Things are hotting up for the launch of my book, Island Wife, to be published by Two Roads on March 28th. The Hodder team, of which Two Roads is an imprint, are working hard on press releases, magazine reviews, media opportunities and book signings.
As my penultimate son would have said when the excitement in him rose like a wave….’I can hardly bear my seating!’
People, friends, ask me ‘what does it feel like?’
Like champagne in my veins.
Like a moon flash on the sea loch as the storm clouds part.
Like the smell of sunshine after rain, or the first cuckoo in Spring.
And so much more.
Far more.
That’s my new name. Honest, no kidding.
‘Farmor’ means Father’s mother in Swedish and it is the name my new little Viking grand-daughter will probably call me on her Swedish days.
I digress somewhat.
Over the next few weeks, my story will be heavying down the post-people and the carriers as the copies wing their way around the country. E books will ding through space and time to settle into Kindles and Ipads and people in dentist waiting rooms will forget the tropical fish for as long as it takes to read some review on me and my book.
I will find my book in shop windows, or held in hands on a train, or a bus. Will I say anything? Will I bounce up all full of beans and introduce myself, offer to sign the copy and leave just knowing they will spend days buzzing with the excitement or will I slide past with a flicker of a look and hope I am not recognised?
Honestly, I just don’t know, for who is born for this, for a sudden chance at some level of fame, be it good fame or not so good fame? Who knows, when stepping into new shoes (haven’t bought them yet) or onto a new path, what to do or what to say? I won’t know my surroundings and we are always better when we know our surroundings. And people will look at me differently once they have read the bones of me. I wonder what that will feel like. After all, for most of the year, I hide myself happily away on the island, sometimes seeing not one person all day long. Now it seems I must walk this baby into the world, which is what I always wanted, always dreamed of. Not the publicity, although I am sure I will enjoy it all, but to touch on another’s life, to make a connection through my story, with theirs, with yours, perhaps, and to tell you without telling you at all, that you can do it too, whatever it may be for you.
I might meet you on this new road.
New Road. Two Roads.
Judy Fairbairns 