Resting on My Laurels but Not in a Good Way: Part Six of Publishing an Essay Collection

I'm not writing. I'm not reading. I am binging old episodes of Madam Secretary while playing Candy Crush. A friend and I were on a video chat bemoaning our similar (Her binge choice is Star Trek Discovery.) lack of a writing life. Sort of similar, since my excuse is that I get to be useless in this way because I have a book coming out and hers is a full-time job and an almost two-year-old.

My excuse also doesn't bear scrutiny because it's six weeks until My Withered Legs is released and there's not much to do right now except wait. The advanced readers copies have not shown up but instead 8.5x11 bound galleys recently arrived from the publisher, and Jeremy (Vesto PR) has sent them out to possible reviewers. Major places like Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist all want the readers copies at least three months ahead of publication, so those are probably not going to happen. But there are other places and since this is a book of essays, the possibility of excerpts is better. There’s been initial interest from exciting publications but nothing definite as of now.

At this point, my website lists the two events planned so far. When I take a break from binging Netflix, I play around on Canva making flyers for them. The first is the book launch here in Gainesville. (Registration links for in person or online.)

All my other launches have been so much fun. For A Certain Loneliness, I organized a talk about the memoir around a slide show titled "Beds I've Written In." (I've always wanted to take that one on the road.)  

The working title for this upcoming event at the Matheson is "I'm Going to Have to Ruin the Funny, Aren't I?" It's about not ignoring the cultural or political context I'm writing within. (Just so you know, I didn't have to ruin all the funny.) Mostly, though, the launch will be about celebrating the audience—a community of friends, writers, and readers who support my work. The first place I read my work out loud (the best I remember) was at the monthly Lesbian Potluck and Readers Group in Gainesville before I ever even moved here. That was thirty-eight years ago.

The second event planned is sponsored by Charis Books and More. It’s a virtual event, but more about that later. But you can go ahead and register here.

The morning after the video chat with my dear writer friend, I set about doing a deep clean and re-organization of the writing studio. Between the emotional heavy lifting of going through lists and notes about caring for my now dead mother and the actual weight of boxes of files and books along with the bending and twisting to clean the nastiness behind and inside bookcases, the next day I took the good pain pill and binged more Madam Secretary while recovering. Today, I, once again, am not sitting in this waiting sparkly clean bed, but am rather still resting, smug and satisfied, on my imagined laurels.

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