Launching

and two major miracles

A launch party can be a lot of things, from a way to celebrate a new book with friends to building buzz, but until recently I did not see it as a way to connect with new people. Specifically kids I’ve never met. Usually, the book is out in the world a while first. Then teachers and parents talk and it gets passed around and finally it hits the hands of an eight-year-old boy or twelve-year-old girl and this magical thread stretches from me to them and we’re connected. But when we gathered to celebrate the release of The Minor Rescue, book two in The Amazing Adventures of Noah Minor, I didn’t have to wait to make that connection.

My past two launch parties have been mixing pots of friends I already knew from different circles. There were writers, book clubbers, family, neighbors, and friends from places as varied as pilates to church. So in the car on the way to my third launch party, I told my husband and sister-in-law that it would probably be all people who I knew. And that was okay. That’s the way launches work.

But even though I’d sent out hundreds of invites to try and reach all those groups of people, I didn’t expect many to come this time. Maybe thirty, and half would be family. It was Saturday afternoon of Memorial Day, a couple of my friends had kids getting married, there were graduations and end-of-year parties, my church was hosting a women’s retreat, and at least five people had texted me in the last twenty-four hours saying something had come up last minute and they were sorry to miss the party. This was also okay. I got it.

And then this happened.

More than eighty people came, there weren’t enough chairs, standing room only, and I was blown away. But that wasn’t all. I met not one, but two kids I’d never met before. I didn’t know their parents, either. The only thing that connected us was The Minor Miracle. They had already read and loved it, and they were excited to meet me and read book two, The Minor Rescue.

In The Minor Rescue, one of the themes is about the power of connection. If only one kid got my book liked it, it would be worth all the hard things. The submitting and revising and marketing and social media-ing . . . all for one kid who connects with the story, and by proxy connects with me. Getting to meet two of them, in person, on May 24th, felt like a major miracle.