Summer is full on. (Dare I say half over? I’m writing this in a whisper text because I don’t want it to be true.) Which means it’s time for planning. Because let’s be serious, we all know the year doesn’t begin in January. It begins in September. That’s been true since we were in school and our grown-up calendars reflect that rhythm.
Summer is our break time. And it is often our planning time for the coming “year”. Those of us who lead groups that meet from September to May. So I wanted to get the word out before all of this planning begins about a few offers that are running right now around my new book Loving My Actual Life: An Experiment in Relishing What’s Right in Front of Me. Because you are the planners. And I want the planners to be rewarded.
I wrote about my 9-month experiment to love my actual life with the hopes that women would try their own version of the experiment. The book is meant to act as a framework for the reader to duplicate. And of course anything like this is more fun and more likely to actually happen if we do it with our friends.
This is meant to be a friendly book. One that makes every woman feel at home, less alone in the stress of the everyday. It is a tool to invite that new woman, new mom, new neighbor into discussion. Sprinkled with some spiritual insights, but not a hard-core Bible study. There are discussion questions at the end of every chapter that set you up to read and discuss together.
So it has made me especially happy the last few weeks when readers have messaged me that they want to read the group with their book club or MOPS group or neighborhood moms’ group. Because this is exactly how the book was intended to be read!
I also find it one of my greatest joys to visit with groups and get requests from all over the country (and beyond) to Skype and talk about books, parenting, faith, etc. It is crazy to me that I can sit in my basement and talk with a room full of women in a different time zone about all the fun stuff. And yet I don’t have enough time in my life to Skype with every group that asks.
This is where my summer Skype promotional is coming into play.
Book clubs, MOPS groups, Women’s Ministry planning committees buy a bunch of books and read them together. Host a 9-week or 9-month experiment of your own. This is your time to plan and budget for the coming year. So here are the best deals I know of:
If you buy more than 20 copies of the book at direct2church.com you will get them for half off the cover price AND free shipping in the U.S. The best price around. That comes out to $7.50 a book plus tax. (And you get a bonus copy of Unstopabble Gospel: Living Out the World-Changing Vision of Jesus’s First Followers).
If you buy a case of books from direct2church.com, (that’s 52 copies of Loving My Actual Life) I will schedule a half-hour Skype call with your group in the coming year. All you do is forward me your receipt to [email protected] and I will give you the weeks in the fall and spring I’m available for a Skype call. You tell me if you want our session to be a straight Q&A about the book and experiment or if you prefer a set talk on a subject. (There are a limited number of spots here. Again I wish oh I wish I could have time to Skype with every group, but simply cannot.)
I’d love to have you gather your friends and explore what it means to love YOUR actual lives together. To use the book as a framework to make a few small yet significant changes in your life. And if possible, connect with you via Skype to hear your stories and share directly about the book.
So happy summer. Happy planning. And happy gathering to love your actual lives.
Alex