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Perks
I recently read an interview with David Cristofano, author of The Girl She Used to Be, in which he was asked about perks–which often silly and minor things about having a book published have wound up pleasing him beyond reason. (He said having his kids shout, Hey, that’s daddy’s book! on a trip to their local bookstore–which, by the way, I absolutely agree is a great one).
But it made me think about all the small moments that go into the experience of having a book published and how I’d answer the same question if I were ever asked. For me, so far, really everything has been a perk–seeing the book’s official cover, getting the box of those first advance copies, finally getting to hold the finished product in my hands . . . I could go on through signing copies for readers and every single time someone has let me know that they loved Isolde and Trystan’s story.
But one of the perks that I think will always especially stand out for me happened just recently. As background, I should say that I was pregnant with my girl when I had the dream that inspired Twilight of Avalon , so my memories of the writing are all tied up with my memories of being pregnant with her: feeling her kick me while I typed away at that first draft, taking a break from reading Dark Age history books to look at What to Expect When You’re Expecting and all the other books you pore over as a first-time mom.
And so all those memories are tied up with ones of my fabulous midwives, too–trips to their office, describing the book I was working on when they asked what I did. (Cautiously, because like all aspiring writers I was cripplingly shy about talking about my work). But I remember bouncing on my yoga ball through the labor contractions, listening to my midwives and my husband talk and floating away in labor-land to think about passages I was going to write, lines Trystan and Isolde were going to say to each other. And then I remember my midwife Louise sitting next to me on the bed and holding my free hand (the other one had my poor, amazing super-hero husband in kind of a headlock maneuver, as I recall) when my girl was born.
Here’s a picture from afterwards–Louise is on the right with the assistant midwife Sarah on the left. Bella is the one in the Winnie the Pooh hat.
So fast forward two years to just a couple of weeks ago, when I was having some slightly bothersome contractions (nothing to worry about, as it turned out) and Louise drove over to my house (bless her, bless her, bless her) to check things out so that I didn’t have to drag Bella all the way to their office. As a thank you, I gave her a copy of Twilight of Avalon–not really even knowing whether the book was her kind of thing. But I wanted to give her something, and–okay, being honest here–that was easier than finding the energy to bake a batch of cookies or a loaf of bread. Even so, I still felt a little bad, because when someone gives you a book that you don’t like or never wind up finding the time to open there’s always that awkward worry in the back of your mind–are they going to ask what I thought? And it’s way, way worse when the gift giver is also, you know, the actual author.
So I gave Louise the book but certainly would never have thought of bringing up the subject again. But the next time I saw her–just three days later, in fact, at our regular appointment, she told me she’d sat at home all day the day before and read Twilight of Avalon cover to cover because she just couldn’t put it down. And that she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d been captured by a story like that.
Definitely, definitely a perk moment.
The only troubling question is how I’m ever going to have more children when we move to a different state in the fall and I have to find a new practice of midwives?
This entry was posted Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
2 Responses to “Perks”
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July 12th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Oh my goodness, what an awesome post! I am so happy and full of pride for you that Louise loved the book. And how many children do you want?! If I had one more Oliver I would officially go insane. The very thought makes me shudder-as I recall last week the odd sight of seeing my rollers in a bottle of mouthwash. Sigh. Thanks for sharing, Anna!
July 13th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Ah, yes, the organizational methods of two! The other week Nathan was running around looking for his laser pointer until Bella took pity on him and revealed that she’d hidden it in the foam around our window-unit air conditioner.
As for how many kids . . . I go back and forth. I guess we’ll see how it goes with two and then evaluate!