3 Months Post-Pub
A time of recovery
When this letter goes out, Shanghailanders will have been out in the world for three whole months. I have survived the fourth trimester.
I haven’t been writing here for a number of reasons. First, I was pretty exhausted after my tour. It was incredible to meet readers, see old friends, and make new ones. I had a beautiful time in the US and UK, and absolutely nothing beats the feeling of signing physical copies of your books for bookstores and book lovers. But I was also very ready to be home, be with my babies, and sleep in my own bed.
Then, about a month after I came back from tour, I checked in for a long-delayed surgery on my shoulder. I’ve been dealing with a torn rotator cuff and some bone damage for a while now. Quite a lot of pain. With travel on the horizon in the fall and then again in the winter, I realized that this summer would be the only sufficient stretch of time I had for the surgery and its accompanying physical therapy.
Surgery was smooth and I’ve been in a sling for a good number of weeks now. I had a slight setback in recovery when one of my therapists stretched my shoulder a bit too aggressively, but it looks like I’ll be out of the sling by the end of this month. Fingers crossed!
Of course when your arm is trapped in a sling 24/7 it is difficult to write. At this point, I am able to type on a computer again, but even before my injury I’ve long been handicapped by the need to handwrite prose. I’ve been, therefore, forced to take a break from novel 2. A blessing in disguise.
I’ve needed this time of rest and recovery. Physically, yes; but also mentally and emotionally. Bringing a book into the world takes a lot of work, and along with that work a lot of anxiety, fear, hope, excitement, pride. For years, for the lead up to publication, my emotions were stretched to their limit. Like a rubber band that has been pulled too tight for too long, once released I crumpled into emotional shapelessness. That’s what happens to a woman’s body post-partum. That’s what happens to a writer post-pub.
Now my book sleeps through the night without the constant care of podcast interviews and guest posts and listicles. I have been reading a lot. I have been starting to feel the stirrings of inspiration and also of peace, both of which are necessary. I have been healing and getting stronger, figuring out how to be in this new world a new writer. :)
