Two days til book launch
Leave preorders are making their way into the world and my heart is full
I have this memory from years ago — Googling tells me it must have been the very late spring of 2020, though that seems impossible? — of picking up an order at the back counter of Books Are Magic when suddenly Marie-Helene Bertino, one of my favorite living writers, appeared and a bookstore employee ushered her into a back room so she could sign preordered copies of her new book. That book must have been Parakeet, basically my favorite novel of the last decade, though I didn’t yet know it would become that. We must have been masked, though there are no masks in my memory. All I remember is being dazzled by this glimpse of what happens behind the scenes when a book comes out. Of course the writer must go sign the signed copies! Of course she must go to her local independent bookstore! Of course she will sit in the back room surrounded by books, of course she will have brought a special marker!
On Friday, that writer was me. I signed preorders in the back room at Lofty Pigeon, and it was magical. Davi, one of the co-owners of LP, agreed to pose with me for this photo after the fact so I can remember it forever. We took fifteen photos and my kid photobombed the other fourteen. What a night.
This week in reading
I’m almost done with In the Freud Archives. I keep stopping to read around it, about the libel suit Jeffrey Masson brought against Janet Malcolm because of the book and about her experience of the trial, for which she hired a speech coach. The book is interesting, but the larger story is fascinating, especially in our current context of media lawsuits.
My ancillary reading then brought me to Malcolm’s collages, which make me want to collage.
Yesterday, I began my annual reread of Sempre Susan by Sigrid Nunez. A perfect book. Comfort reading, really.
This week in writing
I was all over the place!
First, I finished my letter for 100 Days of Creative Resistance, which I think will be tomorrow’s letter? Sign up to find out…
Then, I continued working on Writing from Memory. Developing this class has been such a fun process for me. If it goes well on March 8, I might offer a virtual option this summer…
Also, I did a written interview and a podcast interview, which both involved trying to articulate my writing process. Much easier to do in writing than to do out loud!
And I submitted one essay to a literary magazine, pitched another essay to a newsier magazine, and pitched a book review. All writing-adjacent work that is not writing but that needs to get done.
Finally, I did a lot of thinking around the novel and wrote zero words. Noted my ideas for future me, who will have more time when it is not the week before her book launch.
This week in Leave news
Leave is out there in the world! Preorders started arriving this weekend, although technically if you order today or tomorrow it still counts as a preorder. ;) (I’ve added a list of stockists to the end of this page. If you don’t see your favorite local bookstore there, feel free to request it from them.)
Yesterday brought many text messages and DMs from friends and acquaintances and a few strangers, either with photos of their copies or with a note saying they sat down to read a little and ended up finishing the whole thing. This was my hope for Leave, that it would be a read-in-one-sitting kind of book, so these early responses are gratifying and affirming. I’m excited to see what happens next, and I’m REALLY excited to celebrate the official launch on Tuesday. (RSVP here.)
Next week’s newsletter will probably just be a bunch of photos from the launch with my dreamy/hazy impressions, and then I’ll go back to using this space to mostly write about my novel. The novel has been neglected during this season of book promo, but I know it’s there waiting for me, and I can’t wait to return to it.
Last time I can use this fun little banner!
See you on the other side,
Shayne
My copy came in and I’m so excited to read it. Big congrats!!! 🎉