Launch Day!!

Dear Friends,

It’s been a long, winding road, but the day is here: My debut memoir, The Part That Burns, is born. You are invited to celebrate with me at a couple of fun, free events this week.

Tonight, my publisher is hosting a launch reading for me where I will be in conversation with writer Melissa Wiley (Antlers in Space). All attendees are eligible to win a free, signed copy of The Part That Burns, too! Here’s the registration link; the event starts at 6 CST/7 EST.

Second, this Friday night, February 5, 7 CST/8EST, Moon Palace Books will host a launch party for The Part That Burns. I’ll be reading with Maggie Smith (Good Bones, Keep Moving) and Michele Filgate (What My Mother & I Don’t Talk About). The three of us will also be talking about the power of narrative in shaping our lives with the expert facilitation of Sheila O’Connor (Minnesota Book Award Winner and author of Evidence of V). Plus, singer/songwriter Brianna Lane will perform, including a song she wrote specifically for The Part That Burns! You can register here!

You can find out about other fun readings and events here.

Meanwhile, I just want to thank you all, my amazing community, for the love you’ve already shown to this book, and to me. I cannot tell you how much this means—your texts and emails and tweets and Instas and FB posts and postcards (sweet!!) and even, gasp, phone calls?! I am so blessed. It makes this whole process feel more real and less lonely, less vulnerable (the book is vulnerable enough, all by itself).

Speaking of vulnerable. I’ve been told by a lot of writers, really smart, experienced writers, that pub day might be kind of a letdown. Because … nothing really changes. The book exists, sure, bu then what? Everything is the same.

Everything except one very crucial thing, which is that this story, this container of moving shapes and spirits that’s been living inside me for all these years, is now its own entity. Which means I, too, am my own entity. And that, truly, is something. Plus, I can turn back to writing fiction now, which feels thrilling!

So thank you again, from my whole heart.

With love,

Jeannine