Rollercoaster

Have you ever been on a rollercoaster? That's the feeling I'm having right now. Tuesday and Wednesday I was back in Flanders in order to meet the press regarding my book. They were two long and tiring days because the interest in my book turned out to be a lot bigger than expected. Journalists from two of the biggest Flemish newspapers were there ("De Morgen" and "Gazet Van Antwerpen"), and no less than five magazines, including "Knack" (a highly renowned one). I even got interviewed by a journalist from "Dag Allemaal", which is largely regarded as the sort of magazine nobody ever buys but which everyone has read at the dentist's. This sounds a bit disrespectful because after all it remains the biggest-selling Flemish magazine of them all and in the end I'm very happy that they came. Mostly because it has such a wide coverage and it is read by the "man and women in the street", not just an "elite" audience. I believe that it's mostly the "man and woman in the street" who'd like to know more about autism and for whom this article and my book may be enlightening. 

On the downside, I was informed by my editor that the book sell hadn't been very good so far. Mostly because Flander's biggest chain of book shops ("Standaard Boekhandel") had refused to buy it. Apparently they're very reluctant to take in new authors and they concentrate on the ones who've already made a name for themselves. Pretty stupid, I would say, because when they're left with an unsold stock they can always force the editors to buy it back. But now that my editor (all credit to them!!!) has awoken a big interest from the press they've come 'round and started buying the book in limited quantities. Everytime someone asks me where they can find the book, I now promptly reply "Standaard Boekhandel". hehehe... :-) 

In the mean time the two newspapers have already published their articles. 3/4 of a page in "De Morgen" and a whopping full page (!) in "Gazet Van Antwerpen". I just can't believe it. When I agreed to do the interviews I thought that it would be for a small review on the "new books" page. You know, together with 4 or 6 books on the same half a page. But no... a full page! The interviews also didn't really focus on the book as such but mostly focused on me being autistic and how I coped with "real life". With its ups and downs. And I can only say that I'm touched very deeply by the way that these journalists transcribed my words because they really caught very well what I was trying to say. I'm eternally grateful to them... 

On Wednesday evening came the climax of these wonderful two days. A presentation of my book by noone else but Dirk Verhofstadt, the former prime minister's brother. Together with a mother of an autistic child and a representative of the "VVA" (Flemish Autism Society) we discussed the subject in front of a big audience and afterwards all of the books my editor had brought along were immediately sold out. They even had to put my personal copies up for sale and even that wasn't enough. 

My whole life long I've tried to be in the centre of attention. As a stupid attempt to be "accepted" by the others and most probably as a strange sort of cry for help. Most of the time this brought me into a lot of trouble. Now, after forty-two years, when I finally realise that I should rather stay out of the centre of attention, this attention is coming to me all by itself. Life can be so ironic... Hopefully the rollercoaster won't crash in the end! :-)