The Great Launch Tour Approacheth!

The commencement of the Great Launch Tour for After the Bloodwood Staff is approaching: relentless, ineluctable, alarming, exhilarating. It begins in Melbourne on December 10, and moves to Canberra on the 11th, Wollongong on the 12th, and Sydney on the 13th. There will be wonderful launch speakers, a reading from the book, and some entirely frivolous sparkling rosé. (The times and places, should you wish to attend, are available on my Facebook writer page, https://www.facebook.com/Laura.E.Goodin.Writer/.)

I’m finding myself overwhelmed at all the details that go into planning the launch: identifying a venue (not that easy this close to Christmas), booking and paying for the venue as well as any required insurance, arranging speakers and an MC, gathering bios, researching the appropriate acknowledgement of country (non-Australian readers, this means a formal greeting of the traditional custodians of the land — that is, the people who lived in each place before the arrival of Europeans — and an acknowledgement of their historical and current presence and the importance of their relationship to the place; it’s not comprehensive reparation for what they’ve experienced, of course, but it sure is better than ignoring them entirely), making sure someone is there to help sell the books, getting the food and drink and cups and stuff sorted, choosing which excerpt of the book to read, helping the publisher with media-release text and other publicity materials, setting up an event page, and sending out the invitations on Facebook or email. It is intensely involved.

Not that I’m objecting, mind you. Getting a book published has been my dream since I was seven. It’s taken a long time to realize that dream, but if there’s one thing this journey has taught me, it’s that the order in which you do things in your life is, essentially, irrelevant. If there are things you want to do, there is no prize for getting one done when you’re young or another when you’re old. No extra points for following an approved sequence. (And who has the right to establish one, anyway?)

I fully intend to make as big a deal of these launches as my circumstances allow. First, I’m at least as excited as you’d think about a lifelong dream coming true. Second, the way the world is at this moment, anything fun and optimistic is a relief to the mind and a balm to the soul. Third, the book itself tells a story of ordinary, flawed, frightened people with no special powers or prophecies at their disposal who stand up against evil, simply because it’s the right thing to do. I’ve told that story the very best I can tell it. Maybe it will help.

I hope you can come to one of the launches. I hope you feel moved to buy the book when it’s released on December 10, and I very much hope you enjoy it. If you do, I’d really love to hear from you (via Facebook, the contact page on my website, an email, or a comment on this blog).