Reflections on Publication Day
A fluffy, lilac unicorn pen hung on the shelf before me. Nothing about this writing instrument was practical. And I had to buy it. There was a five, soon to be, six-year-old in sunny California that needed this pen. Her birthday was coming up, and just about everything purple, sparkly, and ridiculous in the store would have thrilled her. But this unicorn pen and matching journal called to me.
Honestly, I had little hope of the gift actually being used for more than a few doodles and stickered pages. Her mom and I love our journals! A cutesy part of me thought, “How adorable would it be?” if her girls, my bestie, and I would be sitting around a table writing in our diaries together.
Into the cart went the notebooks, pens, washi tape, and sticker pads. And off to California I went.
After a wild skate party, where little girls wobbled and weaved under the mirror ball, our new six-year-old sighed.
“I wish I had a diary to record all these memories I’m going to forget!”
My eyes caught her mother’s across the room. A knowing smile and a quick nod, “Well, there are some presents from Auntie Maddie we haven’t opened yet—”
Tissue paper and ribbon curls floated to the floor. No one had ever seen eyes so big.
“A diary! And a FLUFFY pen!”
Up until this moment, the level of writing, vocabulary, and spelling of this sweet kinder were unknown to me. I was surprised, to say the least, when she sat down to write. And write.
And write.
This little girl carried her diary everywhere we went recording thoughts, noting memories and preferences, and annotating her precious life. Words, no one could have known, bubbled out of her heart and splashed onto those purple pages.
We couldn’t help ourselves. Each night, after she was sound asleep, my friend and I would shove close together and read what her daughter had written that day. It was fun to piece together the messages encrypted by backwards e’s and unique spellings of her sister’s name. Everything she wanted to remember was recorded right there in her diary.
The week came to an end, as book launch week was starting. I sat on the concrete bench outside John Wayne airport and thought about how I feel when I let my words spill out on pages. There are days when I want to write “No TochY!” on the front cover, because of my insecurities. But on the good days, writing makes me so happy that I feel brave. Brave enough to share.
This week, My Brother’s Mark is released into the wide world. It’s a historical fiction piece set in the 1960s in Czechoslovakia after the Iron Curtain closed the borders. These are words I am immensely proud of, and nervous about, and cannot keep to myself any longer. My Brother’s Mark is a story meant for sharing. And I hope you will pick up a copy, open up the front cover, and enjoy reading it.
Happy Publication Day, Pavla!
Pre orders (which include great goodies!) of My Brother’s Mark will be available on the website through the end of the month. To order from Amazon, paperback or Kindle eBook, just click below!