With a heading like that, it’s kind of hard not to picture 142 ostriches each celebrating their birthday. Did you know ostriches grow to their full height of about 10 feet in their first year? Now you know. But that’s not what I’m celebrating. I am, in fact, raising a metaphorical glass to the one year anniversary of the publication of my debut novel.
And what a year it’s been.
I was lucky, actually. I got to have my book launch party before everything shut down. I even did a couple of readings. But then the sh*t hit the fan and the second half of my promotional tour got canceled.
Through March, April and May I kept telling myself (and everyone else) that “canceled” really meant “rescheduled.” As soon as all this pandemic business died down, I’d get those events back on the calendar. I wrote this post about how to launch a book during pandemic. I tried to stay positive.
By June, it became pretty clear that things were not getting better. The venues that had canceled my spring events began to reach out about doing virtual events. One by one, I actually did readings with almost all of them. I slowly stop telling everyone that I’d get back out on the road to promote this book and started to accept that this what my debut book launch was going to be.
Disappointing? A little. But only because I really like meeting people, and traveling, and hanging out in book stores. And I can’t deny there was an upside. I zoomed (is this officially a verb yet?) with probably a dozen groups that I wouldn’t have met if the event had required me to buy a plane ticket. So… mixed bag.
Happy Birthday
And here I am. One year later. (Well, officially, tomorrow is the one year mark. Roll with it.) And what I feel more than anything on this, my book’s birthday, is grateful. I’m proud of my debut. I love the beautiful cover Kensington came up with. I’ve heard from countless people that the story touched them in a deep way and that is a magical thing.
Going forward, I’m waiting to see what the cover of the Russian edition looks like (coming soon, I’m told), sales continue here in the states (a big thank you to everyone who bought a copy – and if you haven’t yet, you can click here to buy it on BookShop.org) and there are rumblings about the film adaptation (which I can’t really talk about yet).
So stay tuned, follow me on Twitter or Instagram if you don’t already, and maybe I’ll see you when I get out on my tour for book #2. Cheers!
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