Sculpt Yourself Launch Party Recap!

Happy snowy Monday!

If you're in Chicago, or if wherever you are is anything like Chicago right now, you're buried under a foot of snow while temperatures slowly descend into the negatives.

On Friday night, it was -1 in Chicago with frozen icy snow all over the ground. Needless to say, I spent my entire last hour at work freaking out that no one would come to the launch party for Sculpt Yourself that night, which I'd been planning over the past two months.


However, by whatever small miracle, a wonderful small crowd of people showed up, and we had a great night of readings, book discussions, Q&A, and more.

I held this party at the DePaul Women's Center. When I was starting to plan this party, I was trying to think outside the box for places other than bookstores, where I could target a crowd of this book's primary readers. The Furever Home Friends Happy Pawlidays party, which celebrated the launch of Kringle's Christmas on December 1, was a huge success because I had partnered with ALIVE Rescue to have a dog-themed holiday party, rather than just a standard book party.

For Sculpt Yourself, I decided to try something similar. This book deals with themes related to body image, female empowerment, and LGBT+ topics. The Women's Center is a huge advocate for all of those things. So back in November, I met with their director to plan a small, intimate launch party in their cozy location, which is one room with couches, books, magazines, tea, and more.

The group that came to the party filled up the Women's Center space perfectly. We sat on couches and armchairs in a circle, and I invited other writers to read some pieces related to female empowerment or body positivity. First, my friend Jen read two of her poems related to women in Greek mythology. Then, Aimee read what she wrote for my blog series on body image in the LGBT+ community.

Finally, I read a few selections from Sculpt Yourself. It's always hard to choose what to read! With Furever Home Friends books, it's always been easy; they're short kids' books, so I just read the whole thing! With a novel, I have to figure out what selections will both be entertaining to people who have already read the novel, and make sense for people who haven't read it yet.

I made a video vlogging my morning getting ready for the launch party as well. You can check it out here:

Overall, it was a wonderful night, and I'm grateful to everyone who came to support a new book!

I hope everyone is having a great start to their week!

Happy reading!
Love,
Savy