How Did I Get Here? My God!…What Have I Done?!

This week the Debs are helping me celebrate my launch week! Tomorrow FEAST OF SORROW is out in the world!

What have I done? I WROTE A BOOK!! And now you can read it!

Writing this blog post is a little bit surreal for me. I’ve been working on this book for SO long, for nearly a decade. Long enough that until I got the deal, friends and family had mostly stopped asking me about my book, probably believing I was just full of smoke. But tomorrow, tomorrow, FINALLY, my day will be here. I will be a full-blown published author.

There is a shell-shock sort of feeling to this. People congratulating me, asking me about the book, far-flung friends wondering how they can get a signed copy (note to self – invest in bookplates). When I was practicing for launch day I found myself tearing up as I was reading. I can’t imagine how I will be tomorrow, standing in front of all my friends. I hope someone brings Kleenex (note for my friend Anjali, who is our writing group’s coordinator extraordinaire). For those of you who want to tune in and watch, we’re going to make a grand attempt to livestream it via Facebook, so head here tomorrow at 7PM ET if you want to watch me cry, in between talk about Roman food, plus a little bit of reading and ancient Roman history.

One thing that I am super glad for is the company of my fellow Debutantes on this journey. Writing a book is a weird, convoluted and confusing process. Taking this journey alongside Amy, Jenni, Lynn and Tiffany has made it a lot less daunting. CHEERS to my Deb sisters, and THANK YOU!

There is a long acknowledgement section in the back of my book, and I agonized over it, I mean, REALLY agonized over it. Was I forgetting anyone? Who would be upset for me not including them? I revised my acknowledgements twice after I had initially submitted them to Touchstone. It wasn’t until a month or so after all my edits were in and I couldn’t make another change that I realized I had left out someone deeply important to me, someone that has always championed my writing, someone who I’ve known far longer than most people in my life today. This person didn’t have a direct input into this novel, so somewhere in my brain it didn’t register to me that they should be part of the acknowledgements. I was writing an article about M.F.K. Fisher’s The Art of Eating  which always reminds me of this person and then it dawned on me. I couldn’t have kicked myself harder. I’ve been agonizing over it for months. So here is my big monster thank you…

to one of my dearest friends and literary influences, Greg McCormick, who I’ve known since I was 17, who was one of the first in my young adult life to love books as much as I do, who I first got drunk with (on Boone’s Strawberry Hill!), who broadened my worldview with his time spent in China, Thailand and Japan, who was my co-editor/founder of an online literary magazine, Plum Ruby Review. He introduced me to M.F.K. Fisher, to Czeslaw Milosz and countless other writers who became deep influences in my life and writing. He is still a source of inspiration for me and there really is no way to explain how much of an impact he has made on my life, even though for the last 15+ years we haven’t even lived in the same country. THANK YOU Greg. Please forgive me for this crazy transgression and lapse of mind. I’ll have other books and other acknowledgements and I swear I’ll make it up to you my dear, dear friend.

At the end of this week I’ll be blogging about what it’s like to actually BE a published author, over on the Grub Street Writer’s blog! Tune in there on Friday for that post.

And if you are in New England/NYC, I hope you’ll join me at one of the following events! I’d love to sign a book for you!

April 25	Feast of Sorrow Book Launch, 7PM  Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge MA – Including Ancient Roman Nibbles!
May 3	Trident Booksellers, 7PM  Boston MA
May 5-7	The Muse & the Marketplace Writing Conference, Boston, MA 2 Sessions
May 9	A Modern Taste of Ancient Rome with Chef Patrick Campbell, BCAE, 6PM  Boston MA. This is a ticketed event.
May 11	Belmont Public Library, 7PM Belmont, MA
May 13	Barnes & Noble, 2PM  Pittsfield, MA
May 28	Queens Book Festival,  Queens, NY on a panel with Deb Jenni Walsh and former Deb Heather Webb!
June 17	The Salem Literary Festival Salem, MA
June 20	A Taste of Ancient Rome with Chef Michael Pagilarini  6PM  Benedetto, Cambridge MA   Ticketed Event
June 22	Feast of Sorrow + The Salt House (Lisa Duffy), Belmont Books  7PM  Belmont, MA
June 29	Crystal King and Tim Weed  Harvard Bookstore, 7PM  Cambridge, MA
August 18-20	Writer’s Digest Writing Conference, NYC, 3 sessions

HOOOOOORAY!