The Goodbye Year Pub Day is TODAY!!

Hello everybody! Happy May! It has been two years since my last women’s fiction novel, In the Mirror, came out and I’m so excited to present THE GOODBYE YEAR! This story, as with all of my women’s fiction novels, is close to my heart and sparked by my own experiences with my youngest leaving for college. (#emptynestday232) Here’s a piece I wrote for Woman’s Day on the subject, in case you’re interested. (sigh) Empty nesting: I survived my youngest child’s last year of high school. Now What? http://www.womansday.com/relationships/family-friends/a54482/empty-nesters/ As for the fictional version ☺, THE GOODBYE YEAR is the story of Melanie, a perfectionist mom who views the approaching end of parenting as a type of death, can’t believe she has only one more year to live vicariously through her slacker senior son, Dane. Gorgeous mom Sarah has just begun to realize that her only daughter, Ashley, has been serving as a stand-in for her traveling husband, and the thought of her daughter leaving for college is cracking the carefully cultivated façade of her life. Will and his wife are fine―as long as he follows the instructions on the family calendar and is sure to keep secret his whole other life with Lauren, the woman he turns to for fun (and who also happens to have a daughter in the senior class). Told from the points of view of both the parents and the kids, The Goodbye Year explores high school peer pressure, what it’s like for young people to face the unknown of life after high school, and how a transition that should be the beginning of a couple’s second act together―empty nesting―might possibly be the end. Thanks so much to those of you who have downloaded and/or preordered the book already! I hope you enjoy it! And if you do, please write a review! They mean so much! Keep reading and you’ll find a special excerpt from THE GOODBYE YEAR! Here are the links so you can grab a copy for yourself: Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Kobo  |  iBooks  |  GooglePlay Huge favor! Could you follow me on Amazon and BookBub! It really helps discoverability! Thanks!! I REALLY hope you enjoy the book as much as I did writing it!!

Real You: Time to shine your own light?

Sometimes, in the flurry of life, and especially in the business of books (yes, it is mostly a business, I'm afraid), the light, the vision, the creative spirit can be dimmed. Certainly, even extinguished for those bleak periods of time most commonly called "writer's block". For me - and a lot of folks I know - this writing life, full of rejections, and almosts, can be dimming. Trust me, I know of many other businesses where folks are having the light squeezed out of them, too. So what to do? Giving up is not a choice, certainly not when your livelihood and your dreams are dependent upon success.

It's time to shine your own light, whatever that means for you. Grab a cup of coffee with a friend who is one step ahead of you and find inspiration. Pick up the telephone and ask for help and advice. (I did this yesterday, and boy did it feel good! My light, once dimming, is back to almost full strength.) Whatever you do, don't give up. If you have something to say, a product to create, a world to change, then you owe it to yourself to re-energize. Read. Exercise. Laugh.

Do whatever it takes to start glowing again, and whatever you do, don't give up.

"Let me listen to me and not to them." ~ Gertrude Stein

Real You: Book Club Radio - Here, Home, Hope

Amy Hatvany, author of the soon-to-be released BEST KEPT SECRET, was my guest in this week's radio show. We talked about motherhood, what it's like to write a novel and wait for the pub date, perfectionism and the other isms women face and much, much more. If you missed it, you can still listen. Click here. We had fun talking to each other, I hope you have fun listening!

Real You: New look, new website, same me

It's sort of like when you get your haircut - a big cut. It's still you under there, but it's you, well, different. That's the new KairaRouda.com! I've been working with amazing, talented people to bring together the best of what my sites have to offer, while also highlighting another path my career is taking. (And no worries - I'm still all about women entrepreneurs and you'll find all of the Real You Incorporated content at RealYouIncorporated.com.) Did I tell you I have a debut novel coming out in May! Ok, maybe you've heard that from me just a couple of times recently, but it's all so exciting and new for me. And it's so fun to share with you.

To that end, one of the best parts - I think - of my new site is the chance to read the first chapter of Here, Home, Hope! Click through to the books tab and you'll find it there. Until May, that first chapter will have to do it. But, I really hope you enjoy getting to know Kelly a little bit - and I hope you'll keep coming back for more. And, as always, let me know what you think!