When your child turns 18, you launch them into the world. Unless they take a gap year, which is what is occurring in our house, but that’s another story for a different kind of blog. No. When a child reaches 18, we hope that we have taught them all of our values and skills and they have enough common sense to be able to go out and make their way. This is unlike birds, who pretty much throw their babies from the next and say “see ya!” Of course, there are those “failures to launch.” There was even a movie about that. Who is to say that when your child turns 18, they know everything? What if the parent doesn’t know everything, so couldn’t teach the child? What if, while the child was in high school, a global pandemic hit, and everyone was regressed several years, both parents and children? Maybe we have some leeway? Maybe 19 is a better age. Or for some kids, they may be ready to launch at 16.

Ships are launched after being christened by a bottle of wine. Rockets are launched above a large mass of flames. A watermelon can be launched through the air with a catapult. Launch means “Propel with force,” or “get going, give impetus to.” What I’ve been describing has been the first definition. What I’ll be talking about next is the second one.

I’m talking about a good old fashioned book launch, like the one I had last week. It’s sort of a like a baby shower for a new book. And like a baby shower, people appear to be much more interested in your first launch than they are in your second one. The way I see it is, people are very excited when someone they know does something unexpected, or something that they would never do. So when I told everyone I know that I wrote a book, they were impressed, and happy for me. They wanted to celebrate me, like a first time mother. They all asked questions about my book, and where to get it, what it was about, and where I got my insperation to write it. Then I told them that I was now writing my 12th book. That just about blew them away! Who can write one book, let alone 12! It was as if I told them that I was planning on having 12 kids before I was done, and I’d even named all of them already! So, if you have these 12 (so far) books, they all have to be released, or launched, right? So how often is this going to happen? Every 9 months like a baby, every year, once every two years? Uh, no. Not every two years. That would take 24 years, and my work will be irrelevant by then. So I have been opting for every 6 months. So my first book was launched on March 4, 2023, and over 40 people came to celebrate with me, join the raffle, socialize, eat cake, and buy my book. I sold 62 copies in the first three days.

Jump to baby number two. “I Just Can’t Say I Love You.” Ironically, I can say I love this book, just as much, if not more than my first book. I mean, a mother loves all of her children equally right? But from the first to the second child, a mother learns a whole lot about how to take care of a baby, and how to be a mother. It’s the same with book. When I wrote my first book, it took me so many times through to be able to get it just right. It had to be perfect. There had to be just the right amount of words and chapters. The characters had to be just so. But with book number 2, you buy the cheap diapers, right? I mean, I put a lot into each book, but the second one definitely went more smoothly than the first, because I was learning the ropes with experience. So when it launched, I was ready to celebrate, just like I was with book 1. I was excited, and I wanted everyone to be excited with me. But you know how it is with baby number 2. “Wait a minute, didn’t you already have a baby? I could have sworn you had one. I’m pretty sure I already said congratulations and bought you a gift, and came to visit and told you how cute your little bundle of joy was. Now you’re going to tell me I have to do it again? Ugh.”

But there was CAKE!!!!!

I mean, come on. Who can say no to cake? And who can say no to cake with tiny little versions of my book distributed around it on toothpicks?

And brownies, made by my own child!

Also with tiny books stuck in them. Not to mention tiny egg salad sandwiches, pita with hummus, vegetables, a great setting (Thank you, Rose City Book Pub, again), and good friends? Well, apparently a lot of people can say no. Because for the first hour, there was no one there, except for me, my spouse, the staff, and a few of the venue’s patrons. It was kind of embarassing. Even my own daughter wasn’t there yet. I began to become discouraged, looking at my little swag stickers spread out across two round tables invitingly, and the empty raffle jar.

Happily, a few people did show up an hour later, staggering in and out until the end of the event. Those people are total rock stars, and I thank them. I started to wonder if this would have been what it was like if I’d had a second child and there was a shower. Would I have sat for hours amongst helium balloons, and little confetti pacifiers, and little cupcakes decorated with plastic babies and white frosting (I wouldn’t know the gender, so no pink or blue, please, until my child tells me what their gender might be…). I have to admit, I was sad. Not depressed, but just sad. I started to think about it. I bet a lot of people didn’t come because they had other plans. That was it. It was the last weekend predicted to have nice weather before the rains were due to come. I bet a lot of people had figured, “you know, I went to her last party, and it was really fun. She’ll understand if I don’t come to this one.” Sure. I get it. But in the end, there were 10 people. So everyone had the same idea. “I did this once. She’ll have other people there. She’ll understand.” Yeah, I get it. I sometimes want to do nothing, or something else on the weekend than what I originally intended to do. No big deal. But maybe it is.

Anyway, out of the lovely people that came to my party, four bought books, and one won a book. I see that as a success. I’m an adult now, not a child. I know that if people don’t come to my party, they still like me, and respect my work, and want me to succeed. Of course they do. They all told me that they do. Most of them apologized for not coming. To be fair, most people said they’d try to come. And a few did. And I still like all of them. But I just had to blow out my candles alone, and sing “happy birthday to me…” Just Kidding! This is not the plot of a horror movie! It’s an uplifting blog about an author who writes really cool books and wants to release them into the world. So there’s still time, and still a way.

The good news is that both of my books are still on sale on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I’m trying Kindle Unlimited for the new one, to see how it goes, at least for the 3 month commitment. So far, no pages have been read, and this keeps me from being able to sell my ebook elsewhere, so the jury is still out. But yeah, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and for those of you that want to sell them in your stores, you can get them on Ingram Spark at a significant bookstore discount. Check them out! And I think next time, instead of an IRL launch party, I’ll try to do a live, online one, so no one had to leave their home. I get why people want to stay home. There’s a tv there, and you can watch anything you want. All of your animals live there, and so to your clothes and toys. But just sayin’, the cake was pretty darn good. You can ask the folks at my work, who had a feast the day after my launch party. It was yummy!

Me doing a reading. I swear, I was reading to real people.

Yummy snacks!

Tiny egg salad sandwiches, with no tiny books on a toothpick, because I ran out of them.

May I Have Your Attention Please is available now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and anywhere that eBooks are sold. Please check it out, and if you do read my book, please leave a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, or whatever other platform you are using. It would mean a whole lot!

I Just Can’t Say I Love You is available on Amazon, Kindle Unlimited, Barnes and Noble, and Ingram Spark, staring Carl and Kim and the usual cast of characters.

Here again are the links to my Facebook page, Debby Meltzer Quick Author, TikTok, @dbmquick and Instagram, quickdebby_author. Please follow me on these pages. And please explore my page here at debbymeltzerquickauthor.com.