I Just Did Something and I Am Trembling. (Completely on purpose. Possibly a mistake. No regrets. Some regrets.)

Written By Jessica Gabrielzyk

I just sent two advance copies of Parenting Unpacked out into the world. To two people. Two specific, important, this-was-not-a-casual-decision people. And my hands have not fully stopped shaking since I hit send, which is either a sign that I care deeply about this book or that I need to eat something. Probably both.

📖 QUICK NOTE: WHAT IS AN ARC?

An ARC is an Advance Review Copy — a version of the book sent to readers before the official launch, usually to gather early feedback, blurbs, or reviews. It is essentially handing someone your work before it is fully out and asking them to have thoughts about it. Completely normal publishing practice. Completely nerve-wracking every single time.

Now. I could have played it safe. I could have sent it to someone smaller first. Warmed up slowly. Built confidence. Done a practice run. That would have been the sensible approach and I did not take it. I went directly to two people who matter enormously and pressed send as if I was a person who does not spend the next several hours replaying every single word of the email wondering if I phrased anything oddly.

I wanted to go all in. So I did. And now I am here, telling the internet about it because apparently that helps.

🧠 THE INTERNAL DEBATE THAT HAPPENED BEFORE I SENT IT

😬 Maybe send it to someone smaller first. A trial run. A warm-up person. This is very risky.

💪 But I trust the content. I have read this book. I know what is in it. It is good. Send it.

😬 These are very important people though. What if they don't like it? What if I have misjudged the whole thing?

💪Then I will learn something and adjust. Also the book is good. Send it.

🖱️

I sent it.

I trust the content. I trust what I built. I think I can make it. And if I am wrong about that, I will find out soon enough.

Here is the thing about going all in: it only works if you actually believe in what you're holding. And I do. I have spent a long time with this book. I know its shape, I know what it does, I know who it is for. I did not send it to these two people because I was being reckless. I sent it because I genuinely think it belongs in their hands.

But that does not make the waiting any easier. It really does not.

📋 THE BACKUP PLAN, SHOULD THINGS GO SIDEWAYS

If they do not like what they have in their hands, I am going to have to change genre entirely.

No big deal. Completely fine. I have options. Romance, perhaps. Thriller. Historical fiction set somewhere with no parenting content whatsoever. I am flexible. I am adaptable. I am absolutely not going to need to do any of this because the book is good. But the plan exists. Just in case.

In the meantime: I sent it. It is out there. Two copies of Parenting Unpacked are currently sitting in two inboxes belonging to two people whose opinions I respect enormously, and I cannot do anything about that now except wait and possibly drink something warm and pretend to be calm.

I am not calm. But I am committed. Which is close enough.

Risky move? Yes. The right move? I think so. Ask me again after I hear back.

Updates to follow. Possibly accompanied by a genre change announcement. Probably not though. The book is good.

Trembling, committed, and waiting,

Jessica Gabrielzyk

✦ PARENTING UNPACKED · ARCS SENT · NO GOING BACK NOW ✦

Jessica Gabrielzyk

Jessica Gabrielzyk is a Brazilian writer living in Switzerland. She moved there with her husband and daughter, who was three months old at the time and had strong opinions about the whole thing even then.

She writes about change.

The visible kind and the kind that happens inside a person, while everything on the outside looks fine.

Her first book, Maternity Abroad, explored what it means to become a mother far from the system you trusted. It has reached readers in more than fifteen countries across five continents. Parenting Unpacked, her second book, follows the experience of parenting through major life disruption, whether that's an international move, a career loss, a new baby, or a life that simply stops responding the way it used to. My First American Coloring Book was created to help toddlers engage with daily life in the United States through play and familiar imagery.

She is a member of SIETAR, the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research, and the International Academy of Brazilian Literature.

She writes for the parent who is still inside it, getting through the day, and wondering somewhere underneath all of it who they are becoming.

When she is not writing, she is walking forty minutes uphill with a stroller, telling herself the exercise is the point.

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