My Friday
was wild. I went to the Amazon listing for Memories from Cherry Harvest to
add information about an event in Oakland on July 19 at A Great Good Place for
Books (7 PM) and I noticed that the publication date for the book had been
moved up almost a month. So I emailed my production manager at Counterpoint to
ask what was up. She emailed back immediately. She thought she had told me that
the pub date had been moved up, apologized for leaving me out of the loop, and
informed me that she had received an advance copy of the finished book from the
printer the day before! Apparently my copies will be shipped to me next week.
I’m still
in shock. Especially since I have not seen a finished copy yet. This has been
my dream my whole life. I have struggled to be patient these past months as the
publication process has unfolded. I have tried not to think about it so I could
sleep at night. I was pacing myself. Only 6 months to go. Now only 5 months. Now
only 3. Now next month, oops, no, now NOW. In a flash it happened, rushing to
me swifter than expected.
Here is one
of my deepest most personal fantasies: A
UPS van pulls up in front of my house. The driver gets out and walks to my
door. I open the door and sign for a heavy box. The driver hands it to me and
walks away. I carry the box into my living room and put it on the floor in
front of me and open it up. Inside, a treasure, value more than diamonds, more
than rubies, inside are books. All the books are the same. A novel. And I wrote
it. I have imagined this scene in detail over and over again for a dozen years.
I can see the light on the driver as he walks to my door. It is always late
afternoon in summer and the light is golden on the brilliant green trees. My
fantasy is going to happen this week.
Today I had
a conversation with my father. Dad is a mathematician. He wrote a book in the
1970s that was light years ahead of its time. In the past 10 years Dad’s work
has been rediscovered and as it turns out there are many mathematicians who
were trying to work out things that Dad had already worked out and described in
his book over 30 years ago. In a few weeks Columbia University is hosting a
3-day mathematics conference that will revolve around Dad’s work. Obviously Dad
is delighted to have his work back in the spotlight and put to good use. It
just goes to show that if we live long enough there’s no telling what will
happen. Dad said this to me today, that he had lived long enough to see his
work recognized in this way. It has become the foundation for an entire area of
mathematics development. In his lifetime.
When I was
very young I set out to be a writer. Writing is my passion. Books are my
passion. I have always written. I write every day. But I also intended to
publish and that was not panning out for me. The years were flying by and I was
not accomplishing what I had set out to do. I have been blessed and am grateful
for the wonderful life I have had so far. Yet always it bothered me that I had
not done this one thing that was so important to me and that I had set out to
do. That’s why I self-pubbed The Call to Shakabaz – and that was a very
rewarding experience; but did not carry the level of recognition that being
published the traditional route has and will do. Perhaps you have experienced
the satisfaction of doing what you set out to do in life, but if you have not
reached your goal yet, then let me encourage you; encourage; what a
great word(!), let me support you in having the courage to hang on to your
dream, and to keep working for it, because it may still be coming. It may
arrive in a flash.
Now available wherever books are sold.
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