Blessed by the Potato

It’s almost launch day for the Value of Simple! It’s also the last day to pre-order and get free shipping on the paperbacks (as of Thursday they will just be regular orders as the mail wouldn’t arrive until after the Dec 1st launch anyway).

I’ve put a new page up on the Value of Simple site to track the reviews as they come out. Financial Uproar and Michael James on Money are the first two to come out, and as a paranoid author I have to tell you they practically brought tears to my eyes. There was some part of me that was worried people wouldn’t like it, so it’s just amazing and relieving to read (and re-read, and re-re-read, and print out and stick on the fridge) those reviews. So great to see that people who are experts in this field get it and liked the book (and of anyone, I trust these two to honestly — and constructively — critique it if they didn’t). They’re each giving away copies, so be sure to head over and enter for your chance at an extra one (you can always give it to a friend).

At some point a few weeks after the launch I’ll do a more detailed post on the work behind-the-scenes for the book. I will say that there are a lot of milestones and I had a lot of deadlines I imposed on myself to get it done and make sure it was out before Christmas, RRSP season, and changes to mutual fund fee disclosures, and I have hit almost all of them — but there are still two things I need to do before the weekend, and with a major day job project due on Thursday that’s going to make for a busy Friday night on my part to catch up!

Finally, the book launch event is this Saturday! If you’re in Toronto please come out — it will be a great financial literacy/meet-and-greet event. My events team* has been going all out: catering (by Pickle Barrel!), getting a giant poster of the book cover made to display, figuring out how to post directions to the room within the venue, all that nitty-gritty stuff. It should be fun and educational: I’ll give a brief talk about investing and the importance thereof, and may make some reference to the fact that I just wrote a book about it. I have foresworn from using powerpoint so that part will be kept short and more narrative, then we’ll break into Q&A and general discussion. It will be pretty informal and family-friendly (Blueberry will be there) — one advantage to hosting at Mitchell Field Community Centre is that there’s an indoor track to let the munchkins run around on if they start to get too raucous :) You can find more details and sign-up here.

* – Wayfare and her parents.