DECEMBER RECAP.

The past two weeks have been quite heavy with book stuff (X-mas, too, of course – but even X-mas has been defined by the book, not going to lie). Still no online sales, but I have sent out beta copies to one beta who lives in another city, gifted one to K’s friend who visited us during X-mas, since she was our initial beta, and sold two physical copies to online acquaintances. One I will ship off later today (the recipient lives in Copenhagen) and the other will be given, when my friend visits tomorrow. Furthermore, we have given copies to both our respective parental constellations, so the book is going places, we’re just not making much money on it. Which, again, was never the point, anyway.

I have also finally chewed my way through the final edition of the novella myself. Having read the story so many times on a screen, it was quite satisfactory to read it in a physical, actual book. It also opened my eyes to the formatting, grammar + spelling (we haven’t prioritized using a professional proofreader, RIP) and such. Fortunately, I think we’ve done solid work. In 184 pages, I stumbled across, maybe, two or three comma issues, one or two misspellings and one (1) stupid typo, so I’m pretty happy. I was honestly worried I’d find more. And none of it makes the text or the meaning incomprehensible.

Not to mention, the story still slams. I had tears in my eyes at one point and felt breathless by several phrases and passages. It has also given me an idea for a new novella set in the same universe, kind of the origin story of Marie-Claude, our main character. I’ve begun doing outlining and prepping for that and am slowly working away on the first scene right now.

K’s father has already begun reading and come with a lot of interesting feedback. He is the only outside person who has read Lest They Leave which he also gave interesting feedback on, so I’m excited to hear what he has to say upon finishing this one, which is our first published work in Danish. K. says he was pretty invested in the set-up and could recognise aspect of our political world from his previous work life, so that is really cool. Said as someone who wrote about politics while knowing minimal shit about politics, hahaha.

January will be spent prepping for our book reception in early February. It’s going to be a very small, intimate affair, but I’m really looking forward to it. I think we’ll be, including K. and me, ten people – K. and I will do readings from the book, I think there’ll be a pop quiz, I’ve made goodie bags with merch and stuff and people can buy our signed books. It’ll be fun.

As prep for the reception, K. and I have also talked about attending one of the local open mic nights in January and read from the book there. I really hope to do this, because I used to attend open mic all the time previously, but after breaking my ankle January this year, I haven’t gone a single time. I miss it. I miss the community, to be honest. And it will be fun reading aloud from an actual, published book this time. ♥

So, that’s a bit about what’s been going on in December and how January will play out. Looking back and looking forward, you might say.