The stuff of book launch week

Launch week miscellany including weird dreams, lists of lists, all the book events I'm doing, and two very strong book recs.

We’ve entered the final week before Push Off launches: single-digit countdown days now (one week, as of today!), and things are getting a little weird over here.

I’m keeping lists of my lists.

I’m having dreams about losing things: my teeth, my engagement ring, T’s phone number.

I’ll be chill and then think: what’s wrong with you, have some urgency!

I’ll be urgent and then think: what’s wrong with you, chill!

There’s this constant, anxious feeling that there’s *so much to do* but also, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing?

So, to both help my brain and communicate the various things that are going down in the next week or so, I have for you today…a list!

But first: here’s me this morning after being gone for a week:

When I die and go to heaven, this is what I will be doing there.

Last week, T asked, “So what actually happens on pub day?” He just learned this phrase, “pub day.”

Maybe you’re wondering this too.

I’ve only had one, but I don’t think this one will be too different, which is to say it’ll be exciting and fun, but also strangely normal. There will be no big bus in front of my house, no singing telegram, no announcement over the PA system telling everyone TODAY’S THE DAAAAAYYYYY!, no phone calls from Oprah or Reese. I’ll still wake up with bad breath and pad downstairs and check email and Instagram while I’m making coffee. My cats will not care about the new book that took me years to write; they’ll want breakfast. Alma will probably ask me where her gray sweatpants are, and I’ll ask, “Which ones?” because there are, like, five pairs, and she’ll be so disgusted with this question that she’ll slam her bedroom door, and I’ll shrug and take a sip of coffee.

But, also! It means that the book will be available for purchase (not just pre-order) just about everywhere books are sold, meaning you can either go into a Barnes & Noble and see it IRL, or order it on Amazon and get it the next day (or so), or head over to your local bookstore and hopefully grab a copy there. It also means the sales officially start counting toward bestseller lists¹, that you can officially leave reviews for the book on Amazon (Goodreads allows them well before the pub date), and book events begin!

I’m very excited that the day will be punctuated with a live event at Harvard Bookstore with Christie Tate, author of BFF. I’ll be showing up directly after taking Alma to her Tuesday night indoor soccer game, and she’ll be in tow.

On that note, here are all the fun events happening for launch.

Book events for Push Off from Here

• Mon. 3/6, 7 pm ET: Laura McKowen & Melissa Urban on Instagram live

• Tues. 3/7, 7 pm ET: Laura McKowen & Christie Tate at Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, MA

• Weds. 3/8, 8 pm ET: Virtual Launch Party, Laura McKowen & Nora McInerny. Registration required.

• Thurs. 3/9, 10 am ET: Laura McKowen & Amanda Haas on Instagram live

• Thurs. 3/9, 12 pm ET: Laura McKowen & Shauna Niequist on Instagram live

• Mon. 3/13, 6 pm ET: Laura McKowen & Chris Marshall on Instagram live

• Weds. 3/15, 4:30 pm ET: Laura McKowen & Elena Brower on Instagram live

• Tues. 3/21, 8 pm ET: Laura McKowen & Laura Cathcart Robbins, author of Stash, a virtual event for TLC members only²

• Weds. 4/19, 7:30 pm PT: Laura McKowen at Warwick Books in La Jolla, CA

• Sat. 4/23, 7 pm PT: Laura McKowen & SansBar in Portland, OR. Tickets required.

• Sat. 5/6, 7 pm ET: Laura McKowen & SansBar in NYC. Tickets required.

• Sat. 5/20, 7 pm ET: Laura McKowen & SansBar in DC. Tickets required.

• Sat. 6/17, 7 pm MT: Laura McKowen & SansBar in Denver, CO. Tickets required.

• Sat. 8/26, 7 pm ET: Laura McKowen & SansBar in Toronto. Tickets required.

Phew! I’m tired now!

This week, I’ll be recording a bunch more podcasts in addition to the dozen or so I’ve already done. I’ll share links to those on IG and here if I can remember. Some will drop this week, most next week, and a few later in March.

Last! I read two excellent books last week. They were eerily similar in terms of timing: one took place at a college during my exact college years (1995-’99), and one took place at a high school during my exact high school years (1991-’95), so that was trippy. They also both took place on the east coast and the main characters were women with similar-ish voices, so I kept transposing characters and plotlines. So maybe don’t read them back to back if you want to avoid that, but definitely read them both.

The first is My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Florin. This is what I had to say about it:

laura_mckowen

A post shared by Laura McKowen (@laura_mckowen)

The second is I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai. What a freaking page-turner. RK is so, so talented.

laura_mckowen

A post shared by Laura McKowen (@laura_mckowen)

Have you read either? If not, have you read anything amazing lately that we should know about? Let us know. Sharing is caring. I’m going to try and write one more newsletter this week as my mind swirls and I make more lists of lists. #help

More soon,
Laura

PS. Please preorder Push Off from Here if you haven’t already! Or buy another copy or four for your friends, neighbors, coworkers, parents, lovers.

1. All pre-orders of books count towards the first week of sales, which is why pre-orders matter so much to authors, because it’s typically their best shot at making a bestseller list, and also higher presales signal to booksellers like Amazon, B&N, etc. that there’s interest in the book, so they’ll stock more.

2. More details coming soon. This is a closed event for The Luckiest Club community. Laura’s memoir Stash also comes out on March 7, and it’s excellent.