Launch Week and Other Anxieties

now to crawl into a cave and sleep for a million years

Author

A.D. Sui
April 25, 2024

It’s been A WEEK.

It’s been a week since The Dragonfly Gambit was released and I officially stopped sleeping due to nerves.

The Dragonfly Gambit novella against a pink and blue table, and black planner.

Everyone tells you that writing a book is hard, but few people who haven’t been through a launch process will know how hard the run-up to a pub date is.

In my past life, I did a decade of competitive sport, with six-day-a-week training schedules, World Cups, World Championships, and two Olympic selection cycles. The whole thing.

I did a freakin’ Ph.D. after that.

This was still harder.

And there are few things I can complain about.

I had an amazing publisher (Neon Hemlock, check them and their publications out). I had an amazing editor, dave, who is also the entirety of Neon Hemlock. dave is awesome and we should all tell him that more often. There were no hiccups in the editing process or the printing process. Nothing was delayed. I also got a lot of support from the online writing community and for that, I am grateful. Eternally. You have no idea, folks. I cried a little.

Still, I feel like I’ve gone through a blender.

In part, this is because we live in a post-capitalist hellscape where we must all scream on social media about our work like some artistic cicadas. Most of the past week I’ve felt like that person at the mall who tries to give you a sample of something you don’t want. You make awkward eye contact and smile. You get their hopes up. Ultimately, you say “no, thank you” and slink away. They continue to try and give people samples for the next six hours while heavily dissociating.

Which brings me to a lesson? maybe? that I learned this week, and that lesson is to learn to celebrate alone. I do have an in-person launch coming up in May, but on the day of the official pub date, I sat at home and quietly did some data analysis for my day-job, and that was dumb. I thought that because I was alone, I shouldn’t celebrate. I should have bought myself some ice cream and balloons or something because that would have made the day more special even if I did spend it trying to get my numbers to math.

Most publishing things will happen during these quiet moments and if you don’t find ways to celebrate alone, they will go unnoticed, and they shouldn’t! In an industry that runs on rejection, we should be celebrating any small win we can.

Oh, look, a second lesson. The second lesson is that you gotta love the writing more than anything that may come from it. It was surreal to hold a published book in my hands for the first time. But (it’s a secret, so I’ll whisper) it didn’t beat the feeling of finishing the thing in the first place.

I’m not sure what will become of this novella. I’m not sure if enough people will like it or if anyone will even notice it, if it will get good reviews or no reviews, or meh reviews, but I wrote it, and it’s out in the world, and for now, that’s enough.

News and Updates:

I’ve had nothing new published this month! Except for my shiny new novella 😄 but I did do a reading on Story Hour and had a great time!

A.D. Sui on Story Hour wearing giant headphones and desperately trying to stay awake because it’s way past her bedtime.

I also had some cool mini-essays come out about spite and disability rep in SFF.

If you haven’t already and want to, you can buy The Dragonfly Gambit from:

But seriously, order from your local indie bookstore if you can! They will appreciate it!

And if enjoy this little novella, please review or rate it, anywhere, everywhere, if you’re so inclined.

Stickers!

I’ve also been busy making other Dragonfly stuff, like these stickers →

These will be available to everyone coming to my book launch in Toronto!

But there might also be an online giveaway pretty soon for those in the US!

A bookmark that says f*uck, a horny and disabled sticker, a sticker with a geometric dragonfly on it, and a sticker that says rude.

And speaking of my book launch!

On May 10th, come join me at Bakka Phoenix for snacks, stickers, a raffle, readings, and much more as I do my in-person book launch!! Details below:

Book launch event for The Dragonfly Gambit with special guests, Nebula-nominated short story writer, Suzan Palumbo and Nebula Award-winning writer, Kelly Robson. Event is on May 10th at 6 p.m. at Bakka Phoenix on 84 Harbord Street in Toronto.

….and if you’ve made it this far down, THANK YOU! None of this would have been possible without the support of the SFF community!

and now, I sleep for a million years.

Cheers!

p.s. some extra Dragonfly content will be coming to this newsletter soon. maybe some extra chapters? maybe even.. from a different POV? mayhaps…mayhaps…