My Book! Is Out!

My book is out today (almost all books come out on Tuesdays, fun publishing factoid) and thank you, thank you to all of you who have been so kind to order, to send nice notes, to comment, to request at your local library… anything. I feel very awkward about self promotion (yeah I know, from someone with a BLOG) but it’s true, and your kindness and generosity have made the whole thing such a wonderful experience.

This is the final hardcover. As a paper lover, I am very happy that they embossed the gold flowers. To be honest I was a bit of a terror during the cover design process. The quote on the front comes from Andrew Sean Greer, who won the Pulitzer for fiction this year for the wonderful Less, and how his quote ended up there is a matter of both insane luck and the wonderful generosity of a person who a) did not know me at all, b) had no reason to sit and read my book but c) still did so simply because they are…I don’t even know. I don’t know how it happened, really. One day I will share the whole story!

But for now today I just wanted to say one more time how much I love reading. I love books. Books have saved me many times from deep depression (although sometimes they also contribute to it, to be honest, but I didn’t choose well for my state of mind). They’ve been my steady friend, my inspiration, my escape. I love them and so even if the world ends up universally HATING my book (which I think is an outcome every author secretly worries about, unless the hater is our current President, upon which you do a celebratory dance and pray for an awful tweet so your sales skyrocket)…it would have been worth it.

From emails and comments, I know that many of you have artistic/creative sides that you are interested in nurturing and developing. And I say….DO IT! One million times. Who cares if it doesn’t work out, if it doesn’t look like what you thought, if someone (God forbid) makes fun of, or judges you and your efforts? I will share that at one point I was frightened of all of that and many days I still am. I dithered and thought about writing a book for years and would start and write a page and then go back the next day and find that it sounded horrible and scrap it all because I was certain I only wanted to write a masterpiece. Family Trust kind of came out of a desperate place for me, but I pushed through and I am not saying that in some attempt to brag but simply to tell you that I felt like a failure, I still often feel this way, and so if you have a creative desire and feel this way it’s normal. But push through! You’re not a failure. Even if you fail the first, tenth, one hundredth, time. Be kind to yourself. I believe in you

And thank you, thank you all again for your support and generosity (and for allowing me to blather on about my book…now, I promise, back to regular programming).