The Woman WITHOUT the Dragon Tattoo

by Stella MacLean

The dreaded month is upon me!  My release month.  A CHILD CHANGES EVERYTHING is on the bookshelves the tenth, and I’m in panic mode! 

Will people read my book?  Will they have certain expectations based on my earlier books?  Will I meet those expectations? 

Or will they give it a cursory glance, assume it’s ‘simply a romance’ then turn their attention to yet another book about a girl with a tattoo?

I wish I was a dragon, or that I had a tattoo or wanted a tattoo.  Did Stieg Larssen realize what he would unleash onto the reading public with his books?  Is he watching from somewhere as astounded as the rest of the world at the success of his books?
Or did he know all along that his words would be pure platinum?

These are some of the thoughts I can play with in my feeble attempt to distract myself from the inevitable day when my book is on the shelves of all the local bookstores, grocery stores and pharmacies.

But I’m no Stieg Larssen, and never will be.  Don’t have the talent.  Poor choice of distraction I think to myself as my pulse clicks up over a hundred and my blood pressure flirts with disaster.  In an attempt to rein in my soaring anxiety, I try to focus on the people I know who will LOVE my book, no matter what…. 

 Who were they again?    

I do my best to resist reading reviews on the principle that a review is way too little, way too late.  But that’s just me barricading myself against being mauled by a reviewer who doesn’t like my work.  Wouldn’t it be nice, if we didn’t worry about reviews?  If we could all enjoy the ‘instant’ success we often fantasize about? 



There goes another one of those tattoo thoughts whistling by my head.  How did Stieg do it?  (See, I’m trying to get up close and personal with a star, see if any of it will rub off like the fake tan I tried last week.)

Back to Stieg.  Did his experience as a writer and activist prepare him to write those three now-famous books?  Wikipedia says he wrote them in his spare time.  Amazing to think that after working all day in the world of writing and publishing that he was willing to come home and devote his time to writing such huge books with so much detail!  

So, I guess the only real question in the end is this. 
Do all authors suffer from pre-launch jitters?  I know I’m not alone, but it would be REALLY nice to hear from someone out there who has the launch day blues.