I’ve hummed the refrain from It’s My Party by Lesley Gore more than once over the last few days. You see, I had every reason to celebrate this week. After seven years of work and over a quarter-million words, I’d finally added the phrase ‘The End,’ to my science fiction trilogy, Project Gene Assist.
Unfortunately, the universe has a funny sense of humor. My series, which, I repeat, germinated in my brain seven years ago, set before and after a perfect storm of abusive technology, economic collapse, and a mysterious illness. The first book is the events leading up to the panic and societal upheaval, the second and third take place in the aftermath.
It was supposed to be thought-provoking, cautionary, and/or escapism.
It was supposed to be set in the future.
Most importantly, it was supposed to be fiction.
My book’s launch was supposed to include a number of things like:
- Signed paperback copies: sadly, orders of non-essential products that weren’t currently on the shelves have been delayed by major retail outlets. By all means, please order a paperback if interested—just understand it just might not reach you for a few weeks.
- Light hors d’oeuvres & finger foods: bread and flour are in short supply around here, but that’s not the worst of all. According to my co-workers, there’s even been a run on dinosaur-shaped frozen chicken nuggets in some places.
- A full house of close friends: if groups weren’t already limited, my current paper product inventory would have required me to ask guests to bring their own roll of toilet paper as an entrance fee.
- More than one glass of wine: okay, this is still part of the plan—it’s just now happens to be a major part of the plan and the reason hosting a Facebook live event is unlikely to be the best idea for me this week.
So, yeah, the timing stinks. However, while it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to (but I’ll try not to because there are a lot of people out there suffering more than me), I’m going to launch this book and celebrate its release anyway. In fact, I’m making an even more conscious effort during these times to celebrate all my daily wins—big and small. For example, on Mar 22, 2020 I made soft pretzels that actually tasted like soft pretzels.
Other notable wins:
- Maybe it’s the quarantine/social-distance enforced cooking or maybe it’s the six months of dedicated meal tracking & step counting using the Noom app (affiliate link) but I’ve officially lost all the weight I put on bringing my non-book babies to life.
- The local paper interviewed me about life as a reluctant homeschool mom & remote full-time worker (my advice to other parents: let things go—like housework or expectations that your kids will quietly sit in the background looking charming and well-behaved while your world is being filmed for strangers to see) – https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article241329721.html
- I KNOW what my kids did all day at school instead of just hearing a grunt or ‘I forget,’ when asked, and have been enjoying a lively discussion of Roald Dahl’s The Twits (affiliate link) with my 8yo.
- My kids actually WANT to go back to school (though tell me they are glad I’ve been home with them).
- I’ve gotten most of my garden planted
Speaking of gardening, the leaves on the trees are budding, which reminds me that just like winter gives way to spring, this time too will someday become a distant memory. While that day can’t get here soon enough, at least I can take some small comfort knowing I controlled what I could. I did my best. I released a book.
You can order Lies & Legacy or start at the beginning with The Fair & Foul
Allie Potts 
Congrats on the launch, even if not quite up to expectations. But, seriously, wow. After seven years you completed your trilogy. That’s just amazingly awesome, and I’m really proud of you. I will virtually party with you!
Furthermore, honor to have been interviewed for your local paper. And finally, that your kids enjoy having you home with them… that’s truly precious. So glad you’re able to do that for them. They will remember this time fondly for years to come, I’m sure.
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I am beyond grateful that people like you have supported me in this through the years (you might even have gotten a mention in my acknowledgments) and that I have been able to be at home with my kids at this time. My husband and I talked about how very fortunate we were just a couple of nights ago. We’ve been truly blessed and honestly, that’s better than any lost book party.
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Way to keep perspective! And I’m very happy to have been a part of your journey. 🙂 God-willing, maybe I’ll publish my own novel some day!! 🙂 Cheers to you! Next drink I have, I’ll lift the glass facing east.
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I’ll raise one to the west tonight! Cheers!
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Congrats on the Launch! Love the trailer. Looking forward to reading it soon!
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Thanks! I do love book trailers!
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For a minute I thought you were going to say that your work of fiction was coming to life, it wouldn’t be the first time. Well, as anticlimactic as it may seem, Congrats! I wish I could be announcing my own completion of a project. You are way ahead of most. Be proud!
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Yeah, we don’t want my fiction to come any closer to coming to life as it already is. I feel as if my next project needs to be utopian just to make up for this one. Thank you!
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I don’t blame you.
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Best of luck with the new book, Allie. 🙂
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Thank you!
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Congrats! Once this is over, you can do your book launch–better late and healthy than never!
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Totally agree! Hope you are staying healthy too.
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Congratulations, Allie, on your new book. I have also recently launched a book and have similar issue. ON-wards and upwards I say.
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Yup! Nothing else we can do
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Seven years, eh? That’s quite the accomplishment…congratulations!! My first took me nine and my latest is approaching the same, lol. I’m definitely not the most prolific novelist in the world. Kudos for adapting to life’s demands and for turning Aristotle’s whole art-imitates-life conceit inside out!
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Thank you. I honestly don’t know what I am going to do with myself now. I guess it’s a good thing I have zero time to myself now.
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Hello there,
It’s been awhile, but wonderful to see all the great things that have happened. I’m not at all surprised at the number of book titles that are displayed. When I last saw you (online that is), you had just published An Uncertain Truth and you did talk about your science fiction novel, which I see has burgeoned into a triology! Congratulations!
As soon as things open back up down here, I’ll place my order.
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I’m so excited to hear from you again. Hope you’ve been well and that the last few hurricanes spared you and yours. Yes, I can’t believe how much my bookshelf has grown either
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I didn’t forget about your book, Allie – have one more ahead of yours. Hoping the launch went as well as smoothly as it could given the weird circumstances!
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🙂 The launch went as well as one can expect under the circumstances. Sadly, I had to cancel the face-to-face launch and book signing party I had planned, but in the scheme of things that wasn’t the worst thing that could happen. Hope you are staying safe and well!
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