My memoir officially came out a few days ago, for those who didn’t hear elsewhere. Luckily, I was able to get a hold of a book before that, because my wonderful publisher sent me a box, so I was able to hold an actual copy in my hands before the actual Tuesday, September 19th publishing day.
Did you know that all traditionally books are published on a Tuesday? After 25 years in publishing, I learned that earlier this year. No one knows exactly why, but Edward Anderson on Medium’s Better Marketing says “ The origins of this tradition seem to be murky. Many point to some long-ago event that predates the 1950s as the point when it was decided that the second day of the week would be a good day for releases…One thing that many experts agree on, is that a Tuesday release has a better chance at making the top 10 charts.” It is always fascinating to discover these publishing traditions (superstitions?).
Here is a Facebook/TikTok link to my mandatory unboxing video, which we made our own, of course, by doing it on the Poulsbo Marina dock beside Watchfire, our trusty home and traveling companion. Hopefully, it will work for you, if not, picture me really excited saying how beautiful the book is—and it really is lovely!
I was fortunate enough to already get to see photos of people receiving or reading my book in a few posts from Facebook and Instagram. It was great to see both my brothers holding their own copy of Honeymoon at Sea after all these years of hearing about the memoir I was going to write one day, and reading drafts. This photo below is from a Facebook friend who lives beside a lake in Ohio, and, in addition to being thrilling to me, is also just an objectively gorgeous photo.
Another thrilling moment this week came when I got a photo of a box of my books being unpacked in the Sunbelt Publications warehouse by my dear friends who now run the company. Lisa (top photo) and Maria know exactly how many years I have dreamed of having my memoir be published and available from Sunbelt, and now it actually is…that will make it easier for San Diego bookstores to stock it. Plus it is now shelved in their Chula Vista warehouse and can be found here on their diverse and eclectic website, for friends and casual shoppers to buy.
We are anchored in beautiful, calm Port Ludlow, where I will soon be recording a podcast called Words and Pictures, hosted by DJ Bowman-Smith. DJ lives in the UK, so this is my first interview request from “across the pond”; she is a writer herself and fast becoming a successful podcast host, as well. The podcast is for “all writers and artists who are involved in the book business” which certainly includes me this week! I will include the podcast link as soon as it’s available.
And if all that was not enough excitement to light up my life for the past seven days, my guest blog Some Seemingly Random Events was published on La Bloga this week. For those who don’t know of it, La Bloga is “the world's longest-established Chicana Chicano, Latina Latino literary blog,” full of thoughtful book reviews, profound and humorous essays, lively excerpts, and info about events of interest to the Latinx community, and is always a delight to read. My post is about the ways life takes us on what can sometimes seems like tangential paths, only to put us right where we are supposed to be. And my place is right here, right now.
My heart is full today. That is all.
hasta pronto!