What comes after the Countdown to Publication?
The book launch. And what comes after that? Um…? You tell me.
The day after my last scheduled book event for 2013, I woke up with an odd feeling. Something was missing. I was missing the sense of anticipation that had my adrenaline pumping for the last month. Many good things had happened. The launch party was a fundraiser for the wonderful mentoring organization Girls Write Now, and we raised a lot of money. The reading at Bluestockings along with Sari Botton, editor of Goodbye to All That, and two of the authors in the anthology, Marcy Dermansky and Marie Myung-Ok Lee, was stimulating and fun. I had done a few interviews that I could post on my website. Everything seemed promising.
And now? As I write this farewell to the countdown, I can’t escape that letdown feeling. Is this it? My life is exactly the same as it was before the book came out. Friends have sent me celebratory emails and posted on Facebook: they like the memoir!!
The party is over.
Sound familiar?
What now? Will anything happen? And how to live in the meantime? I’ve been here before, so I should know the drill. We survive. But I can’t help wondering what the best way to live in the aftermath. I welcome all suggestions.
Thanksgiving is upon us. When I was looking online for an image to illustrate this post under the category “after the party,” I found a message that seemed apt both for the launch and for the holiday: “I am thankful for the mess to clean up after the party because it means I have been surrounded by friends.” I would not go so far as to say I am thankful for the mess, but I am thankful for the friends who have stood by me on the long journey this book has had.
Oh, and my home remedy for the post-party blues? I’m having my study painted for the first time in ten years. It was ten years ago when I wrote the draft that became the memoir. When I return to the book business, it will be a fresh start, time for a new chapter.
Happy holidays to all.
