I'm About to be A Book Mom

September 2, 2024, is the debut of my memoir in verse, Recalibrating Gravity. I always thought when I finished my book and found a publishing home, I'd be done. How silly of me.

Once Woodhall Press agreed to publish my memoir, I had another year of work to do. I suppose if I hadn't decided to illustrate my book, that time would have been cut down. But I don't think by much.

Every book needs to be polished to shine. Seems like typos like to hide in plain sight. That's mostly due to our brains filling in missing words or correcting misspelled ones. The proofreading process never seems to end. Then there is the task of laying out the book.

A poetry book is challenging in itself because stanzas can’t be broken across pages like paragraphs. Formatting a book full of shape poems and illustrations is a marathon.

I was fortunate that Woodhall Press and their team care about their authors and the finished product. As for my book, their layout artist should win an award for patience. My sister, Carolyn Keating, who is a writer herself as well as an editor and proofreader, added her love and expertise. My brother, David Keating, an artist and photographer, was kind enough to take my author photo. The end result was a family affair and a team effort.

So that's it, right...

Not even close. Now, I need to let the world know about my book so it will have readers. Marketing is key. I’m so grateful to the award winning poets and well established poetry colleagues I’ve come to know over the years who wrote lovely reviews for the inside and back cover to entice readers.

Going forward there are contests to enter, prizes to apply for, and podcasts to get invited on as a guest. If you have an podcast and are looking for guest speakers, leave me a message.

Unbeknownst to me, I started marketing my book well before I wrote it by slowly becoming known in the literary world. That process began seven years ago when I first attended the Poet's Salon at the Fairfield Library and shared a few poems. A couple of months later, I discovered Medium, a website where writers can publish their work individually or become a writer for one of its hundreds of publications.
There, I began building an audience.

When my poem, "How to Survive in a Wheelchair" was curated by Medium’s staff, I got my first objective acceptance. Encouraged, I sent "Hospital's Care" to New Mobility Magazine (a publication outside of Medium) without first checking their guidelines. Had I, I’d have discovered they don't even publish poetry and wouldn’t have even tried. Lucky for me, New Mobility did published my poem because it captured the subpar treatment by our health care system of so many disabled people.

Little by little, my poems were published by various online and print anthologies. This Summer a dream came true when Rattle published my ghazal, "Full of It." How thrilling to not only receive its journal by snail mail but to open my email on August 5th along with thousands of their subscribers and discover my poem as Rattle’s shared poem of the day.
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Birthing a book is hardly a nine-month gestation period. It's one that takes years, maybe decades. Tons of trial and error. Lots of rejection until acceptance. But, like having a child, the journey for me is just beginning.

I can hardly wait to find a package in my mailbox with the first copy of my book. Finally, hold it in my hands.
I hope all of you who order my book will feel the same way. I’m confident you’ll find encouragement, hope, and lots of love inside its pages.