I have a little bit of a problem with hanging on too tightly to things in life. You know, stuff like plans, perfection, and as it turns out, books I’ve written. Seems like I was just here, but I am about to release yet another of my book babies into the world. In the Body (a book of 12 short stories and a novella) will be available on October 1st from ECW Press. It has taken me a long time to reach this point. I’ve pondered and written these stories over the course of many years. I’ve made countless rounds of revisions based on the feedback of my editors. I’ve done my final read-through of the Advanced Reading Copy and given my final round of edits. Now, I am preparing to let go…or trying to.

Considering my last book only came out last fall, it may look like I had to rush to get this second one into the world. The truth is that the gestation for this book has been even longer than what I had for Girl in Shades. That’s right, some of these stories were written as long as ten years ago. Wow.  I was only 26 years old at that time, I had no kids and in many ways, had no clue about where my “grown up” life would take me. My final read-through of the book brought me through many of those old emotions. In some cases, it brought me nose-to-nose with who I was when these older stories were written, and that was, I admit, a little bit uncomfortable at times.

It’s strange to put yourself back in a stage of insecurity, of unknowing, and re-live it again. I think for this reason, I am more comfortable with the newer stories in the book; they feel more in line with how I think now, who I am. However, I feel so incredibly lucky to have the chance to see all these stories—a virtual time capsule of my life so far—together in one printed book. I’ve spent so much time with them each one-on-one, over many, many years, and together, they have become something else entirely.

So now comes the time when I will let my little stories into world for any one to read and comment upon. This, I have learned, is the most difficult part about writing—it is such an intimate thing to hand over your inner-most-thoughts to strangers—but it also a great opportunity to practice my ability to "just let it all go". I have no control over who will connect with these stories, and who won’t. All I know is that these quirky characters seemed to want me to write about them. And I did. I wrote about them, I dreamt about them, I obsessed about them, and for the most part, it was lovely.

And now, as I let them go, I can shift my attention back to other things. I can enjoy spending time with my kids, and get on with writing my next book. I can do this all while knowing that the stories that have held my attention since 2002, have been completed. That I have expressed what I wanted to express with them, and now they are free. They are free and I am free from them.