Due date is October 29, but only 5% of mothers actually give birth on their expected due date. Typical births occur in a span of time ranging from two weeks before to two weeks after. Vivian could be a November baby. I’m actually predicting a November 1st birth. Any other takers?
Erin has been experiencing some Braxton-Hicks contractions, which apparently serve no other purpose but to get the uterus into practise. They’re uncomfortable, but are not the real thing. How can you tell the real thing? Well, if you can continue to walk and/or talk during a contraction, it probably is not the real thing.
Even if you have a “real-thing” contraction, it’s not necessarily the real thing. Erin has already had one such happen to her, a few days ago, and that’s normal. We mustn’t forget the horribly misnamed phenomena of “false labour”. The word “false” suggests some sort of womanly hysteria, like she’s somehow faking it, when really it isn’t her fault. The official medical term, I’m told, is “non-progressing labour”, but we could perhaps substitute the term “taunting labour” to best express what it’s like to the poor mother.
And, finally, talking about these sorts of things to Dan brings up cries of “too much information!”, to which I say: come on! In terms of all of the ick factors in the world, this has to rank far, far down from the top, and it is attached to one of the greatest miracles in the world. Mind you, Dan is reasonably easy to tease in this regard, as witnessed by the tampon incident.
This last month of pregnancy is, unfortunately, starting with a cold, which Erin got from me, I’m sorry to say. Can’t think of where I got it, however. It starts as a sore throat, and then heads up into your sinuses. Fortunately, if I’m any indication, it should be over in three days. But that and carrying a squirming basketball can’t be comfortable.
As for the other baby…
…whose labour, while taking longer, is far less painful (we hope)…
Cover design and formal editing work has apparently begun. I’ll be in Toronto on October 5th, attending a desktop publication seminar organized by Apple, Adobe and Magazines Canada (should be moderately interesting with free stuff), and I’m hoping to drop by the Dundurn Group’s offices to meet some people and get some faces attached to names. I should get a good idea of where things are heading by then. I’ve already put in a fair amount of work based on Barry’s suggestions, and the story has been much improved as a result. I’m looking forward to this process, but I’m really looking forward to seeing how this book will look.
I’m thinking about launch parties and promotions, and I’m keeping a realistic edge on things. The Dundurn Group is a fairly small press, meaning that the book tour will probably comprise of cities that I can reach within a few hours’ driving. So: Toronto, Hamilton and London — which isn’t bad. Waterloo, of course. Ottawa and Montreal if I’m very lucky (and possibly pair up with a local author) — mostly because I have relatives with whom I can crash for a night. The Waterloo launch party is going to be primarily my responsibility.
So I was paying special attention to Susan Fish as she launched her book Seeker of Stars. Her reading at the Waterloo Public Library went very well, even though she took the unorthodox step of reading twice. There was a half-hour meet-and-greet, a reading, another meet-and-greet, another reading. Erin was sure she was going to lose her crowd, but she didn’t; rather, she recycled them. There was a good mix of people arriving and leaving, and the crowd for her second reading was quite different from the first.
Still, it probably helps that Susan has been published before, and has received some pretty hefty endorsements for her work. I doubt I’d have that pull. So I’d probably schedule an hour-and-a-half, with fifteen minutes of reading, a brief Q&A, a thank-you to the sponsors/organizers and then a signing. One other thing that Susan did that I will take up is that she brought along a CD player with music. It set the atmosphere nicely.
Susan received a lot of help for her launch from the Waterloo Public Library and Words Worth Books, a major local bookseller. Some of these contacts and I have already been in touch about a Rosemary and Time launch party here this spring. We are truly blessed here in Waterloo Region to have an infrastructure that’s so supportive to local authors.