Refreshed and Renewed

Le paperback! On sale today.

Today is a good day. A day when I’m feeling — yes — refreshed and renewed. It’s 65 degrees and sunny outside. I went for a run this morning. I’ve got lots to do, but not so much that I’m feeling stressed. I’m wearing a spring-y shirt. I’m drinking a tasty au lait. And today is the day that the paperback version of Double Time goes on sale.

A year ago today, the hardcover version was about to be published, an event that ended up feeling rather anticlimactic. It’s a weird thing as an author; you work and work on this book, you see it all coming together — the cover, the pages, etc. — and then suddenly one day it’s on sale and…nothing really happens. I’d heard this from lots of author friends, and tried to prepare myself for the let-down. But you still sort of feel like there should be champagne or fireworks or something.

I treated myself to some extremely excellent shoes as consolation. But then, less than two months after the hardcover came out, Clio was diagnosed with leukemia. Which cast something of a pall over the whole thing. (Publishing the book, that is; not the shoes, which are completely pall-resistant.)

This time around, though, I feel like a much more seasoned author, and clearly I have some more important things on my mind than my book’s ranking on Amazon. Paperback launch? Yes, how lovely! I hope my book gets into the hands of more people as a result.

But what’s especially nice about this final milestone for Double Time is the sense that I can fully move on to the next project(s). I’ve had an idea for a novel cooking for some time now, and am starting to buckle down and work on it for real.

Visiting Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca with my fellow New Voices Festival writers and student guides.

I’m feeling especially inspired right now, having just spent a weekend up at Ithaca College as a guest writer for the New Voices Festival. I joined literary superstars (like, totally out-of-my-league talented and successful superstars) Nathaniel Rich, Rebecca Makkai, Robin Ekiss, Eleanor Henderson, Tim Horvath and Marie-Helene Bertino for two and a half days of panel discussions, readings, and conversations with whip-smart and truly lovely undergrad writing students. It is such a thrill to spend a concentrated time around writers and writing enthusiasts.

This was my first solo getaway since  Clio’s diagnosis, and I won’t lie: it was not easy to come back home to a steroid-sleepy (and cranky) Clio, an Elsa newly back from a visit to Maine with her grandparents and suffering her own bumpy re-entry, an exhausted husband, and an inbox full of emails awaiting my reply.

After three days of freedom, it was like suddenly being handed an armful of cinder blocks: Welcome home! Here’s your household (what’s for dinner?), your child with cancer, your other child who feels neglected as a result of that child’s cancer, your demanding day job, and your bipolar 2 disorder to keep at bay, always tricky during major transitions.  And — hey — try to get some writing done, too, while you’re at it!

Oof.

But still. Like I said. This is a good day. We are all home together as a family after that long, unexpected hospital stay of a couple of weeks ago (not to mention a pretty crappy week here in Boston), and tulips and blossoming trees are everywhere. Clio is finishing up this course of chemo and steroids, and by Thursday, she’s going to be at her most cheerful and energetic. Then we head off to Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for the weekend.

And, oh yes, the paperback of Double Time launches today. I hope if you like my writing here, you’ll consider buying it as a Mother’s Day present for yourself, or for some other woman in your life. (It’s for all parents — not just parents of twins.) You can read more about the book here, and buy it at your favorite independent bookstore, online, etc.

Thank you for your readership and support. I hope this a good day for you, too.

xoxo

Jane