Author: Dan Blank

This is part of the Bittersweet Book Launch case study, where Dan Blank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore share the yearlong process of launching her novel. You can view all posts here.

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by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Today we canoed out to an island in the middle of the lake and had a picnic. I’m not going to complain. I *did* have another big book to read for blurb requests, but look, lying on an island while dangling one’s feet into a lake is definitely not the worst place to get some work done. And now I’m getting ready to go on a date. I’m getting spoiled by the minute.

 

This is part of the Bittersweet Book Launch case study, where Dan Blank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore share the yearlong process of launching her novel. You can view all posts here.

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by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

I read a really good book today. I listened raptly as my mother-in-law recounted attending the March on Washington fifty years ago. I played with my son. I went to the farmer’s market and sat in the forest next to a very patient toad for an hour. And then I came home to this:

In only nine days, I’ll be back in my “normal” life, and the sensation is, well, bittersweet. I have that back to school feeling, even though the only person going back to “school” in our family is our preschooler. Hard as I’ve been working this month, I know it pales in comparison to the drive I’ll feel, the tasks I’ll need to accomplish, come September.

Even before then, there are more books to read, more notes to write, a grant application to fill out, brainstorming about Friendstories and the next book and my website…

But I’m doing my best to slow down and be here, now. To remember the cool kiss of lake breeze on my cheek. The ripe taste of a hot farmer’s market tomato. My kiddo’s laughter as he swims and swims and swims. I think- I know- this time “off” makes me better in so many ways, but especially as a writer, almost as though it aerates my mind.

How do you aerate yours?

This is part of the Bittersweet Book Launch case study, where Dan Blank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore share the yearlong process of launching her novel. You can view all posts here.

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by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Today I sat out on the end of the dock and marveled at how beautiful the world is. There was lots to do, of course, and I was doing my best attempt at it: letters to write asking for blurbs for Bittersweet, books to read/ revisit of those I’ll be asking, a spreadsheet to create of who I’ve asked and the details about them, a story that’s been accepted for publication to revise, a new website bio to write, a newsletter to scheme up, all the work for the Friendstories blog, etc.

Instead, I found my mind drifting to my next book. It was a seductive journey- I’m still in the early blush of love with my new idea. Everything seems possible. I don’t yet know its flaws. I realized, as I sat on the dock, that I really do want to set part of the book here, in Maine, which has so much in common with Vermont (where Bittersweet is set) but has so many differences. The sound of the pine needles slipping down to the forest floor. The chill in the air. The grasshoppers whizzing through the air.

I’ve been so caught up in all that I must do, all that has a time-stamp on it, that I’ve lost track a little bit of what I love to do- make up stories. And so I sat on the edge of the dock and found myself smiling, full of the delicious secrets of my next set of main characters. Their foibles. Their determination. Their relationships. Their losses.

A book! I get to write a new book!

I’m so lucky.

This is part of the Bittersweet Book Launch case study, where Dan Blank and Miranda Beverly-Whittemore share the yearlong process of launching her novel. You can view all posts here.

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by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore

Yesterday was my ninth wedding anniversary, and we drove to Maine for a week at David’s mom’s house. Different view, different lake, same incredible beauty. This is what it looked like when we arrived:

 

And, a moment later, a panorama shot:

 

Here’s the same new view just after sunset tonight, replete with fishermen:

 

And the golden, almost-full, moon rising up over the lake just a few moments ago:

 

I’m reading lots of books this week as I send out a first round of letters to writers asking for blurbs for Bittersweet- I’m planning to spend a lot of time on the dock with a glass of lemonade while our son is entertained by his doting grandmother.