Schizophrenia Story: A Life of its Own
it's real! face out in B&N
After six years of writing, rewriting, hoping, polishing, editing, believing, and picking up the pieces more than once - Ben Behind His Voices is real. The official birthday is this Thursday, 9/15/11, but it has been shipped to Amazon customers already and this week I actually saw it at a Barnes & Noble bookstore!
OK, I admit I was looking for it. I was 30 minutes early for a recording session in Norwalk CT, so saw the B&N and thought "hmmm...I wonder?" and went hunting. And there it was. Face out, yet! Featured Title in the Addiction/Recovery section...(really? OK, whatever. I'll take it)
Seeing the book there, for real, was an amazing feeling, kind of like finally meeting the child you've nurtured in your womb for nine months. Wow. This was different from receiving my handful of author copies in the mail last month. I knew where those would go. Now, I see that each book will have a life of its own, a life that is now beyond my control. Who will buy these?, I wonder. Who has downloaded it onto their kindle? I've already begin receiving e-mails from readers I have never met. I got one last night that said, "I want to thank you for changing my life. I read Ben Behind His Voices in a day and a half on my Kindle...I can't thank you enough for your courage, and for your showing me how to cope and be positive. " After I read the rest of her e-mail she no longer felt like a stranger. My biggest hope for the book, for the audiobook as well, is that it will, indeed, take on a "life of its own" as any child must - and reach the people who will be touched, comforted, inspired, educated or simply gripped by the story. I have heard from readers in Canada, the UK, Brazil, and all over the U.S. And we've barely begun the journey.
Watch for the audiobook, coming this week, if you have a long commute. Wow. This is happening.
Book launch party next week! Mental Illness Awareness week very soon. Hope to meet you too.
