The Russian Way

Yesterday I had coffee with one of the other mom's at my son's school. I was talking to her about the upcoming release of JUST ONE NIGHT: BINDING AGREEMENT(the last installment of the JUST ONE NIGHT trilogy) . All signs point to that book being a success. Both JUST ONE NIGHT (pt. 1): THE STRANGER and JUST ONE NIGHT (pt. 2): EXPOSED made the New York Times and USA Today bestsellers list and stayed there for several weeks. While people will often give up on a trilogy after the first book they rarely do after the second and I've been told that pre-orders for BINDING AGREEMENT look good.

Yet I simply Can. Not. get myself to see the success of BINDING AGREEMENT as a given. It's like, a physical impossibility for me. I hope it will be but I'm fretting about this release just as much as I've fretted abut all my other releases. When I explained this to my coffee-companion she simply cocked her head to the side and asked, "You said your mother's side was Jewish...are they Russian or Eastern European Jewish?"

I nodded that yes, they were.

She gave me an understanding smile. "That's my background too. And let me tell you something, you may be able to celebrate the successes you've already achieved, you can even hope for more of them, but you will never be able to expect them. It's simply not how we're wired."

I thought about that for a moment. My mother certainly isn't an optimist. She's not cynical or anything but she's extraordinarily cautious about predicting good fortune. In fact if she does it's only because she has literally a mountain of facts to base that prediction on making it less of a prediction and more of a scientific conclusion. As for my grandmother...well, when it came to her family she was very proud of our abilities and our achievements and she was very hopeful. She hoped that we would all go on to accomplish great things. But did she predict those successes? If she did why did she always seem so surprised when things worked out the way she wanted them to? At my college graduation when it was announced that I was being awarded a special honor for my volunteer work and contributions to the community my grandmother reportedly stood up and said, "That's my granddaughter!"

When I asked her about that she said, "Well I suppose I was happy but mostly I was just shocked!"

That's pretty much how she reacted to all my good news. This was a woman who could appreciate good news as much as the next person but she rarely anticipated it. It would be hard to label her an optimist.

In fact I can't think of anyone on my mother's side of the family who fits that definition. We're not negative people. Generally speaking we're goal setters and we work hard to achieve those goals.  We just don't take it for granted that we'll get the things we want out of life...which in some ways makes it all the more exciting when we do.

I guess it's just the Russian in us.

So for those of you who have been reading the JUST ONE NIGHT SERIES, I really hope you continue on to the the last novella in the trilogy which will be released May 20th. I don't expect you to...but if you do I will celebrate your support.