Launch Week Re-Cap
Today is Monday June 8th, and my book has been in the world for almost one whole week. I am amazed, thrilled, humbled by the support my friends, family, and colleagues have offered. From leaving reviews to sending me feedback to sharing the book with others or purchasing it for themselves— thank you!
I spent most of publication day on planes as I traveled back from South Carolina after officiating my brother’s wedding. Then, Thursday night I gathered with a great crowd of about 35 at Vermillion Art Gallery and Bar for the launch party. I shared about the book, why I wrote it, what is in it, and then invited those who have gathered to share some of their COVID memories with each other for about ten minutes— and boy did they.
I worried there would be awkward silence or stilted conversation. Instead, the room almost immediately filled with chatter. But of course it did! That is the point of the book after all— we need to tell these stories. We need to process these memories. We have done almost no communal mourning of what we lost or remembering what we survived. The volume in the room was so validating— it seemed like proof that my theory was right. The world needs to remember and intentionally work through those years, individually and together. So perhaps The Well is Deep can help in some small way.
When I was in sixth grade, we were handed a one-page handout and told it would go in our permanent record. One of the things it wanted to know was our top two choices for careers— I don’t remember the rest. But I do remember what I wrote on those two lines!
Writer
Ornithologist
Yep, you read that correctly. Ornithologist— an expert on birds! I never pursued that seriously, but I have always enjoyed casual birdwatching.
From my earliest memories, I always wanted to be a writer. From as soon as I could read chapter books, I wanted to write them. I was composing fanfiction in my head or in my journals before I had any idea what fanfiction was! I just knew I wanted to write a different story for my favorite characters than the one I’d been given. When my attention wandered in class, I was often writing stories instead of taking notes.
I always wanted to be a writer, but The Well is Deep is certainly not the book I dreamed of writing! I wanted to be a novelist. When I was a teenager, I dreamed I would write the next Great American Novel. As I got older studied the classics of fiction and poetry in college, I set aside that idea. While I enjoyed reading the classics, they weren’t the books I turned to for fun. Genre fiction like murder mysteries and fantasy romances were the ones that kept me up all night, and I decided I wanted to write those. I was able to outgrow some of the English major book snobbery thanks to, of all people, Nora Roberts!
Nora Roberts is a prolific romance author, often taking her romances into other genres like futuristic police procedurals, historical fiction, or suspenseful mysteries. In one of her recent standalone books, The Collector, the main character is a young adult fiction writer who specializes in werewolf books. This character says of her career: “Why would I want to write a brilliant and tragic novel when I don’t want to read one?”
Plus, the classic writing advice is always to write what you want to read. So, I figured I would write what I like to read— well-written, character-rich, fun and captivating genre fiction. So far, I have some unfinished manuscripts of those kinds of books, but never have had the time to perfect and attempt to sell them.
I wrote The Well is Deep partially because I had to; it was part of my process of healing. I wasn’t sure anyone would ever read it but me. But as I got further into it, began working with Tehom Center Publishing, and began to share the first drafts with beta readers, I realized others might need this book too. Either to learn what really happened inside hospitals from an inside prospective or to heal themselves. Perhaps both.