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On Post-Publication Depression–Guest Post from Eve Brown-Waite

2009 at 8am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky

I’m on vacation this week, so I’ve asked Eve Brown-Waite, author of First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria (which I totally loved) to take over for the day. Be nice to her!

Rebecca invited me to guest blog and (silly girl!) said I could write about anything! She should have known that she was asking for trouble. The reporter who interviewed me the other day asked, “You’re one of those people who fire off letters to the editor about everything, aren’t you?” (Now, that was more of a statement than a question, but I had to admit that she was right.) Anyone who knows me or has visited my website knows I can … and have … waxed poetic about my new and improved boobs, ladybugs (did you know you can kill them with chocolate?), Osama bin Laden (who you, apparently, cannot kill with chocolate), and at times, all three in the same article.

But my topic of the moment is something that rarely gets mentioned in all the annals and blogs dedicated to books, those who write them and those who read them. That is: Post-Publication Depression.

On April 14, FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MALARIA hit the shelves. It was my dream-come-true. And then came April 15 – Tax Day for the rest of America, but I found myself down in the mouth (and everything else) for an entirely different reason. Dan Fogelberg used to sing “And where do you go when you get to the end of your dream?” (And I feel like we’re close enough for me to admit that once upon a time, I was a HUGE Dan Fogelberg fan.) For me, the end of my dream was also the culmination of my 15-year, almost single-minded obsession with telling the story of what happened when I fell in love and followed my beloved – quite literally – to the end of the earth.

So where do you go when you get to the end of your dream? Well, if you’re anything like me, you end up a bit like a fart in a blizzard. Which is a pretty stinky thing to be and gets you nowhere fast. Now, really what I should be doing is getting seriously busy writing my second book (working title: THE LIGHTS ARE LISTENING: My Two Years As A “Spy” in the Former Soviet Union). But it’s hard to focus on writing when you are obsessed with the progress of your first book and constantly checking your Amazon rating, not to mention compulsively self-Googling (which is NOT as fun as it sounds).

So that brings me back to Post-Publication Depression. Or PPD as it might be known to mental health professionals, if it were indeed recognized by mental health professionals, which it isn’t. But that probably won’t prevent some enterprising drug company from coming up with a medication for it. I can just imagine the commercial for it:

Whinestop … the first medication approved for the attention deficit, malaise, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive behavior associated with PPD. Possible side effects include spontaneous combustion, gastric implosion, leprosy and death. Whinestop should not be taken by pregnant women, those planning to become pregnant, those planning to impregnate, or anyone with a liver. Ask your doctor if Whinestop is right for you.

Yeah, I got a liver, but I don’t use it all that much. I’m going to go get myself a prescription for Whinestop. Well, just as soon as I check my Amazon rating one more time!

Rebecca and friends, thanks for having me.

Thanks, Eve. The pleasure was all ours.

Visit Eve at her website and at The Debutante Ball, where she blogs with several other debut authors.

Filed Under Guest Posts

Comments

No Responses to “On Post-Publication Depression–Guest Post from Eve Brown-Waite”

Meghan on July 6th, 2009 11:44 am

Hah, great post! I can only imagine what it’s like to actually achieve your dreams. What’s next?

I can’t wait to read First Comes Loves, Then Comes Malaria now!
bermudaonion on July 6th, 2009 1:46 pm

I love this post! It made me laugh, yet it’s so true!
Staci on July 6th, 2009 5:38 pm

I really enjoyed reading this and now I must read her book!!!
avisannschild on July 6th, 2009 6:12 pm

I love this post too! First Comes Loves is sitting patiently on my shelf; now I’m more eager to read it than ever!
Lisa on July 7th, 2009 4:36 pm

I am totally getting this book. Must support anyone who references Dan Fogelberg in her post!
Lin on July 7th, 2009 6:41 pm

I AM and have been, and will ALWAYS be a Dan Fogelberg fan for over 30 years–and proud for it!! Dan was an amazing talent!! I love the tonal quality of his voice, his musicianship is impeccable and after all these years-I still never tire from listening to any of his songs-they move me like no other can…Its ashame that most people only know about Dan from his love ballads–he was so much more than that!!
Bookish links for Saturday, July 11, 2009 (but, first, a winner) | BOOKS AND MOVIES on December 23rd, 2009 1:21 am

[...] ~ Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog has a post by Eve Brown-Waite, author of First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria: On Post-Publication Depression. [...]