I wrote most of Blood Orange Night on my red couch or at this desk. I bought the couch and the desk from some Russian immigrants living in an apartment building that smelled of cabbage. It was my first post-divorce couch, my first post-divorce desk and I loved them because they were all mine. Some writers have a routine with set hours and rituals. My only routine was to work furiously when the kids were sleeping or with their dad. Sometimes I’d be up at 4 a.m., French Press at the ready, working and reworking that scene where I passed out in my daughter’s bedroom. Other times I’d be in between meetings at work, writing and rewriting three sentences. “What’s true?” became my mantra. And “How do I say what’s true in the most beautiful, most savage way?”
Blood Orange Night wasn’t easy to write. I can’t tell you how many times I’d cry sitting at that computer, looking at those words that felt carved from my body. I’d sit and write and fall apart and write again. But I always knew I had to write it. No, that’s not quite true—I simply couldn’t NOT write it. That’s what’s true. The book was an energy living in me and to deny it would have killed a part of me. That’s what writing is like—letting the truest thing inside you have life, giving it breath. So, I did. And Simon & Schuster loved it. They loved this savage, beautiful book I wrote and we’re now doing all the things you do to get a book to publication. And I’ll tell you, being this honest and vulnerable and brave makes every day feel like spring. I can’t wait for you to see it. I’ll likely cry again, but I’m cool with it because I'm done with holding myself back. From anything.
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