Month # 7

Again, not unlike what an expectant mother might be doing as the delivery date draws near, I have been giving quite a bit of attention this month to the older sibling.  Don’t worry, I haven’t entirely lost my mind; I know that books and babies are different, but here’s the thing: as I eagerly await the moment when I will actually hold the physical volume of A Tale of Two Citizens in my hands, I have been occupied with the update of my earlier book, Father Loss, which to my great delight is set to be reissued in February 2016. It is a pleasure to be interacting with this earlier work, even as I simultaneously try to stay on top of responsibilities attendant to the book to come, such as:

Should I be scheduling book signings for A Tale of Two Citizens? Bookstore readings?
Who does this, the author or the publisher?
Should I have received the Advance Readers Copy by now?
Has it gone out to reviewers as the publisher said it would?
If I send these questions to my publisher, will he try to be patient even as he lets me know in the gentlest way possible that I just ask too many gosh darn questions?  (See blog post #2 and Uncle Norman’s admonition)

     So yes, there is no shortage of things to be thinking about with regard to the upcoming publication date of my novel. But working on the earlier book is a wonderful distraction, giving me the opportunity to just flat-out write, to re-visit issues that I continue to be fascinated by, and to expand upon my investigation into what is for me one of the most compelling relationships in the human experience, that of father and daughter.

   But most of all, working on Father Loss at the same time that I anticipate the arrival of A Tale of Two Citizens brings into sharp focus the undeniable fact that the vast majority of my creative and professional life has been directed, inspired, and motivated by my father – a man I never knew.

                               

     When I first thought of posting his photograph – taken soon upon his arrival in the United States, I believe. See the dapper pose, the tilt of the hat: it’s just touching as can be – the thought of mixing him with social media made me very uncomfortable.  My father’s precious photograph (I have so few) on Facebook? On tumblr? Twitter? Wasn’t there something sacrilegious about that? Profane and disrespectful? Using his image to get people to read my blog and become interested in my novel? When does taking a reasonable stab at book-promotion cross the line into bald exploitation?  But if my father really is at the center of it, my writing life, why not scan the photo, take a screen shot of it, and post it? Why not apply the technology and terminology at my disposal to illustrate that centrality?

     This is what I’m doing now in Month #7, working on these two books at the same time.  And at the heart of each of them is this man who fathered me and then died young of a heart attack: Hyman Wakerman.

Father Loss: Daughters Discuss the Man That Got Away. A non-fiction work, an intensively researched analysis inspired by my father’s absence.
A Tale of Two Citizens. A work of fiction, an intensively imagined account of his young adulthood: his illegal immigration to this country; the love he left behind in Poland and the one he found here; the ongoing struggles of an illegal immigrant as he resolutely strives to establish just one basic, simple thing: his right to happiness.

     Sometimes I think that I have discovered in the drama of my father’s life the cause of his early death.  But then, the novel is that: a work of fiction. A story I more or less made up, of a young man setting out in life, taking risks, meeting challenges, leaving love and finding it, taking on the mighty United States government, struggling to match move for move the tactics of an equally determined immigration official – it is a tale of two citizens, remember. Scraps of paper, photographs, letters, documents, found in an envelope marked, “Hy’s past,” sewn together with a daughter’s eagerness to give shape and form and life.

       So, as I admittedly impatiently await the arrival of this novel of mine and its February 3rd due date, my father in a sense once again comes to the rescue by giving me, in the form of the earlier book I wrote about him, an object of focus and engagement: the first child, if you will.

An article in the October 12th “New York Times Sunday Review” warns against allowing impatience for the delivery date to overshadow the benefits of letting the fetus develop inside the womb for the duration of its natural term. For the sake of convenience, the article states, “Today, about half of all births in this country are hastened by drugs or surgery, double the share in 1990.” I was surprised by this, incorrectly assuming that the penchant toward natural childbirth that had prevailed when I was in childbearing mode during the late 20th century was still in vogue.  But of course speed and convenience are the watchwords of this day.  Not so fast, David Leonhardt and Amanda Cox, warn. “Bigger babies become smarter kids,” the headline proclaims and, the writers report – based on a study coming out of all Florida births during an 11-year period – all things being equal (economic background, etc.)…

a 10-pound baby will score an average of 80 points higher on the 1600-point SAT than a six-pound baby…Among the top 5-percent of test scorers in elementary school, one in three weighed at least eight pounds at birth, compared with only one in four of all babies.

     With heartfelt apologies to my own children, neither of whom topped 7 pounds at birth, yet each of whom managed to become unbelievably brilliant anyway, the lesson from this is to hold steady, check my impatience, and be glad not only for the work I need to do on Father Loss, but for the upcoming period of holidays and all their reliably and blessedly diversionary whatnot.

May yours be merry and bright, twinkling with light, filled with family and friends and trips to bookstores, if you can find any within reasonable traveling distance from your home. 

COMING NEXT MONTH:

Hopefully, the Advance Readers Copy – I’ll keep you posted.
Progress report on establishing a new Facebook page: for book or author? I’m not sure yet. More of me on social media? The question’s rhetorical.
Will I have had contact with the publisher’s PR person? Any early reviews? Will I possibly receive the book itself in January? Elyce, remember that NY Times article that warned against rushing things…

Here’s what Webmd advises for the expectant woman in her eighth month: Practice your breathing and relaxation exercises.

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