Never would I ever have imagined the choas that would surround the launch of my third children’s book “Midnight Raider”. You just can’t dream this madness up. But it all started from a dream.
So it’s the night before the big launch. My books are all boxed and ready to take to the festival in Newcastle. Before every event there is a mixture of excitement and nervous anticipation. Will people like it? Is this the right way to promote? Will they love my mouse as much as I do? After months of creating, I had grown very attached to my little mischief-maker and thought he was rather special. So naturally I wanted him to be well received in the public eye.
For this book, I planned my launch to co-inside with a local festival where I would be one of the stallholders. With high foot traffic it was a great opportunity to reveal my new children’s book. I am ready and eventually my overthinking mind drifts to sleep.
Suddenly I am squealing as I launch like a rocket out of bed, convinced mice were running up the side of my leg. In my dream dazed attempt to escape them, and the speed of my movement I got one foot tangled in the bed sheets. I crashed to the floor and fully awoke to my own screams of pain. I couldn’t move, the pain was searing.
My husband panicked and kept repeating, “I tried to grabbed you once I realised you were throwing yourself off the bed, I just couldn’t reach you in time”. My eldest daughter rang the emergency services and before long the ambulance arrived with two very reassuring paramedics. To ease the pain they gave me this pen to suck on that had something blissfully helpful and made me very chatty. My captive audience all heard the details of my crazy dream and the mice that had me catapulting from the bed at midnight.
Wow, what is in that pen! In the I can’t stop chatting stage of pain relief, I boldly stated which hospital I wanted to go to. They politely explained they couldn’t and that I needed to go to the hospital my address was zoned for. I begged them and heartily explained my dear friend was the Manager at this hospital and she would definitely allow it. They laughed explaining, she would be the one roasting them if they broke protocol. Hmmm.
Hello extremely long wait in the ER at the hospital I didn’t want! As I sat watching my ankle grow to the size of a balloon, I felt the pain return. The morning light was filling the void of darkness and I was still waiting for the results of the x-rays. Goodbye book launch!
As the festival was in full swing, I finally saw a very exhausted and rather frazzled doctor. I can only imagine the kind of shift she had experienced herself that night, and she was frankly in no mood to comfort me. But despite the angry encounter and dreadful bedside manner, I did discover that it was a severe ligament tear and would take quite some time to heal.
The only launch that day was the one that landed me in the ER! Ironic that it was a dream about mice that prevented me from launching my book about a cheeky mischief-making mouse that day!!! Rodents on the brain!
Welcome to my world.
Susie Sotiropoulos 