Forgetting the Pain of Labor

So...writing "Love You More" and learning what it really means to have a book in production has been a thrill, an enormous privilege, and truly exhausting.

Each time I've hit send -- first in November when I'd finished writing the book and then again in January after edits were done and then again (and again) after going through other versions of the manuscript -- I've let out a deep breath and thought, "Okay, now I'm done."

But, indeed, I wasn't. In fact, I still have, as Robert Frost says, "miles to go before I sleep."

When I first sent the book to my editor, I went downstairs and, walking through our shelf-laden family room, saw the hundreds of books sitting so calmly and patiently there in a new light. I skimmed my finger over their spines with a sense of admiration for all of those authors that, somehow, had managed to complete their manuscripts. I wanted to throw a party for each and every one of them.

It wasn't unlike a feeling that washed over me after becoming a mother for the first time. I'd see moms and their babies or toddlers and think, "Wow - good for you. You made it through the incredible journey -- and joy and pain -- of labor. Well done!" But, of course, the work has only just begun after a baby is born. Similarly, getting permissions, thinking about publicity, soliciting endorsements, looking over edits and revisions, and so much else is the "real work" that begins after the book is "born."

And, now, like a mother whose baby is a several months old -- the pain of labor mostly forgotten or at least wrapped into the neat packaging of the narrative she's created to describe it -- I can't wait to do it all over again.