My Book Is Published!
After two weeks of joyful chaos surrounding the release of You Should be Grateful, I’ve spent the past two hours planting sunflowers in my garden. I’ve needed this quiet, meditative time because it offered a moment of reprieve from the back-to-back zoom interviews, travel, endless to-do lists and weird dreams.
Overwhelmed, honored, humbled, inspired… These are just a few emotions I’ve felt as I’ve been swept up in the flurry of activity.
On the day of the launch, I went to a bookstore with a friend to see my book out on the shelf for the first time. While there, the staff brought over a stack of books and asked me to sign them all, so they could have some autographed copies to sell.
That was a moment! It gave me pause as I recognized the amount of energy, time, and emotion - not to mention all the details and logistics - we went through to get from idea to concept to this beautiful end product.
I say “we” because it truly takes a village. I was raised and loved by a village, and my village helped me get this book out to the world.
The Book Tour Begins
My publicist has been hard at work over the past six months setting up my cross-country book tour. It kicked off on April 20 at Elliott Bay Bookstore in Seattle where I was joined by Marcus Harrison Green who moderated the conversation and audience Q&A.
Angela & Marcus Harrison Green on stage at Elliott Bay Bookstore, the first stop on the YSBG book tour.
It was during this event that I realized the impact You Should be Grateful is already having. During this first event, a few audience members shared tha they too were adoptees, but that they had never publicly identified themselves as an adoptee.
I was overwhelmed by their courage and proud to have created something that is allowing folks safety to speak up, speak out, come out of the shadows and find each other! This is a blessing I did not anticipate having the opportunity to witness, and I felt so overcome with emotion to see it come alive in front of me.
Dress Like The Book Cover #BookLook
Since late last year, I have been dreaming of hosting my book launch party with friends and family at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, a world renowned location that is near and dear to my heart. This week the dream became a reality with an epic book launch party where 150 of you joined me for the occasion. To those of you who were there - thank you! I hope you had as memorable of a time as I did.
My dear friend, Ken Nsimbi, the launch party emcee extraordinaire stands in front of the guests who came up to the stage to show off their colorful outfits.
Priya Parker has become an influential figure in my life. I channeled the wisdom from her book, The Art of Gathering, where she encourages us to banish stale conferences, flat dinner parties, and unproductive board meetings by reimagining our gatherings.
As one who has made it my lifestyle to buck tradition, I sent VIP tickets to family and friends via snail mail, and suggested the guests “dress like the book cover.” It’s silly, but having seen this hashtag on social media, I suggested it without expectation. Unbelievably, a few dozen guests accepted the challenge!
My friend, and fellow author, Ashley Rodriguez was the crowd favorite for her #booklook. In Hollywood-speak, they’d say “she understood the assignment.”
Onward and Upward
This is just the beginning. The book launch party and book tour kick-off is the start of a busy few months. It’s a period of ‘busy-ness’ that I will embrace. It symbolizes a fraction of this period of my life when I have the honor of sharing my story and bringing people together around the topic of adoption.
I hope I get to see you at one of our upcoming events. Be sure to keep checking the book tour page of the website for new dates and locations.