Thoughts on my current elation
Plus a birthday story
It’s a Love Story debuted at number 10 on the New York Times bestseller list.
I could type that sentence a hundred times, and it would still give me the goosebumps. Thank you to everyone who preordered and ordered and posted on social media and showed up at my events. I would like to know statistically how many times you saw that big blue preorder button before you gave in and hit it. Because I sent it So Many Times.
Here’s what I’ve been thinking about all week - the elation. Like pure out of body elation at hearing my editor say that sentence. Then the zoom call with my whole pub team where we basically screamed into our cameras for ten minutes. I have a photo:
It shouldn’t be such a big deal. It’s just a list and then a feather in my cap that says I was once on that list. Before I ever published anything, I used to daydream about writing a book that would make one person say, “Oh, I loved that book.” That was the goal - one person. That feels meaningful, so why is being on this list such a big deal? I feel like I should be above this. But here I am - flat out elated at the stamp of approval.
The funny thing is that It’s A Love Story is about a woman who chronically seeks approval from outside herself. She’s looking to the world to give her a gold star so that she can feel worthy. I always have such a hard time thinking of an example of irony; from now on I’ll use this one. I got a stamp of approval for writing a book about why you don’t need one.
It’s also not lost on me that I’m currently writing a book about a woman who’s lived in survival mode for a long time and is trying to get comfortable with the fact that she wants things for herself - impractical things and avenues for her dreams. And here I am admitting it - I’ve secretly wanted to be on this list since the first time I ever heard of it.
Truly, and from the bottom of my heart, thank you for supporting my books in this way. All begging for preorders will cease until maybe the fall.
A birthday story
The summer Nora Goes Off Script came out my friend Allison told me that her 102 year old grandmother Kas really enjoyed it. I was both shocked that she had a 102 year old grandmother and that she had a 102 year old grandmother who was still reading. “She can’t wait for the next one,” Allison said. I reminded her that it wasn’t coming out for a year, and she assured me that was no problem. Now, I’m as big a fan of magical thinking as anyone, but grandma Kas reading my book at 103 was a stretch.
Fast forward to every summer since and Kas getting my book for every single birthday. She turned 105 this week, is thirty pages in, and thinks it’s off to a good start. The moral of this story isn’t about magical thinking, it’s about how romance novels are good for you.
Happy birthday Kas!
The rest of the summer’s events
June 18 Spring Lake, MI - a boondoggle with
, but it’s sold out. Watch this space for a thousand photos. I’m already having fun at this event and it’s not till next weekJune 19 Grand Rapids, MI at Schuler Books at 6:30pm, me talking
June 24 New York, NY at BN Union Square (you need a ticket) at 6pm, I’m interviewing Hannah Brown about her new book, The Four Engagement Rings of Sybil Rain
June 25 Madison, CT at RJ Julia at 6:30pm with Amy Poeppel and Karen Dukess
June 26 Wakefield, RI at 7pm - sold out but there’s a waitlist
June 29 White Plains, NY 2-4pm Books and Brew with WP Library. This is going to be super fun (beer) - tickets
July 10 Bedford, NY 6:30pm at Bedford Books
July 25 Kent, CT 6pm at House of Books I’m interviewing Amy Poeppel about her new book Far and Away
August 27 Old Greenwich, CT 7pm I’m interviewing
about her new book, If You’re Seeing This It’s Meant For You - tickets on sale soon.
I think that’s it?
In the meantime I’m prepping for the longest day of the year (Father’s Day) and then 🥂🥂my trip to Michigan🥂.
lots of love,
Annabel
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Team Kas
IT'S A LOVE STORY and this reflection brought me to this wonderful poem by Frank O'Hara. (Don't ask me to explain ....)
Having A Coke With You
is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles
and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them
I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together for the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse
it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it
--Frank O'Hara