This week is a great week for those of us who started blogging because we were going to write a book. I say that because two great bloggers have come out with books this week and each of them are not only great reads but inspiration for those of us who have a book but just haven’t gotten off our asses long enough to hit the publish button.

Or those who are terrified to actually publish in case the words we write might be offensive or hurt someone who treated us like crap. You know, those people.

Brittany Gibbons has written a hilarious memoir called Fat Girl Walking: Sex, Food, Love, and Being Comfortable in Your Skin…Every Inch of It, about growing up fat with a set of slightly crazy parents, something I can related to on so many levels. You might have heard of Brittany before, she’s the blogger who vowed to have sex with her husband every day for a year and she’s the blogger who stripped down to her Spanx in a Ted Talk. Brittany also hosts an extremely popular Facebook page called Curvy Girls Guide and of course she has a blog. Brittany lets it all hang out and she does so without apologies or excuses. She’s a breath of fresh air and she’s all over the talk shows this week. If you’re looking for a fun read then pick up her book.

Jen Lancaster also has a new book out this week called I Regret Nothing: A Memoir. She’s written like a hundred books and still finds time to blog about her daily life. If you’re a blogger you know all about Jen and aspire to be like her. Back in the old days of blogging, when we all actually commented on each other’s blogs, you might have read her. Now everything happens on Facebook and no one leaves comments but when we did it was Jen we were trying to emulate. I haven’t read her book yet, I’m still reading Brittany’s but I’ve read her other books and they make me laugh so I don’t expect any less than that from this one.

Both of these books are inspiring because for those of who wrote a book or still want to write a book, it can happen to us too. You don’t need a publisher or a publicist either (though, lets face it, it helps a lot of you do) you can publish yourself and market it yourself. And, if you’re a blogger you know how to do those things better than most.

As some of you know I’ve written a book, a memoir, that I’ve shelved for various reasons that I said I wouldn’t talk about (but I so want to). I will publish, sooner than later, but there is still a lot of fear. Like Brittany’s story, I grew up fat and when you’re fat people treat you differently. Often those people are close to you, they are friends and family and while their behavior was shitty for a lot of us fat people we’ve tried to protect them from their own bad behavior. Reading Brittany’s book gives me courage to say fuck that shit and publish without worrying about what others think. As Anne Lamott said “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”