Journal-O-Pain

"The Heartbreak Diet" began it's first incarnation as, what I like to call, the "Journal-O-Pain". After I found out about my husband's betrayal, I began to compulsively write, write, write. At that time, still ignorant of California's no-fault system, I imagined that the journals would be useful fodder in a divorce agreement! I planned to document his deceptions, and "prove" how he had destroyed our marriage with concrete dates (!) and evidence (!).

I can't really look at the Journal-O-Pain anymore. It's a repetitve and boring testimony to my denial and hurt that has neither legal, nor entertainment value! Which brings me to the topic of blogging. My publicist and editor encouraged me a couple of months ago to start blogging. Sure I thought... why not? But I have been dragging my heels. What will make this blog any more interesting then the Journal-O-Pain? I'm sceptical about blogging as a valid use of my time. Maybe it's my age, my demographic, that I'm too busy to read other people's blogs. How anyone has the time to do so is a mystery to me. I can barely get through my weekly New Yorker.... Besides, I am not that interesting! My personal life revolves around my kids. Perhaps if I was living in Madacascar, or Rome, I would have something interesting to report about. A friend at the coffee shop suggested that I simply make up stuff-- oh such as how Brad and Angelina were over for dinner, and we chatted about how we would campaign for Barack this fall. Hmmmm. Making stuff up isn't me. I'm too sincere and well-meaning. Ugh. Plus I am not simply not imaginative enough to make stuff up. It's no wonder that I wrote a memoir. And one that, again and again, my friends validated as being "so honest". I think I will have to go back and discuss this art form-- a graphic memoir-- as a topic for the Hearbreak Diet blog. Perhaps it won't be silly or dull to work through how a book gets made from disparate elements. How one chooses details to write and illustrate about, and why one elimiates others. What choices go into revealing details about one's life, and how (as opposed to blogging) these details are crafted into a story.

Sound like a plan?

The Heartbreak Diet Launch Party

The launch party was a whirlwind akin to being a bride--or if you got to dress up to give birth, perhaps that would be a more appropriate major-life-event to refer to. The restaurant Café du Soleil sits on the corner of Fillmore and Waller streets, and as it was an exceptionally beautiful and windless San Francisco evening, friends were spilling out onto the sidewalk. I felt greatful and overwhlemed by the number of people who rallied to support me and the publication of this book. I really tried to sign something personal to everyone, because almost everyone there was a friend or acquaintance. My kids were running around with their gang all evening. Thankfully my brother had come for the event and was able to take them home. When I returned at 1 AM (from dinner at Zuni!) the apartment looked like it was hit by a tornado, the boys were asleep on the living room carpet in front of the (still yabbering) telly, and my brother was snoring in his bed, lights blazing overhead. Ah, the bachelor life. My boys love their uncle!

The first picture is with Steve, my adorably kindhearted and everlastingly patient editor; second is the melee at the book-selling table and finally a view of Café du Soleil.