Well, it has taken a little while but I now have pictures I feel I can actually use on my blog (thank you Yitz Woolf for the wonderful B&W pics!) so now I can reveal all.
I couldn't even begin to think about planning my book launch party until I knew I had enough books in the country to be able to sell them - it is interesting that I had to think of the launch as part-celebration, part mass-marketing opportunity, which was quite strange, pulling in two directions.
We brought several boxes of books back with us from our trip to the UK on Sept 28th, and then I set the date and the place - my friend J-M's gorgeous and enormous flat (which others are now requesting to use for their book launches!). Nothing in Israel gets done much in advance, so giving people a week's notice for the party was about right. I invited 180 people, and prayed they wouldn't all come, not because I didn't want them all there, but because I had no idea what to do in the face of so many people, and whether I could even read in front of them all.
Luckily, only half that number, a perfect 90 or so, turned up. I was pretty frantically nervous; James was doing an amazing job with sales, and from almost the beginning I was being asked to sign and sign and sign. I had thought I would have time to refill the dips, top up the bowls of nibbles... but I didn't have a minute.
I was delighted when my cousins turned up, it's a long drive, they are not so young anymore, I hadn't imagined they would come - but they did, clutching copies of the book they had already bought! A highlight of the evening was introducing them to another cousin, same side of the family, that they had never met. A real thrill:
The evening kicked off at 7.30, and I had said I would read at around 8, so at 8.15 I decided I'd better do it. There was no stage, of course, no podium, no spotlight, no microphone, and inside I felt as though I was about to jump off a cliff. I stood in the living room, there was silence, people sat or stood, staring at me. I had no choice. I jumped.
I first explained about the 27 stories in the book - half being flash and half being science-inspired. I had planned that for the first reading, I would read one flash story from the book, Plaits, which I knew would go down well. And I thought I would take a risk and read out a new flash story, one that I recently wrote. I decided that this was a safe environment to try this out, and it added a little value, giving people a bit extra.
I knew that most people in the room - friends and family - had probably never read any of my stories. Some people had heard the ones that were broadcast on the Radio, but I didn't think many people had visited my website, clicked on the links. For me, this was a coming-out of sorts, a shedding of my skin, an announcement saying 'Here I am and this is what I do, what I write. This is me.'
Thankfully, it went well. Very well. So well that after the second flash story (which perhaps was a little too odd to be read out!) no-one got up, no-one moved. They demanded more. They grinned at me, clapped, demanded. And so I read what I had planned for the 2nd reading, The Angel in the Car Park. My only sort-of-Jewish story. And then I insisted on having a break.
After the first reading, the butterflies in my stomach changed, dissolved. I revealed myself and all was well, it was fine, nothing collapsed inwards, nothing fell on me. Relief.
We sold more books, I signed and signed, not a spare minute to even chat.
I received many compliments on my shoes, gorgeous boots that I had bought with part of the proceeds from the last story I had on the radio. Here they are (though not on my legs!):
People left, new people came, and I had to decide what to read for my second reading. Everyone seemed to enjoy me reading to them, so, although I was losing my voice by this time, I went for North Cold, one of my longer, science-inspired stories, since I had had several friends asking me to read an example of what I had meant by that. This is the other story I read in Cork, and it works well being read out, it's a bit like a fable. By the time I finished reading it, my voice was completely gone and I refused all calls to read something else. I was done!
Thank you to all my wonderful friends who came - and bought the book!
The evening wound up at around 11pm with me finding in one of J-M's cupboard the rest of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups that I had planned on putting out but had forgotten about.The dozen or so of us still there fell upon them. A sweet end to a perfect night. Thank you to J-M! May your home be host to many more such celebrations!
Now I am post-book-launch, feeling happy but a little unsettled, unsure of what comes next. Well, the first thing is my Virtual Book Tour, "Walking the White Road: flash, fiction and science", which kicks off on Oct 28th, and takes me (virtually) around the world, stopping off at ten blogs along the way.
I am also really thankful for the upcoming month at La Muse in November, to get on with several projects which have been on hold for a while, to breathe in the mountain air, to practice my French and not eat too much! A New Jewish Year just began and I feel the sense of a new beginning, in a completely different place creatively, metaphysically, mentally. Lots to look forward to.
(More pics on Facebook.)
