Saturday, Oct. 17, 2020 - 12:22 pm.
I have the entire next week off! The university is taking a week-long break, blessed be. HOWEVER, I still will have to do some work *skull emoji*. We have to record a symposium for a conference with my boss and two of her students, then I have a meeting with my thesis students AND I have an undergrad thesis exam. The latter two activities are from the other university in which I have a few gigs, which is not taking a break. Dammit.
Nevertheless, if all goes well, I may be done with work by Tuesday and I can have the rest of the week to myself. Here's hoping. I don't trust these breaks because I always end up having to work. Conference deadlines don't wait, other universities remain working. So it goes.
Now, I'm ridiculously excited because my book is coming out on Tuesday. I'm already getting support and interest from friends and acquaintances, and all of a sudden I think I wrote something nice.
Someone from the publishing house sent me an interview that they'll put up on their website, and they're ramping up the marketing machine. I mean, it's not putting up billboards or anything, but they make my work visible. That's their strength I think, more than actual editing.
It's finally out, then, almost. This is the last weekend I'll talk about this story like an unpublished piece of work. It's been a long road. I came up with the story in 2007, wrote a draft in 2016-2017, and the rest has been rejections, revisions, redrafting. I really hope people like it. I'm proud of it, it's a part of me. It's like a home to me.
This past week, also, Andrew and I attended our second adoption workshop. I didn't like this one. The content was fine. We've been writing about different aspects that we imagine about our child, and we've discussed the physical and psychological damage that babies and children in homes have endured. The latter is heartbreaking, but nothing I didn't know.
I didn't like it because it had a horrendously racist story about a Chilean kid being adopted and taken to "Africa", to live in a hut that smelled like cow dung. Jesus Fucking Christ, what the fresh hell. Fuck that noise.
There was also questionable language from the psychologist and social worker about mental health issues, which I thought was very out of character for them and disappointed me. And of course, the conservative, uninformed views held by some of the other couples in the workshop. I can't stand the pastor and his psycho wife (she's like a character from a horror movie who tries to come off as sweet and nurturing but you see in her eyes that she's ready to lose it). More than not standing them, though, it's that they scare me.
Thankfully, someone else has joined the workshop group, a woman who is adopting on her own. She seemed pretty badass, and not only because she's doing this "alone" (she did say she has a solid support network from friends). She had pretty sensible views on the topics we've been discussing. She's a teacher in a rural area. She's seen some shit.
The good news is that we only have one more workshop session to go, this Thursday. And last night we had our friend Lorena over for food and drinks, and we told her about the process. Andrew said he'd wish we could speed up the process and have our child already. I was happy to hear that because I perceive him as reluctant and scared about the adoption, as I am, but I'm usually more vocal about that wish. It was nice hearing it from him.
So yes: book, kid, I can't fucking wait. All comes in its due time, though, and for now it's my book's turn. Wish it luck. The premise may sound a bit catastrophic but I think there's plenty of hope, solidarity, and small victories inside its pages. The world feels like it's ending but we have other priorities. This was not my intention, but it may actually be a good read in the face of menacing times like our own. People will love it.
Hey, it's not out yet, so I can still imagine whatever I want.