The Bloom Book Club officially ends today.

Over the last month and a half or so, hundreds of women across the internet have been reading Let’s All Be Brave together, discussing it on Facebook and on the Bloom Book Club page, and watching videos where I sat on my red couch and talked about my book with two friends.

Today, many of those women are going to write about their experience with Bloom and Let’s All Be Brave, so I thought I’d throw a post in the link-up as well. And if I can do this without crying, it shall be my greatest victory this week.

(And while I am directing this at the Bloom Book Club members, it’s honestly how I feel about every one of you who has taken time to read Let’s All Be Brave. So, it’s for you, too.)

Dear Bloom Book Club friends,

The day I turned in Let’s All Be Brave to my editor was one of the most depressing days of my life. I had read the manuscript over and over again, I knew I had worked very very hard on it, but it wasn’t great. Seriously. It wasn’t. And it broke my heart. I knew what God has placed in me to share, I knew what I dreamed that He could do with it, but I had just emailed off a 200+ page document that was mediocre writing AND emotionally expensive.

(This is why we have editors, y’all. Because my editor and I worked and worked and worked until this book was better than mediocre.)

I just prayed that God would use it, somehow, this book I had long dreamed of.

Even once the book was finished and ready to be printed, I wasn’t sure what you would think. Memoir writing from a 34 year old single gal can be a bit of an eye-roll and can flop and I was scared. So scared. Especially the day before it released.

And then it released, and most of you liked it. And you emailed me. And you told me what God had done in your heart when reading the book and every email is salve on my heart. For real.

And then Bloom Book Club.

And then I get to meet with hundreds of women online for the last few months and hear as they discuss the things they are wrestling with and feeling challenged by and I just put my hand over my heart and I tell God that I can’t believe He lets me be a part of your story and I thank Him that He took my mediocre writing and spun it around into a special thing that matters to some people on this planet.

Friend, thank you for being a part of the Bloom Book Club. Thank you for being excited when they picked Let’s All Be Brave and thank you for reading along. Thank you for your comments and your emails, for the things you like about the book AND the things that rubbed you the wrong way, and for turning the next page until we said goodbye at the end.

I guess I just want you to know that on the other side of this screen, on the other side of the book club, on the other side of the words on a page, sits an author who is so deeply grateful for this opportunity, for the friendships forged in this season, and for every.single.email, every.single.kind.word, every.single.page.read.

Thank you so much, sweet reader friends. You have healed me.

I am braver because of you.

. . . . .

(And to the Bloom Book Club staff- Jess and Ang, Robin, Saul, Crystal, Sally, and any others that had a hand in this- THANK YOU for trusting me with your people and believing in the words I write. The time and effort and moola you put in to see this book club through to the end is such a gift to me and I love you each to pieces.)

To keep you updated: minimal tears, just misty, really. So today’s blog post wasn’t near as weepy as I expected.

Huzzah! 🙂