First Edition Pallet
Open Wounds Printed... Ready to be Bound
I went to Everbind, the parent company of WestSide Books on Wednesday morning to pick up fifty books for the Book Bloggers Convention. I have to say it was very cool. I know, I know. That’s the best I can come up with but trust me, seeing my book, printed but not bound sitting there on a pallet waiting to be bound after seven plus years of work (the picture is my first print run – my first edition) was like watching the book being born. Now I saw my son born and that was about the most incredible and wondrous thing I’ve ever seen and this doesn’t come close but… it was still pretty damned cool.
Evelyn Fazio, my publisher/editor, gave me a tour around the binding machines, cutting machines, gluing stations, cover making stations, it seemed like something out of a 1940’s novel. The machinery is all custom-made so I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures of them. Everything seemed exactly the way a factory that put covers on and bound books should (in my world) look like – eccentric, Spielbergian, archaic, sepia-toned, and well, just a bit magical. It fit. It’s a fit place to coalesce the power of the written word and all the wondrous qualities contained within.
I don’t think many authors get the chance to see this kind of thing. I’m hoping to be able to bring my wife and son next week when that pallet becomes the final, ready-to-be-shipped and packaged into boxes and put on the warehouse shelves in another part of the airplane-hanger-like space that is Everbind – first edition pallet of books. I have an empty box with the logo for Everbind on it at home. It’s just the word Everbind. But I swear it’s right out of a fantasy novel – a good one – the kind you can’t put down because it makes your heart race and your fingers sweaty because you just can’t wait to see what happens next.
Big Blend Champagne Sundays Interview
Check out the interview on Big Blend Champagne Sundays with co-hosts Lisa Smith, Nancy Reid, and Amy Friese. Go to 52.47 minutes to listen to my 20 minute segment.
Big Blend Champagne Sundays
Here’s the truth. I’m a bit nervous about tomorrow’s interview. 800,000 is a large number of listeners. I’ve never faced a crowd like that before, even if I won’t have to face them, just talk on the phone/radio. I’ve had two preparatory events, the ReachOut.com interview last week and the MAGPI workshop the week before. I did a practice interview with my publicist (nothing like a run-through – as hard as they can be to do) too. I’ve faced 500 in an audience a number of times before at conferences in my day job for an hour and a quarter a shot, leading workshops. I’ve presented workshops hundreds of times.
But this is about me and my book, something personal, scary to talk about. The butterflies are fluttering.
I’m used to it from my day job but you never really get used to it. Let me say that differently. The anxiety and nervousness never goes away but it does become more manageable.
Manage-able.
I teach public speaking in my day job and I talk about managing nervousness and anxiety. I have to use my own advice.
Breathe – alternate nostril breath works wonders (a yogic pranayama technique).
Yoga practice, with movement, with the breath. Slow sun salutations. Warrior poses held for 3-5 breaths. Throat opening poses like Ustrasana/Camel to open the throat chakra (home of voice and creativity).
Self-talk (a favorite). I tell myself I can do it. I’ll do well. I will succeed. It sounds silly but it’s a powerful tool. I have enough negative self-talk running through my mind so I counter it with my own positive self-talk.
Meditation to give me practice focusing. To still the waters of my mind before it all begins. Twenty-minutes. To center. To ground. To calm.
This is my preparation.
Believe it or not I’m really looking forward to it. It kicks off my week of publicity and Book Expo.
Breathe.
Two Interviews, A Sneak Peak, and a partridge in a pear tree…
Two big ones.
Sunday, May 22nd, 2:45pm EST – 3:15pm EST Big Blend Radio’s Champagne Sunday’s show with Lisa Smith, Nancy ?, and guest co-host Amy Friese. Here’s the link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/big-blend-radio/2011/05/22/champagne-sundays. I’ll be talking about Open Wounds. Anyone can tune in.
Wednesday, May 25th, 1pm EST Tami Snow’s Lyrical Lip Service Radio Show. Here’s the url: http://lyricallipservice.com. Check in on the website to hear me talk about Open Wounds with Tami.
If you listen in, let me know what you think.
Hunger Mountain, an online magazine about writing and kids/YA/Children literature, is sneak peeking the first chapter of Open Wounds this month and my essay on writing, In the Half Light will be out by the end of the month. Check out what editor Bethany Hegedus has to say about the sneak peek. This is a great magazine for readers and writers so take a look at the other offerings too.
Pub-date
… has been pushed to May 31, six days forward. But I think they’ll hit it. I know I keep saying that but… I’m getting copies for BEA next week for the 26th and 27th book bloggers convention so the rest will be close behind. My publisher is pulling out the stops, making the publishing creatures of the night work overtime on their presses and binding machines. I can see the steam from the engines hovering in clouds near the ceiling and sneaking out the cracks in the windows.
Books are coming.
Books are coming.
Hardcover copies of my first book in my hand.
Very soon.
Very cool.
Reset the clock. 13 days and counting…
Lunievicz 