The six month anniversary of It’s Over or It’s Eden passed me by in a whirlwind of edits on my next book.
When I published It’s Over or It’s Eden, many people asked if I was surprised to finally hold the book in my hands, but the answer was “no.” I’d worked and lived in Arwen’s world for so long, I expected to be there. However, though I’ve been marketing and attending book signings for It’s Over or It’s Eden, it feels more surreal now than when I published it.
It’s like coming across a Facebook status you wrote in 2008–if your Facebook statuses were edited by multiple individuals and you thought long and hard about whether you wanted to publish it for all the world to see but you wrote something utterly true to you so you finally said, “Fuck it, I’ll do it!”
When I page through It’s Over or It’s Eden, I am proud to say I created it, but it feels distant. It’s a snapshot of who I was and what I was thinking about.
I love the me who wrote this book. She’s funny and smart and I’m proud she had it together enough to will a book into existence. I’m sad not to be her any longer, but I’m also glad to be a new me, one with new ideas and new stories.
It’s Over or It’s Eden has made it into the hands of hundreds of readers who found my book in huge online retailers and tiny local stores. I’ve led writing workshops, book signings, and attended a writing retreat. 40k people on TikTok have watched me not find the copy at my local library twice now. My children finally, finally understand what I do for work.
Those are all wonderful, lovely things I’m endlessly grateful for, but even without those beautiful moments, I still would have done all this for the ideas and thoughts inside It’s Over or It’s Eden. It holds my sense of adventure, criticisms of religion and the patriarchy, the tireless quality of grief, and the stray joke that only makes sense in my own head.
While there have been hard parts, moments of clarity like this enables me to see how far I’ve come and dream about my path ahead.
Thanks for being here seven months later.
