WHAT IT'S REALLY LIKE HAVING YOUR FIRST BOOK PUBLISHED

I am drinking my third cup of tea today -- Everest Dark Heart 2014 Spring Pluck (yes, I know the names of the teas I drink, but not much else) while trying to do some catching up on this blog.

I had every intention of doing the blow-by- blow-every-moment -of-book-tour-and-beyond thing, but really? What does it REALLY feel like to have a first book come out? For me, while it was happening it was kind of a big exciting blur, or a small and quiet blur. I had audiences of from 75:

to 3 (including the bookseller and the guy who came in out of the rain) and everything in between. I spoke at a literary festival (thank you Brattleboro!) and sold books at a general store (thank you Elmer's!), a few libraries (Agawam MA and Germantown NY, thank you!)

And of course, indie bookstores (thank you Odyssey, Riverrun, Boswell's!). I did some live and taped radio events -- those were super fun (thank you Bill Newman, Joe Donahue!)!

Then I came off my horse.

He spooked, spun and bolted, very unlike him) just before Thanksgiving. He's really very sweet.

We just had a bad, windy day. But it took the stuffing out of me, let me tell you.

And it was only then that I finally had time to lie on my heating pad for weeks and reflect.

Thus, it's only now that I CAN FINALLY TELL YOU WHAT IT'S REALLY LIKE TO HAVE YOUR FIRST BOOK PUBLISHED:

IT'S WEIRD. You spend so much time alone with your book, your laptop, your pink legal pads, all in the act of creation. Then you get lucky enough to sell your book, to work with an editor, to start sharing your book with design people, with marketing and publicist people. Then the book is printed and gets sent to you in big boxes:

And it is a real live beautiful THING, and there are stacks of YOUR BOOK in bookstores:

And then you get to do events, and go around and talk to people about your book.

Then just as you are getting used to doing them, you are thrown from your horse.

Which is another way to say, "Time to get back to real life. Time to get back to your laptop and your pink legal pads, and the silence that writing requires. Not talking. Not driving to all kinds of fun places. Not gazing raptly at the cover of your now published book for big whacks of time. It's time to write the next one.

So. That is mostly what I'm doing now.