TODAY IS PUB DAY!
Apr 21, 2020 by Alice C. Early
People have likened publishing a book to having a child. I wouldn't know, having no children. Unless I've been wrong all these years, it takes about nine months to gestate a child from concept to arrival into the world. Birth can be swift or slow, "natural" or surgical, drugged or painful, awe-inspiring or terror-inducing. And a long list of other experiences and emotions I'll never have.
By contrast, at least in my experience, writing and publishing a novel can take anywhere from months to decades. The conception may be nothing like sex. The gestation is nothing like cells multiplying according to their own programming. Nothing like starting a process that sort of takes care of itself.
Nor is it contained within your own being. There are all those players--the editors, agents, publishers. My image is of mad scientists reaching into the womb, hacking off a limb or pulling out an organ, replacing it with an entirely different one, and stuffing the amalgamation back inside to keep growing in a newfound direction.That's a gross image. I won't belabor it. (sorry)
For me, releasing MOON is more like watching a child graduate from college. Not that I'll ever have that experience, either. It resembles raising a child through first steps, first words, terrible twos, puberty, discoveries, upheavals of all kinds, unruly behavior, talking back, storming out and slamming the door, cuddling in a rare sweet moment of closeness and pride, being blatantly partisan to secure that college admission, working several jobs to be able to feed the little monster, and exploding with pride when she walks across the stage to accept that diploma. And then goes off to capture the world's imagination, or not.
MOON and I have been a collaboration all along. I had my ideas, she certainly had hers. All the characters got into the act, pulling things this way and that. I learned to listen to them all, if not to let them all have their way. A Greek chorus of advisors, teachers, experts and mentors weighed in. I may have held the batton, but there is no music without the orchestra. For their invaluable contributions, from the picolo to the tympani, I thank each and every one of the many people who have helped me raise up my novel to this point of independence.
From now on, whether MOON lives an exciting life that lets me trail along vicariously, or comes home soon to take up residence in the garage is up to you.
My words and dreams are between covers. They belong to you now. I hope you enbrace my graduate. I hope you help her fly.
With humble thanks for all your support and encouragement, may I present The Moon Always Rising, out today!
Representation: April Eberhardt Literary, april@aprileberhardt.com, (415) 309 0279
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_w200_h/MoonAlwaysRising_final,%20cover(1)_01140613.jpg "The Moon Always Rising")