i've had the time of my life...with no dancing involved (or very little, with my mop, when no one else could see me)

I've been one busy girl this week. I mean, busy is the normal state of things around here, but this week kicked it up a notch. Yet, I've been going through the hustle and bustle (and excessive amounts of sitting on my bum in front of the computer writing papers) with a genuine smile. And why is that you ask? Because of this...

Remember when I said that I'd been working (for free) as the local publicist for an author? Well...March 1st was the book's debut! Of course, even before then it was #8 on Barnes and Noble's Paperback Bestsellers List. Yup. It was selling like hotcakes in pre-orders. It's also received rave national reviews from anyone and everyone--probably several from authors you know and love.

I'm not a book reviewer by any means. I read something really great and I fall in love with the language, or the characters, or the style, or the imagery, (or all of it) and I can't really find words to express how great it is, at least none that would even begin to compare to what the author has already put down. I'm the one in my literature classes saying, "I loved it...just because!" The best comparison I could come up with for Volt was the first time I listened to Pink Floyd's "The Wall"...

I first heard it when I was 16, an exchange student in Germany. I was on an hour long train ride with my  friend who had fallen asleep. The day was overcast and drizzley. I leaned my head onto the rain-cool window, the landscape a smear of worn metal gray and wet green. I hit Play on my Walkman. "In the Flesh" seeped through to my ears, set a mood like being in vice grip. The feeling never broke and never let go. When it was done, I felt permanently altered, and all I could think was Again! Again! That's exactly the way reading Al's book effected me. I left the last page a changed woman, heavy with the exchange of the human experience--but in a good way. Maybe it's because I know the author and know his booming, ever-kind personality is so far removed from the rather dark characters he's created. Maybe it's because of that I can fully recognize the genius behind what it took to write the book. But mostly I think it's just good because...it's good. For anyone. Period.

Now here's the encouragement for me as a writer: Al has tried to write several novels and had them collapse in on themselves. Out of the ashes of those collapses, he plucked eight, nearly perfect short stories that fit together. He carried them around for ten years, working and re-working them. He taught all he'd learned, and continued to learn in the process, with his students, helping them to become better writers as well. He lived a very modest life, rich with family, and then one day...BAM! It happened for him. One story published, then another, and another. They started getting picked up by bigger anthologies. They started winning prizes. They started getting translated. Graywolf Press signed him on. And the next thing he knew, he was holding the first copy of his first book. Success!!!

photo from the Idaho Writers Guild

Which means...there's hope. For me. For all writers. Continuous practice, steady improvement, tenacity, and optimism...it will all yield you good things in writing and in life.

So, tomorrow I will be attending the glamorous launch party for Volt, in the company of the best writers our state has to offer (like Anthony Doerr who just won the coveted Story Prize in New York last night!). There will be awesome music. And hipster pizza. And a bar I will not drink from, but will still be as giddy as though I had a little alcohol in me :). My date will be my best girlfriend. I will wear my purple dress. And life will be good.

I'm proud of what I've been able to achieve as this book's local publicist, despite taking 24 other credits to boot, and ever grateful to Al for giving me the chance to show what I could do.

And if I never achieve this level of success for myself, at least I can say I've had the bestseller experience.

Now...for Pete's sake! Go out and buy this book or download it onto your reader already! It's less than $10. Read it in your book clubs. Read it for yourself. Just read it. :)