Taking Flight

Sitting in the USAirways Envoy lounge, waiting for our flight, enjoying a nice glass of Bordeaux with some brie and grapes, I am thinking about two things that are taking off today.

The first is our flight to Europe. At the Gibson’s, we were treated to excellent food and entertainment. After a bounteous breakfast by Chef Preston of pancakes and sausage cooked on the grill outside on the deck, we were invited to attend a critically acclaimed and charming play by Miss Abigail Gibson, age 10. The play, Prom Dance,starred Miss Gibson as a beautiful, yet lonely, girl at the dance, surrounded by couples dancing, as seen drawn on the chalkboard set behind her. The plot thickens as her co-star, Preston Gibson (otherwise known to Abby as “dad”) notices her from across the room and walks up to her, introducing himself, and inviting her to dance. They talk and dance a scintillating box-step around the floor. The prom dance is a success! We laughed, we cried, and walked away with a feeling that we need not be lonely, after all.

After a somewhat tearful goodbye to Anna from her sibs, we head to the airport. Anna is holding up well, a little nervous, understandably, for her first trip abroad and the longest she’s been away from her immediate family. Morgan has fallen asleep, tired after a long, late, night of playing video games with Jon. We check in, get through security, and now we’re in our lovely lounge. We tell Anna that George has upgraded her to first class, leaving Morgan and I back in coach. Nice. The flight will be taking off soon.

The other thing that’s taking off is my business. Probably most of you know that I’ve written and self-published a book (the definitive book on women’s self-defense, if I say so myself) entitled DEFY The Bad Guy, Powerful Practical Self-Defense Strategies for Women. I sent out advance copies at the beginning of the year and have edited and added testimonials since February, finally culminating in an improved Second Edition printed just a few weeks ago. It will be available as a print-on-demand selection on Amazon sometime in August. The goal of my business, Julie Greene Personal Safety Solutions, is to get this “Self-Defense 101” information out to as many women and girls as possible, by book sales, seminars, and eventually, an at-home DVD program.

Marketing the book has been problematic with all the traveling I’ve been doing. However, our lovely Anna has been taking Freestyle Martial Arts and mentioned my book to her Sensei. (Thanks, Anna!) He read the book and thought it had valuable information that he could use to supplement his curriculum of hapkido, taekwondo, kickboxing, Shotokan karate, and grappling. Julie (Anna’s mom) took me to meet him this morning, we talked, and he bought all of the books that I brought! He is considering making my book required reading for all of his adult and teen students. I will also be working with him in the future to update his self-defense curriculum. Yay! This is a market I had not thought of as I was writing the book, although I certainly wrote it because many martial arts classes who claim to be “self-defense” classes really don’t include much on self-defense, focusing on the rules and style of their particular art. So, maybe this means the business is finally taking off as well.

Time to fly!