Hello,
By the time you read this, I will be in seat number 1A, somewhere over the Atlantic en route from Zurich, Switzerland to New York’s JFK airport.
I had enough miles and two global upgrade vouchers left to sponsor seats up here. And since Delta finally changed their policy where tickets purchased with miles count towards accruing status, I am finally using my miles for me.
But my obsession with collecting air miles and my race to travel 1 million actual miles with Delta and Sky Team Partners are not the focus of this post either. (But for those who are worried—I’m close and I have a spreadsheet that’s tracking.)
I am spending the 9-hour 30-minute flight across the world trying to get the Purser to be my “best friend.” If you ever get a chance to fly business, choose seat 1A. You will get the best service. If you’re nice.
My travel companion is behind me. What they are doing is not important to the story.
We are sitting one in front of the other instead of side-by-side because this is a day flight, and we like to look out the windows.
We are going to New York. It’s very exciting.
There, we will meet two other friends of mine who are very important to me. The reason for this trip? To celebrate and commemorate the manuscript that I’ve written and rewritten for the past few years.
When the trip was originally booked, it was supposed to be the celebration of me finishing the final draft of my manuscript, the “sale-able” version. The one that I will formally submit to the agents who expressed interest in my project when I pitched it to them over the summer. The one that one of them will take to publishers and sell. Which will then go through a two-year publishing production process before it’s printed, bound, and available for sale on the internet and in places like Hudson Booksellers at the airports across the US (I hope!) and foreign rights negotiated at Frankfurt Book Fair so it’s available for sale to my friends in international English-speaking markets with foreign translation rights soon to follow. (During this time an editor will interrupt my run-on sentences.)
Then, will you be able to read it.
But two years is a long time. I know because that’s how long I’ve been working with it. In that time, I have re-written the same book three times. The draft that I’m deep in feels like the one. (It’s amazing how long the creative process takes and when you know you have something, you know.)
I don’t want to keep you waiting for this book for two more years. I know many of you ask me when you can read it. I smile and cheekily respond that it’ll be when it’s on the shelf at the bookstore (see my dream above), which is true.
But, I am starting this space, this newsletter, to give you a preview. Droplets of the stories. Stories that didn’t make the book and landed on the cutting room floor. Updates on where I’m at with the publishing process—for my accountability’s sake and others. And to share with you what I’m building that’s been inspired by the book. (Which is something you can help me out with too.)
Let’s see how this goes.
Thank you for taking an interest in my book and my project. I hope you know how much you mean to me.
For now, I will ask for another drink. Probably a custom cocktail made from the best ingredients that you can get between 33,000 and 42,000 feet in the air: gin, ginger ale, a splash of cranberry juice, and two limes, if they have some.
And I will write to you again later. Probably next week when I’m back in Europe.
Warmly from somewhere over the Atlantic,
Laura