Culmination & gratitude

And honouring the little girl

It’s publication day for The Mother Act, and oh my goodness, I think I am living the dream just a bit. Here’s a little behind-the-scenes from yesterday, just as I was settling on my bed around noon for a bit of relaxed productivity (and possibly a nap? it never happened):

That’s a WhatsApp message from my agent, and that’s a New York Times review, and that’s me forgetting how to use words.

The review is everything I could ask for, thoughtful and personal and nuanced—and, in a genius bit of casting I could not have predicted, written by Molly Jong-Fast, the daughter of Erica Jong, who it turns out lived some elements of my novel herself.

I love that she highlights the daughter’s experience in the novel, when so much of the conversation I’ve seen has centered on the mother’s experience. I love that half the review is about her own life and not about the book at all, because I am discovering that this is how readers engage with this book—through the lens of their own experience, deeply.

I held my own private dance party and I also cried a bit. Thinking of the journey it’s been, the long long journey, the years of keeping the faith and persisting with no external evidence that there would ever be payoff, the massive number of rejections.

And now here’s my debut novel looking pretty on the cover of the New York Times Books section, what?

This morning I’ve also been thinking a lot of the little girl growing up in the Northern Ontario bush who loved books and wanted to write them. Feeling her strongly, honouring her passion and confidence as she decided she was going to do a thing no one she knew had ever even tried to do.

She was so badass.

I’m grateful, honoured, thrilled to be here. And I don’t just mean about the review but about everything. I worked hard! It took me a long time! I know so many other people do the same and never get much notice for it. I honour those people too. I know so much of the outcome is out of our hands.

I’m just celebrating the heck out of this particular moment I’m in right now, today, this morning. And I’m sharing with you because you’ve been a little part of the journey too.

Warmly,

Heidi

P.S. I’ll be interviewed live this morning about The Mother Act at 9:30am Eastern on Radio Kingston in New York, and you can stream it live online if you want!