You deserve my thanks!
This one is brief! (Pssst, the universe is sending donuts and burritos, Hacks, and lovely spring weather; I hope it's sending you good things, too)
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First, thank you for reading my last Substack newsletter last week, if you did, even though it showed up in TEENY TINY FONT for no clear reason! If there’s something I hate more than typos, it’s tiny font in a newsletter or email.
Second, for pre-ordering (or ordering!) The Deepest Lake.
Third, for tolerating my repetitiveness lately, because it’s hard to focus on other things once you’re in Book Launch Land. Especially because every time you go online you see nothing (which only makes you look again five minutes later, like a crack-addicted rat) or you find something wondrous and new, like this! From Monday…
Yes, that was a VERY NICE surprise (just like the Amazon Editors’ Pick last week). My name next to Ruth Ware’s! Talk about motivational.
Eight weeks ago, I was worrying because everything seemed *way too quiet* out there in Bookland. I prepared myself to accept and move on, because my theme of this decade is “Do the work, write more, don’t wallow.”
But now things have perked up. Signs are good. So a little pleasurable wallowing is…okay? But only for one more week. I swear.
So, what—you might ask—do I plan to do on my Launch Day?
Will I:
Appear on Good Morning America and then be whisked to a reading in New York City, followed by drinks with my editor and publisher?
Spend the entire day on the phone and Zoom, talking to interviewers?
Or just sit at home in a dirty robe, re-warming one cup of coffee after another, checking my Amazon number, my Goodreads dashboard, my Instagram page, my email, and my WhatsApp?
I must tell you, dear friend, family member, reader/writer buddy, or kind online acquaintance, that I was pretty firmly planning for #3.
Instead, thanks to a suggestion from a friend, I decided at the last minute to:
Beg my husband Brian to take a day off work, especially because the weather forecast is amazing. (He doesn’t need to be begged, but it’s income lost. And yet! Hellllllpppppp I don’t want to be home alone going bonkers!!!)
Drive to the Comox Valley, a gorgeous place on Vancouver Island. (Ferry. Long drive. Audiobooks! And what am I listening to at the moment? Vera Kurian’s Never Saw Me Coming (psychopaths! love it!) and Ed Zwick’s Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions (screenwriting tell-all with so many lessons about movie making but also resiliency and wisdom for surviving the creative life)
Visit a place called Cumberland Bakery that memoirist Kelly S. Thompson, whom I didn’t even know weeks ago, just told me about, just in time. (How did this world-famous bakery in a beautiful place elude me?)
Go for a gentle run on a great trail through the woods next to a cold, fast-flowing river. Ahhhhhhh.
Come home and watch HACKS, Season 3, which I didn’t even realize had released until Monday, and just like the bakery rec, and the good weather, I thought, “Thank you, universe. You are giving me what I need to get through and maybe even enjoy this week.”
POST LAUNCH REPORT, May 8, one day later:
Okay, Universe. You’re such a jokester!
My Perfect Launch Day Escape Plan was slightly interrupted by the strangest bit of bad luck. I woke with an extremely swollen forehead and eyes. A welt on my forehead, which appeared as a mere scratch and tender spot over a week ago, became much worse overnight. It looks like I have either a case of shingles or some other kind of infection. I was able to get a quick doctor’s appointment (a miracle where I live) and two doctors were both completely puzzled, though they take the swelling as a good sign. My body is fighting something and hopefully winning.
Nonetheless—and despite looking bizarrely swollen and unfamiliar, like I’m peeking through a mask—I really enjoyed my day.
I did everything I’d planned to do—the run, the bakery visit, the long drive through the countryside—and it was wonderful, including the many times I did stare at my phone, enjoying the Instagram shares and fantastic emails and other messages from friends, readers, book bloggers, and my publishing team.
I did not feel any of the feelings I’ve noted on previous launch days. No anti-climactic malaise, no festering anxiety. The only festering thing was the strange infection in my forehead. So why do I even mention it? Because there seems no way to have a perfect book launch. Only a good enough book launch, and for me, that means getting out of the house and into nature for a little while. (Plus, yummy food. In addition to the bakery treats we got burritos at a place called Biblio Taco, in a building that used to be a little library—so good!)
Maybe my infection perversely heightened my gratitude for the other things going well.
Health (even imperfect health, which may be the only kind we get in middle age), love and friendship, work, opportunities for creativity, small daily pleasures…it’s enough. A mantra that might stop me from fixating on book reviews.
Are my developmental editing and book coaching services open? Yes! You might think I’m busy but I was actually busier prior to this week, given that my pre-pub to do’s are now done. My summer schedule has open spaces, so feel free to reach out.
Of course, I do have one event. Please register if you haven’t already!
What a whirlwind! Hope the 'little bump' in your launch day has retreated and you are sailing forth into all of your new adventures!
Andromeda, I'm thrilled for you. Enjoy your well deserved success! (And hoping your "swelled head (!)" returns to normal very soon. Congrats & best wishes, Linda Fritz