Strangeblue on 21/9/2006 at 03:40
Please forgive my rambling. This has been a really weird couple of weeks and it looks to be a weird couple more.
Yup, the book is pretty near the release date and things on that front are so unbelievably good I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then came a bunch of German tax forms--now, US tax forms are weird enough, but when you have to stare stupidly into the PDF and hope you can figure out what the translation is really asking for, things get... odd.
But I won out over the German forms and thought "well, if that's as bad as it's going to get, that's not so bad at all."
Oh foolish woman....
Monday evening I got a phone call that boiled down to "your step-mother has a week to live." I'm not kidding. Hello other shoe.
So I go running about (and crying) like the headless chicken and arranging a flight and all that crap and the family--including my step-mom--is saying "it's OK if you can't come, we understand and we want you to do what has to be done on the book because we're all so proud of you..." And they're sincere about this. (But, now I feel guilty as well as horrified.)
Bearing in mind that my book comes out in less than 2 weeks and I was pretty busy and excited to do the publicity for it. And I have to be at a convention 2,000 miles away from home the weekend before it does. And I'll be flying home the day before the book release party at home. And my step-mother lives 1,200 miles in a totally different direction from the convention or my place. Things are stranger than shit on the rooftops.
So, I kind of pick up the stride of it and deal.... Then yesterday I got a rejection--after 6 months of waiting to hear from the publisher--"Very well written, but just not for us." Mostly that made me laugh in a grim sort of "what more petty stupid thing could jump up to bite me, now?" kind of way. So, as I am sitting around wanting to hide under the boat and cry until my eyes fall out, I poke a link on my bookmarks and find... a certain magazine is accepting stories by e-mail of exactly the size and type I've just had returned to me. They normally don't accept via e-mail at all and they are in Britain, to boot, so... I re-format the story on the fly and send it off. Nice timing.
I get a notice of a good review for the book and a personal note from the reviewer--more nice timing. And damned weird to feel both pleased and horrified with the prospect of the future at the same time.
Things went OK today while I finalized arrangements to go to what I know is going to be a funeral by the time I get there. No major traumas but nothing exactly... fun.
And then the book came. My own personal copy of what has been, up to now, only galleys and theory and words on a screen.
It's real. It's a real book. And quite nice. Much bigger than I realized.
And it has embossed letters. It's really cool. Really COOL! and MINE!
Just in time to take one to my step-mother....
This is just weird as hell.
Scots Taffer on 21/9/2006 at 03:45
Condolences and congratulations, if you'll remember I went through a similar rollercoaster of emotions with the impending birth of my daughter and death of my grandmother. Life is rich in its ironies.
Strangeblue on 21/9/2006 at 04:00
Yes, I do remember. Sucks and spits, then pats you on the head and gives you cake. Irony can be... pretty ironic. Mostly I just have the WTF? sensation.
Scots Taffer on 21/9/2006 at 04:06
All I can say is what you already know, try your best to roll with it, knowing that there's more bends, dips, curves and rises ahead. :)
psst, lessee a photo of the book then!
Mr.Duck on 21/9/2006 at 06:07
Damn and yay, as Scots said.
Chin up and good luck, Blue.
*Hugs*
Shayde on 21/9/2006 at 08:36
So sorry about your step mom blue.
And congratulations on your success, I second the request of a book photo please.
Matthew on 21/9/2006 at 10:42
Blue, you have my thoughts for the bad things that are happening right now as well as my hope that the outlook will be brighter in the near future.
Strangeblue on 22/9/2006 at 03:33
Thanks you guys. I'm going to be out of town for a while, so... this is for you guys (slightly better than d0om's, meaning no disrespect to one of my favorite English gentlemen). No back cover, though....
Inline Image:
http://www.katrichardson.com/images/GreyWalkerCoverSm.jpgTo quote Cookiedough "huggies and kissies"
Turtle on 22/9/2006 at 04:26
I just noticed you have your own page on Amazon.
Pretty neat!
Congrats Kat, I'm looking forward to getting the book(and I'll actually buy it! Just to help get those sales numbers up).
