So much joy
What We Found Instead finds its way into the world
What We Found Instead is alive in the world, and here I am with a breathless report!
With help from so many supportive folks, my vision was fulfilled on Tuesday for an outdoor dockside launch that would invite people into an experience of community and connection and would feel like walking into the pages of the novel. One friend said that when she drove up the forested lane to Lamb’s Pond, for a split second she thought she was about to be seeing WWFI protagonists Eve and Maggie.
Also: It didn’t rain!!
My best friend Anena, my barbershop chorus, and I created a mini-musical of the novel, complete with flash mob (check out Anena’s face in the photo when she hears the chorus for the first time). Anena (in yellow) was the very able MC for the evening. My friend Gabrielle McIntire, poet and Queen’s English professor, was my conversation partner and asked such good questions—my favourite was when she inquired into what I’m working on next and I spoke publicly about my manuscript-in-progress for the first time, including revealing to my parents that it’s inspired by the lives of their mothers. There were tears.
My daughter Maia made sangria. My daughter Aphra cast weather spells and created What We Found Instead bingo. 75 or more people came, with umbrellas we didn’t need and so much support and joy, gamely hooting out loon calls (a bingo square) and talking to strangers to find someone who never ever DNF’s a book no matter how bad.
My sister Marja sat beside me during book signing and wrote alternate epilogues to tuck into people’s books, in which Karl the cheating boyfriend met various creative and untimely demises. I had no idea she was going to do this and it made me laugh so hard. This was in homage to when we were teenagers and she used to sneak over to my computer if I left it unattended and add lines to my manuscripts-in-progress that I would discover on my return from the kitchen or weeks later, love scenes or absurd dialogue or overly flowery descriptions (a lot of cornflower blue eyes).
The vibes, as my 16-year-old would say, were immaculate.
And the next morning, we rested. JK, we got in the car and drove 4 hours to Toronto! Correction: my husband Richard drove. I sat in the passenger seat and madly answered emails. Big shout-out to Richard here, who has eased the way for so much of this. And also turned down an acting gig that would have taken place right now because I burst into tears at the thought of not having his undivided support for this week.
In Toronto I had an interview at CBC Radio, then cat-napped in a little room in the Penguin Random House offices, then went for dinner with my editor, publicist, marketing director, and the Random House Canada Publisher, who I was meeting in person for the first time and who was so lovely.
And then it was time for the urban book launch! Which was completely different from the dockside launch and also entirely special. My conversation partner was my editor, Sarah Jackson, with whom I’ve worked on two books now and have apparently developed quite the bantery rapport, or at least that’s what emerged when we got in front of an audience together.
I felt entirely relaxed and at ease and just had a really good time. Earlier, toward the end of dinner with my publishing team, I felt my social batteries getting low and didn’t know how I was going to make it through the night. Then we arrived at the venue, the very swish top floor of Soho House, and my sister Leah was the first guest to appear, and I remembered that people I love were going to be there (I think I’d forgotten?) and was so happy.
And so many people I love were there! My sister Rebekah and her two kids travelled from Northern Ontario. Toronto friends from so many eras and areas of my life came: friends from the Toronto Women Writers Salon, who gave me transformative community for a decade and a sense that I was a writer during the years I was trying and failing to finish and publish a book; fellow parents and teachers from the small alternative school our daughters attended; close friends, former coworkers, friends from university, actor friends, several of my dear coachees, new readers I was delighted to meet. My dear friend Heather who took care of me at the signing table and took most of these pictures.
The next day, I visited bookstores and signed stock across Toronto with my publicist, Kim, and this was so fun—getting to know booksellers, getting to know Kim better, building more community. I’m in love with the brand-new Book Bar—if you’re in Toronto, definitely check that out. I didn’t want to leave.
And now I’m home. I have more events in the fall and some interviews coming up in the next couple weeks—and Richard and Aphra and I are spending today visiting Ottawa and area bookstores—but What We Found Instead is well and truly launched.
If you’ve read the book already, would you consider leaving a review? This can be on Goodreads or Story Graph or your library’s website, or on the retail site where you purchased it (Indigo, Amazon US / Amazon Canada, Barnes & Noble, etc.). Reader reviews help a ton, especially early on, both with encouraging the algorithm to push the book in front of more eyes and with helping humans take a chance on a book they might not have heard of.
And if you don’t have the book, you can request it at your library or buy it now wherever books are sold. Including the audiobook, narrated by yours truly, for which I’m delighted to be receiving rave reports from early listeners! (Did you know you can support an independent bookstore of your choice by getting the audiobook through Libro.fm?)
What We Found Instead is a perfect summer read—ideally at the side of a lake or in a rainy-day cottage if you can manage it, but really, anywhere and anytime works!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for being here. I’m so excited to share Maggie and Eve’s story with you. And I know they really want to meet you, too. They told me.
Warmly,
Heidi
P.S. Richard made a video cramming the two launches into 60 seconds—and you can hear some of the barbershop musical!