I'm a published author, officially

Today seems to be an appropriate day for me to write again in my much neglected blog, being the day after my first novel was published! I was so busy writing and re-writing, revising and thinking and also taking care of kids and necessities, that the blog was one of many things that went by the wayside. It's a strange thing having my book out there. It is a great feeling, but also a scary feeling. I feel like I have just put a whole load of my own kindergartners on the bus for the very first time. I created these people, I love these people. They have been my private intellectual property for over two years and now I have sent them out into the world to sink or swim for themselves. I wonder if any other author has ever felt that way? I'm sure they must have. As I wait for people to actually read the book, I have realized that while I do desire that they will like the book (and maybe like me better for having written it), the thing that I'm really worried over is that I want them to like my characters. Ann, the skinny, klutzy heroine; Kyle, the big brooding hero who is, underneath it all, and for the right person, a big teddy bear; Bobby, the gentle giant; and Diesel Taylor-there I stop-no spoilers on Diesel. I have another worry nagging away at me too. It's the Mormon thing. Not that I'm ashamed of it-certainly not. I'm proud to be a Latter day Saint. But I have a lot of friends who are not members of the same Church as me. More than I have who are members, in fact. I don't want anyone to read my book and get the idea that maybe I am looking down on them for the way they live their lives. It has become the norm, for instance, in this world for couples of all ages to live together without being married. We just don't do it. We just don't. But if someone else is doing it, it doesn't phase me. We don't believe in sex before or outside of marriage. Again. People don't seem to be doing that anymore. We don't drink, we tend not to swear and it is my experience that we are generally nice to people. But so are other people generally nice to people. I want to say right now that whether or not you are nice to me is the only thing in that vein that I care about regarding other people. You can be black or white, Democrat or Republican, mixed race, Jewish or Catholic or Lutheran, you can be gay or straight, you can be for gay marriage or against it, you can be married or living together or living in a nudist colony. If you are nice to me, I will be nice to you, and that is the end of it. I know and respect that we are all different. In this story, my main character is a typical Mormon girl. She doesn't look down on anyone, and I don't either (at least I honestly try not to). It is my hope that people will accept the story for just what it is-fun. It's not meant to be a statement for or against anything, except for perhaps an allowance of tolerance for all other people. I'll be the first to admit that in the LDS Church, there are some people who are intolerant of (you fill in the blank). But that is true in any group of people that contains more than two people, and I don't care what that group may be. So, please, read, enjoy, laugh, cry, adopt a dog. I'm having issues posting a link to the book on Amazon. It is called A Little Hair of the Dog, by Jane McBride and is available on Amazon on kindle and in paperback.