Irmgarde Brown

For those who don’t remember, "Daydreamin” is a song by the Lovin’ Spoonful back in 1966. That really dates me, I know, so I might as well confess that I was still in high school. But what is odd to me is how an old tune like this one can suddenly land in my mind and not let go. It’s become a mantra of sorts.  

The main verse I sing is this one, but of course, I change the word “boy” to “girl” and my “bundle of joy” is usually an event coming up.  

What a day for a daydream 
What a day for a daydreamin' boy girl. 
And now I'm lost in a daydream 
Dreamin' 'bout my bundle of joy. 

So naturally, that’s where I am now as I countdown to my launch party for Children in the City of Czars: A Novel. I didn’t know how I’d feel this time. After all, it's my second launch. And yet, my heart is still racing and I’m trying my best not to put too much weight on the outcome. But it’s hard for me. Am I alone in this? I have invested most of the past year into the book. I’ve attended lots of seminars on how to market a book, how to create promotions, how to generate buzz, and how to utilize newsletters and social media posts to my advantage. And still, there are more things that I coulda/shoulda done before December 3rd.  

I have been blessed with several great reviews, one from Kirkus Reviews, a respected editorial magazine for book reviews and another from PW’s [Publishers Weekly] BookLife. I’ve had my book out on NetGalley, a website that offers ARCs (Advanced Readers’ Copies) to readers who are willing to post reviews of the book ahead of release (and most of them have been quite complimentary), and I had a nice “giveaway” on GoodReads. Last week, the local Cecil County paper wrote an article about me as an author – nice!  

But, no, I haven’t appeared in the New York Times Book Review yet. LOL. I haven’t run ads on Amazon and I haven’t done videos on Facebook or TicTok or capitalized on the hashtag, BookTok, nor have I been interviewed on blogs or television or radio. I did contact a good number of libraries and I think I had some success there, but it was a promotion; how many will follow through and buy the book? Who knows? But with my background in libraries, it means a lot to me for my books to be on those shelves.  

The song keeps coming back. I do have a daydream that one day, not just the lovely folks in my sphere, but that one influencer will come across the book and share it to his/her world. How many authors are lost in this daydream? Well, if the statistics about books being published in a year (including self-published books) are accurate, we could be talking about four million authors. That’s an ocean-full for sure.  

But here’s what I also know about daydreams. They are the flight of the mind set loose. They don’t need statistics, or reality checks, or common sense. They are kites in the wind, before and after the string breaks. They are controlled for a season, and then not.  

Yesterday, my grandson was very upset when he came home from school and confessed to me that he had received a “warning.” An accumulation of warnings can send a second grader to the principal’s office, but this was only his first for the month. His teacher said he was “distracted.” We discussed what it means to be distracted for some minutes and eventually we came to the joint conclusion that he had been daydreaming. When his mother came home, he confessed again, but this time said, “Mama, I got a warning for daydreaming.” In a way, it’s a shame to be warned against wool gathering, it’s such a creative activity. But, in today’s world, the time and place for dancing with the muse is subject to societal norms. For this reason, we must all make a concerted effort to create blocks of time where the mind and heart and soul can play without fear or discouragement.  

This is my daydream right now: I will anthropomorphize my books. I will give them feet and arms and even wings to travel the earth into the hands of those who are willing to enter this story with me. I’ll meet you there, dear readers, I’ll meet you there. And we can take flight.  

So naturally, that’s where I am now as I countdown to my launch party for Children in the City of Czars: A Novel. I didn’t know how I’d feel this time. After all, it's my second launch. And yet, my heart is still racing and I’m trying my best not to put too much weight on the outcome. But it’s hard for me. Am I alone in this? I have invested most of the past year into the book. I’ve attended lots of seminars on how to market a book, how to create promotions, how to generate buzz, and how to utilize newsletters and social media posts to my advantage. And still, there are more things that I coulda/shoulda done before December 3rd.  

I have been blessed with several great reviews, one from Kirkus Reviews, a respected editorial magazine for book reviews and another from PW’s [Publishers Weekly] BookLife. I’ve had my book out on NetGalley, a website that offers ARCs (Advanced Readers’ Copies) to readers who are willing to post reviews of the book ahead of release (and most of them have been quite complimentary), and I had a nice “giveaway” on GoodReads. Last week, the local Cecil County paper wrote an article about me as an author – nice!  

But, no, I haven’t appeared in the New York Times Book Review yet. LOL. I haven’t run ads on Amazon and I haven’t done videos on Facebook or TicTok or capitalized on the hashtag, BookTok, nor have I been interviewed on blogs or television or radio. I did contact a good number of libraries and I think I had some success there, but it was a promotion; how many will follow through and buy the book? Who knows? But with my background in libraries, it means a lot to me for my books to be on those shelves.  

The song keeps coming back. I do have a daydream that one day, not just the lovely folks in my sphere, but that one influencer will come across the book and share it to his/her world. How many authors are lost in this daydream? Well, if the statistics about books being published in a year (including self-published books) are accurate, we could be talking about four million authors. That’s an ocean-full for sure.  

But here’s what I also know about daydreams. They are the flight of the mind set loose. They don’t need statistics, or reality checks, or common sense. They are kites in the wind, before and after the string breaks. They are controlled for a season, and then not.  

Yesterday, my grandson was very upset when he came home from school and confessed to me that he had received a “warning.” An accumulation of warnings can send a second grader to the principal’s office, but this was only his first for the month. His teacher said he was “distracted.” We discussed what it means to be distracted for some minutes and eventually we came to the joint conclusion that he had been daydreaming. When his mother came home, he confessed again, but this time said, “Mama, I got a warning for daydreaming.” In a way, it’s a shame to be warned against wool gathering, it’s such a creative activity. But, in today’s world, the time and place for dancing with the muse is subject to societal norms. For this reason, we must all make a concerted effort to create blocks of time where the mind and heart and soul can play without fear or discouragement.  

This is my daydream right now: I will anthropomorphize my books. I will give them feet and arms and even wings to travel the earth into the hands of those who are willing to enter this story with me. I’ll meet you there, dear readers, I’ll meet you there. And we can take flight.