A Book is Born

…having a car to drive to customs to get my books out of hock; for warehouse guys who help load heavy furniture into my car even when they’re not supposed to; for good friends who have enormous teflon shoulders when I come crying down the lane.

Life as an author is tremendous — tremendously exhilerating (“Your book changed my life!”) and tremendously exhausting (“Returns”).

It’s been a week of running errands and spending time in a state of distraction. My dear friend recently said she knows she’s doing too much when she loses the ability to multitask (such as listening to her son tell about his day in kindergarten while boiling a pot of water).

Life is in the half notes, not the sustained vibratto. So I tell myself as I race from one place to the next, juggling more projects than I think I can bear and waiting for the “No” to release from my throat.

Perhaps I should take the advice I gave a harried teacher at my son’s school. She cast me a panicked look when I finally found the word “no” in my vocabulary again.

“You won’t tutor my daughter in English?” she squeaked.

“Ms. Jones,” I relayed in my own patient teacher voice. “When you say ‘no’ to someone, you are saying ‘yes’ to yourself. Remember that the next time you feel overloaded!”

I cleaned out my home office today and came across a ton of writing I did just a few years ago. It’s astounding how much I have learned since then. I have so many review books, magazines, newspapers, CD recording of interviews I’ve done. It was like going down memory lane, peeking into old folders and binders, tossing old notes and copies of draft manuscripts. It’s amazing how much blood, sweat and tears I’ve spilled in this very room.

But looking at the shiny book copies that I created sitting on my shelf, I know it has all been worth it.