Adjust Your Vision

and be grateful for your friends

When I first started planning the Montreal Book Launch for “One in Six Million” I had a vision - I have visions for everything, that’s how I function (and I’m sure it makes me a pleasure to live with) - I had a vision that I would be standing at a dark wood podium with shelves of books behind me, all of us sepia toned, looking super-literary, like a real author. I started with

my local Library who

wanted to charge me $400 for the privilege of hosting the launch. Their shelves are all metal and there is no sepia anywhere, but at least they have a lot of books. When I asked what the $400 includes, the marketing person said “Honestly? Like, nothing?”

It wasn’t only the money, although it was mostly the money, but it was also that she just didn’t sound very excited about the prospect of taking my $400 and giving me next to nothing in return.

My Local Bookstore

was slightly less outrageous in that they weren’t going to charge me, but they were also not going to respond in any kind of consistent fashion. For every one or two “just circling back, hoping to…” I would get a “yup, just waiting to hear…” so I figured I would try

My sister’s local Library

but they did not return my calls at all. Or my emails. I thought about dropping by, but again, how hard do I need to work to convince a library to host a book launch? You’d think they live for these events. Next, a friend suggested renting a library, I mean if I’m spending money anyway, there must be a venue with a library that would be excited to host a local Montreal author. I found

a private venue near

my office, with a wood-panelled lobby, as close to sepia as we were going to get. Even the menu was reasonably priced, but before I went to see it, Helen from the venue sent me some photos of the actual library room.

“I’m sorry, are there no books in the library?” I asked.

“Mais, non,” Helen said. “It’s the idea of a library. The concept if you will.”

Two Persistence Things:

One, things were not looking good, but I did not have the luxury of giving up because I knew my book was coming and I knew we had to launch it. So my only option was to keep knocking on doors until ultimately one opened, and opened so wide that it really was meant to be.

But, two, I had to adjust my vision because I will not be at a podium, there will not be stacks of books behind me, and I doubt there will be dust motes dancing in the sun, or a bearded man with a pipe or any of the traditionally literary tropes that I had originally envisioned. All of that has become completely unimportant in the face of what I have gained: an excited, cooperative audience who is enthusiastic about hosting this event because

Luckily, I have friends.

And one of them works at a community agency that does the local programming for Holocaust Survivors and tons of other programming for Montreal’s 50+ community. The community agency, called Cummings Centre, gleefully accepted to host my Montreal launch and got to planning immediately. We even got local broadcaster Natasha Aimee Hall to interview me on stage!

We’re doing it on April 3rd,

from 5-7, what we call a cinq à sept here in Montreal, and every single person who comes (including you) will get a copy of the book, which I can sign if you want.

And the best part is

that the tickets are live! Available today! Please click here and get yours so that I don’t have to worry about having no one show up to this thing. Bring a friend, a spouse, a kid - there’s room for all of us and I can’t wait to see you there.

Get your tickets here.