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Celebrating a Decade-Long Dream in the Making
Going on BOOK TOUR for my debut novel!
I have long dreamed of saying I’m going on “book tour.” I’ve dreamt of going on book tour, too — of course! I couldn’t be more excited! — but the idea of saying I’m going on book tour offers a particular thrill.
When I tell people I have a book coming out, especially people not in the literary world, people in tech, for example, many don’t know what to make of it. It sounds impressive, but also far-fetched, like, what’s this chick’s deal? I imagine them picturing a hand-drawn zine, thinking something like “cute,” and patting me on my head. This is obviously projection, but what I do see is confusion in their eyes, with a dose of skepticism, and the most frequent follow up question is, “So, are you, like, going on tour or something?” This is often delivered with a laugh, as if the notion is absurd.
But every time I was asked, I’d say, without hesitation, “yes, definitely I’ll be going on tour,” even though there was absolutely no guarantee that this would be the case. The opposite, actually, given the state of publishing and IRL events. Setting this up was almost entirely self-driven, even with a big-five publisher. But I wanted so, so badly, to do events for this book that I’ve poured my heart and soul into for so many years.
