P is for Published (and period, and paranoia, and...)

A lot of good words start with P, or so it seems to me, published is one of them. 

Today, May 1 (May 2, actually; it seems I got my ones and twos mixed up -- IT'S THE STRESS!!), is the day my book goes on sale in Australia and New Zealand, and beyond that in e-book form. And I am happy. Hurrah! 

But it seems to me I should be happier than I am. And after some reflection on the matter, I have decided that the likely culprits for the derailment of my delicious delirium, are three, not quite so good P-words: period, paranoia and pursuit. 

Generally, all that is happy and delicious for me on my heaviest period day (today) is cake, preferably with cream and/or custard -- so C-words, not P. Chocolate is good too.   

Everyone is paranoid to some degree, and increasingly; social media has seen to that. But now that I've stuck my neck out almost as far as a neck can be stuck out, in writing a tell-all memoir about some of the most embarrassing moments of my life, as well as the lives of a few other people who may -- or may not -- be amused, my paranoia has been cranked up to about a 10.5 on the writers' Richter scale. And I live in New Zealand, an earthquake-prone country.

Pursuit. Well, this is the real culprit, I suspect. For although you can't know it till you get there, even if you've seen the film more than once, it is the pursuit of happiness and success that counts; the getting there rather than the being there that feels, at least on good days, like something approximating proper happiness. And therein lies the rub.  

Of course, if you were to enjoy (buy and recommend to the world) my book; if it were to make you happy indeed to read it, and you are in your many many many thousands, then I think I could find a way to overcome these obstacles and be very happy indeed -- even on the bloodiest of days. And as that is a process and pursuit that need have no end, as numbers don't stop at the thousands, my happiness need never end. 

Which brings us to one more P-word: people. It's all about people. Indeed, it's all about you. My book is about me, but my enduring happiness is about you. Or rather, it's about us, this enduring happiness business, and that's a bloody good U-word (us) to end on -- except for this link to the publishers' page for my book -- the quickest way to our mutual happiness.