Flashlight #14: The Red Grove is out today!

People Magazine and Death Pacts and Amazon Book of the Month and also, what does one do on the day one's book comes out, and also also, are you still the same you?

Let’s start with the existential stuff.

I’ve been counting down to May 14 for months. I remember this from last time - the feeling that on publication day, everything is going to change. I will be different, better, a new me!

And I did wake up feeling very excited, and grateful, and good. And then I spent the early part of the morning getting Leela, who is 2, to eat breakfast and not the green strawberries from the garden, and to put on clothes that did not include mama’s underwear as a hat (current fashion fave) and finally got home from her daycare drop-off at 9:15 this morning and I can report that so far, I am not a different me.

Publishing a book both changes everything, and absolutely nothing. So many professional doors were opened to me after my first book came out. And so much joy (and terror!) comes with the possibility of other people - friends and even strangers - reading your words and connecting with your story. It’s huge! It’s amazing! And then also, wherever you go, there you are. You’re still you.

Anyway, today I’m feeling the same in the best possible way. The sameness includes volumes and of excitement and gratitude, and a steadiness I didn’t feel last time around, a thrill for The Red Grove which I really feel so deeply proud of and also a commitment to writing the next book, and the one after that. I am still me as a friend and mama and cheerleader of other writers. I’m the me who will do the dishes before I leave for my book launch, and who will do a power pose in front of the mirror to pump myself up before the event.

What else will today bring? I had a visit from my dear friend Betsy this morning, who is in town, and she brought flowers and baked goods, bless her. Knowing that today brings a swell of anxiety, I have saved for myself this task today: bundling the redwood tree ring print postcards I made as thank you presents, and writing thank you cards to my team at FSG, to writers I’ll be in conversation with, to writers who took the time to carefully read and blurb my book. Because this is a day to celebrate the long, long line of people who have their hands on bringing a book into the world.

So the book is out! And I am me and not me, and deeply grateful to you, humans who are reading this, for being part of the string of people in some form or another.

And then: The Red Grove’s good news!

Amazon named The Red Grove as a best book of the month

Here’s an essay that appeared in People Magazine (!?!) about what life might be like if women never had to be afraid of violence, what the absence of that low-grade caution might open up in our lives.

People also recommended The Red Grove as a pick of the week (see photo of glossy page below!) and best of the month.

LitHub ran an excerpt of The Red Grove a few days back and released an essay I wrote today called “Who Will Finish Your Manuscript When You Die,” about how my kickass writing group (Clare Beams, Annie Hartnett, Rufi Thorpe and me) decided we’d finish each others’ books in the event of our untimely deaths. We’ve started calling ourselves THE FINISHERS for this very reason. I love them a lot.

And if you’re in any of these places I’ll be in the next week or two, please come say hello! The thing that makes all of this the best is seeing your faces.

• May 14 Asheville, NC. The Red Grove book launch! rEvolve Mercantile, 7pm ET. Co-hosted by Malaprop’s and Punch Bucket Lit. In conversation with Heather Newton

• May 15 Brooklyn, NY. The Center for Fiction. 7pm ET. In conversation with Julia Phillips

• May 16 Boston, MA. Porter Square Books & Grub Street. 7pm ET. In conversation with Margot Livesey

• May 17 Providence, RI. Riffraff. 7pm ET. In conversation with Annie Hartnett

• May 23 Asheville, NC. Malaprop’s. In conversation with Taylor Brown

(More events here)

Thank you, thank you, I love you, sorry in advance for hugging you too hard.

xo,

Tessa