I just like to party all the time. Party all the time. Party all the ti-ime.

My debut novel Double Out and Back released last week, and I haven’t stopped celebrating yet! It made it onto the Best Seller list and I’m thrilled!

On August 13, the day Double Out and Back launched, some of my girlfriends joined me to toast my success, my kids and husband danced around with me, my e-mail box overflowed, the number of fans on my facebook fan page grew, and my telephone rang off of the hook with congratulatory greetings. I even attended a virtual party in the Red Rose Chat Room, where fellow RRP authors and readers alike joined me to ask questions and add to the excitement of the day.

In case you weren’t able to make it, I thought I would share a few segments of the RRP Release Day chat! It will make you feel like you were there.

One thing…please, don’t judge me by the multitude of typos on this chat. My fingers were flying! And, I have to admit, my gal pals helped me polish off quite a bit of champagne before the “virtual party” began.

00:59:58 [LLLeibow] Hellow everyone! I’m so glad to be at thiis e-party to celebrate the launch of Double Out and Back and the other RRP releases!

01:00:58 [LLLeibow] I have been sipping champagne with some friends this evening. I hope you will celebrate the debut of my first novel with me!

01:01:15 [joyful0177] I can’t imagine how excited you must be…

01:02:15 [LLLeibow] It is an incredible high. I’m so happy. Summer, Amelia and Chandy will now have a life of their own.

01:02:20 [joyful0177] I’m toasting you from here…virtually!!!

01:02:37 [LLLeibow] Thanks, Joyful!

01:02:38 [DelilahK] hi lisa

01:02:43 [DelilahK] hi joyful

01:03:22 [joyful0177] Hi There!! Nice to meet you…virtually….

01:03:39 [LLLeibow] One of my friends at my “live” party downloaded the novel at 8:30 this morning and finished it by 2:00 this afternoon. We had a great discussion about the characters and potentials for spinoffs.

01:04:14 [LLLeibow] Hi Delilah

01:05:06 [joyful0177] that is great. I have not read it yet…do you have a favorite character?

01:06:42 [LLLeibow] I love all of the characters. The main three are Summer, Amelia, and Chandy, but my friend wanted me to expand on Summer’s mother, Judith’s character in a spin-off.

01:08:16 [tyroc10] always good for first book, LLL

01:09:55 [LLLeibow] Hi, tyroc10. I’m feeling a lot of positive energy for my big debut. thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy the read! do you have any questions?

01:10:53 [tyroc10] just found that part about having babies

01:11:03 [tyroc10] interesting

01:11:39 wweks enters this room

01:11:52 [LLLeibow] Isn’t it amazing how many different ways people can make a family these days?

01:12:24 patmcd enters this room

01:12:42 [wweks] My cousin had “technotwins” who will graduate from college this year. Sister to sister embryo gift.

01:13:07 [LLLeibow] Yet, families and friends still must rely on one another to thrive–that is what I was trying to explore from a literary perspective

***

01:14:54 [wweks] LLL — were you sorry to leave your characters at the end of the book or did you feel that you were sending them out into the world?

01:15:58 [LLLeibow] wweks. Yes, as an author, I found it fascinating to explore how our experiences with difficult decisions on what to do with the byproducts of assisted reproductive technology impacts so many lives — donations, research, and more.

01:16:57 [wweks] I was intrigued by the split between the gyno’s roles and the social worker’s roles in counseling the couple.

01:17:11 [LLLeibow] It is so difficult to give the characters a life of their own. I controlled them and lived with them for so long. It will be interesting to see what thoughts and inspriration they give to their readers while they are on their own.

01:17:38 [LLLeibow] It’s a good preview for my future empty nest syndrome, I suppose. LOL

01:18:12 [wweks] Kudos! It was a fun read and many of us can relate with the work/rearing choice.

01:18:29 [LLLeibow] Interesting. I’m glad you looked at the different roles the professionals took.

01:18:49 wweks exits from this room

01:18:54 [LLLeibow] Be careful. no spoilers here. some folks haven’t read it yet

01:19:56 [LLLeibow] Thanks wweks. The different roles are important. and the work/rearing choice is one every person who starts a family faces.

***

01:20:13 [joyful0177] was there a particular character who was “born” first…and got things started? I am always curious about what comes first – character or basic story idea.

***

01:21:32 [LLLeibow] Joyfull…. hmmm…. well, I think Summer was born first. Because she was the one who had the frozen embryos and had to decide what to do with them.

01:21:42 [Nancyoh] thanks. Its a cute story. I hear Lisa’s got a block buster going

01:21:47 [LLLeibow] The story grew from those intial questions.

01:21:52 [LLLeibow] Hi nancy!

01:22:07 [Nancyoh] Hi lisa

01:22:13 [LLLeibow] so happy to have my debut along side you!

01:22:30 [Nancyoh] well thank you

01:22:42 [Nancyoh] I think it should be the other way around

***

01:23:55 [LLLeibow] excuse me if I’m loose with my fingers on the keys. I can’t even count how many glasses of champagne I shared with my gal pals tonight!

As you can see from these RRP Release Night Chat excerpts, virtual parties can be as much of a blast as real-life ones! If you haven’t had a chance to attend an RRP Release Day Chat, you should try it. You’re sure to enjoy. They are every Thursday Night at 9 p.m. Eastern. Here is a link to transport you to the party! http://www.redrosepublishing.com/chat/

Lisa Lipkind Leibow is the author of the bestselling novel Double Out and Back available now from Red Rose Publishing. Prior to pursuing the literary dream of novel writing, Lisa practiced law for over a decade, drafting legal briefs and memoranda much like the young attorney in her debut novel. This professional environment was the inspiration for the characters and settings in Double Out and Back. After being stuck at her downtown D.C. office on 9/11, a month-long siege on the city by a sniper, and discovering that the other parents at her twins’ preschool thought her au pair was her sons’ mom, Lisa decided to trade the billable hour lifestyle for fiction writing from home.

Lisa’s work has appeared in Pisgah Review. She is currently working on her second novel. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, three sons, a clumber spaniel named Bosco, and two red-eared sliders.

About the Book:

 Double Out and Back by Lisa Lipkind Leibow

Not every woman who rides the fertility treatment roller coaster winds up like Octomom.

Who will find friends, family, and fertility?

Three women’s lives are intricately intertwined, as Amelia Schwartz and Summer Curtis struggle with the complex dynamics of intrafamily embryo adoption, and Chandy Markum strives to make her patients’ dreams a reality.

After more than a decade, of mourning her parents’ deaths, anal-retentive Amelia Schwartz decides to take control of her life, pursuing single motherhood via embryo adoption. While her fertility doctor, Chandy, is preoccupied with the destruction of the cosmopolitan Cape Town of her youth and her first love in apartheid-torn South Africa, believing all is lost, her niece, a young, married, overachieving attorney Summer Curtis, juggles zealous career ambitions, demanding bosses, and friction with her husband over family and fertility issues. They must confront the painful reality that, no matter what technology humans devise to manipulate reproduction, prolong life, and construct family units, they have not yet mastered control over their beginnings and endings.

Thrown all into this is one story that can make or break. Are you up to it?

READ EXCERPT

BUY DOUBLE OUT AND BACK NOW!