topic and according to researchers, pretty much everybody feels this way at some point. They call it the 'Imposter Syndrome'. Famous writers have experienced it, a renowned marketing expert and even US presidents. The key is learning how to deal with this feeling. We can acknowledge it and cower, allowing it to stand in front of us like a club bouncer, denying us from moving forward, or we can recognize it, tell it, "You don't scare me!" ( even though it scares our pants off ) and push past it. It makes me wonder how many people with amazing potential have been frightened off by it. How many wonderful creations, thrilling inventions or new strategies have never seen the light of day becaus