Ripples

I have - more than likely - shared more than I should have in terms of getting this book 'born'.  OTOH, it's my blog, I get to vent how and when I want, so one final post about The Intentional Weaver (I lie, I'll probably bring it up again, but the conference is about to get very crunchy, so that will most likely be my focus for the next while).

When I placed the order for 300 copies of the book on Dec. 21, the initial estimate for delivery was about 5 weeks.  Given there was a major week of holidays in there, I estimated in my promotional materials that I would receive the book around the end of January, beginning of February.

That would give me about a month to recover from the work (and stress) of getting the book through it's final birth pangs and processing orders.  I was looking forward to making some puzzles, maybe pulling my spinning wheel out, my lace pillow, reading some of the piles of books currently on my coffee table and hearth.  Oh yeah - and maybe even weaving a bit.

Instead the printer appears to have been just waiting on me to place my order and began working on it immediately/over the holiday.  It arrived much sooner than expected.  I have been having some health/physical issues, one of which is a right hand that has been going numb on me, so instead of giving myself that little 'holiday' I'd looked forward to, I began writing out labels, and - when those were done - customs forms.

I finished the customs forms the day before the 30 boxes of books arrived on my doorstep.

The padded envelopes had arrived two days before the books, so knowing that the books would arrive on Wednesday (January 9), I had started immediately sticking the mailing labels to the envelopes, sorting them into zip codes for the US and provinces for Canada.

Wednesday afternoon, as soon as lunch was out of the way, I began signing the books and when I had completely covered the living room floor with boxes of signed books, I cleared the table off and Doug began filling the envelopes.  The books for Canada and overseas went out on the Thursday.

Friday got messed up and I wasn't able to get all of the 0s and 1s ready but we got as many as were ready down to the post office.  Over the weekend, Doug continued to package up the books into the envelopes and on Monday the rest of the 1s, the 2s and 3s went to the post office and we were back on track.  Tuesday the 4s, 5s, 6s and 7s were taken to the post office and last Wednesday, the 8s and 9s were mailed.  Friday the multiple copy orders were mailed because Thursday got messed up, too.

(Did I say I've been having health/physical issues?)

By the end of last week people were beginning to let me know their books had arrived.  Today I got word that books to NC and TN (3s and 4s?) were beginning to arrive.

So the books are going out in ripples, from the furthest away to the nearest, which means that those closer to me will likely start showing up any day.

As I contemplate the amount of work it was to a) write the book (say it fast, it doesn't sound like it was much of an effort at all), then b) market it and c) process and ship the orders of the physical copies, I am grateful that that part of it is done.  There is still more b) to be done because I don't have a big advertising budget and it will need continuous nudging from me to keep people aware of it in the first place.

After honing my craft for 40 years, after having students tell me I have a good grasp of the craft and a knack for explaining it, after having weavers lament that they cannot come to me...it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to write another book and send it - and what I know - out into the world.  In ripples.  Because hopefully if people find the book useful, informative, valuable, they will let others know.

For all those people who emailed to say they didn't know, couldn't find it?  I just did a very basic search for The Intentional Weaver

The first two listings were a) a book review by Tien Chiu (who so kindly wrote the foreword for the book) b) a review by a local arts council newsletter and c) the direct link to the website where you can buy this and Magic in the Water - both in either print-on-demand or PDF versions.

As for the health/physical issues?  We are working on them.  Be assured that there is nothing very serious going on, it's more a matter of getting a handle on how best to manage the adverse effects of the cancer drug so that it continues to keep the cancer at bay while not kicking the snot out of me with said adverse effects.

I had not planned any trips out of town for the first quarter of the year given the book, the conference, the Olds homework marking, so this is a really good time to work on getting me a better quality of life.  And hopefully my hand will stop going numb - which may or may not be related to anything else going on in my body.

Just so long as I can keep the numbness from preventing me doing what I want to do, I'm good.  So far, so good.  It's mostly just really really annoying!

Currently reading A House of Lies by Ian Rankin