KMAO (WTF?)
What is this image? What is this acronym? WTF? (What The February?)
Thanks for asking.
Hi, I’m Abigail Ortiz, but you may certainly call me Abby.
I feel the need to re-introduce myself because (as you can see) I fell off my blogger’s boat a while ago.
I started this blog a couple years ago because I’ve always wanted to be an author, and I had been working on a beautiful bundle of stories (a series if you will) since our last child was testing the limits of my ribcage from inside my womb. He’s turning 7 this St. Patty’s Day.
Two years ago, I thought I was ready to self-publish. But I doubted.
In hindsight, I’m grateful for my doubt. My uncertainty had everything to do with the reality that what I had written — although good — like most brand new birthed babies, had a face only mommy could love.
I’d been pregnant with my story for literal years, molding and forming it, and finally, I birthed it!
And like a new, eager mother, I was excited to show my child to the world.
I have the unique privilege of having a few seasoned author pals in my circle, who graciously and patiently encouraged me through a long season of edits.
Because life will vie with you — hell, life will choke hold you for your time! Life has bested me again and again, but here I am, back at it.
(Seriously, though, how am I already 40!?)
But to your questions,
The Image:
I actually spent days imagining it, days drawing it out by hand, and days generating it on my crappy pixel editor back in my junior year of college (early 2000’s — I still won’t call it the turn of the century!). Needless to say, the original .jpg is lost to some old, large Dell tower, likely pulled for parts or broken in a junkyard.
So I sat down, fully expecting it to take me at least a day or two, and was able to remake it on my iPad Adobe Touch app in about 5 minutes.
I originally made the image while daydreaming about marrying my now husband, and we used it on the backside of our wedding invitations.
It’s the letters KMAO, repeated four times, inside a circle.
“But what is it?” you ask…
The Acronym:
It’s actually quite simple.
Some love struck fools write the name of their affectionate other over and over and over and over on endless sheets of notebook paper. Or use said notebook to re-write what their new signature will be once they tie the knot.
Then there’s me. I took our initials and made a badass symbol:
Khris Miller Abigail Ortiz
I turned us into a brand.
(Remember, this was early 2000’s.) Clearly, I was ahead of my time.
“Why are you bringing it back?” you ask…
WTF?:
Because I’m determined to publish my first book here in my 40th year.
(Which means I need to get it done by July.)
And when whilst submerging myself the Amazon self-publish tutorials and resources, I decided that I don’t want the free KDP ISBN code, I want my own ISBN so my story can be sold and obtained outside of Amazon. And to obtain my own ISBN, I needed to set myself as my own publishing company.
And what did I name my company?
KMAO
“Why?” you ask…
Because I already had the branding.
It’s as simple as that.
So I went ahead and rebranded my website because this is my year, dangit! I’m doing the thing.
Wish me luck, and hold me to it.