Cup of Comfort | Cathy C. Hall Writes

It started innocently enough. I Googled myself once, just to see what would come up.

Then, I started Googling myself about once a week. Now, I can’t go to sleep at night until I’ve Googled myself. Pathetic. But there’s a rationale behind my narcissism. I mean, besides the obvious coolness of seeing “Cathy C. Hall” and Results numbering 214,000, give or take 200,000.

I like to see what I’ve been up to in the wide, wide web world. Today, for instance, I found my name leading the list of contributors to the Cup of Comfort Book of Christmas Prayer (Whee!). I thought my story would be in the book (due to be released in October, plenty of time for holiday shopping), but I don’t like to count my contracts (or toot my horn) till I have intangible proof. So, finding that post on the Cup of Comfort Blog kinda made my day.

But there’s more to Googling than coming upon surprises like that. Sometimes, I find my name mentioned on someone’s blog. And then I like to scurry over and take a peek, maybe leave a nice comment. It’s the polite thing to do…unless it’s a bogus entry.

Yesterday, I noticed a peculiar Google result, with my name cavalierly thrown in amidst other names and words. Not writerly looking at all, at all. Hmmm, I thought, that’s funny. But I wasn’t laughing when I clicked on it and all kinds of crazy warning messages started opening.

Quick as a flash, I shut things down and proceeded to hyperventilate. What the heck? I suppose that’s a new virus bait…throwing in someone’s name randomly, hoping that the someone will click on the result and open who knows what.

So, vanity has its price. I got out safely. But I wanted you to be extra careful out there, Googling yourself. Not that you’re in the habit, but, you know, just in case you’ve tried it…once or twice.

One good thing about being busy, busy, busy, is that I completely forget about everything else going on in my life. So, I was stunned…well, maybe not stunned…I was shocked…um, shocked doesn’t quite work either. Let’s just be cliche and say “surprised.” But I was very surprised to get my copy of Cup of Comfort for New Mothers!

It’s just that I don’t like to count my publication credits before the book arrives. ‘Cause sometimes, a book never gets published. It falls into the black hole of Forgetaboutit Land. But not Cup of Comfort! No, sir! My story, “The Mom Memory Lapse,” was right there, on page, um, let me check…295.

Gee. Wonder if “The Mom Memory Lapse” almost didn’t make the cut in a Cup of Comfort for New Mothers? Or maybe it was just so splendiferous, the editor (Colleen Sell) put it toward the very end to build up to the wonderfulness of it all?

I’m going to go with the splendiferous build up scenario. So, here’s my story, in the latest C of C book, and really, I was surprised. But then, I was surprised to find a load of wet clothes in the washer (from a week ago).