Malnourished launches today

It’s here. The big day. My memoir, the one I spent 15 years struggling over, launches today from Raised Voice Press.

I’m feeling very exposed, very vulnerable. This is not at all similar to when Dolls Behaving Badly launched from Hachette Book Group. That was a novel, and while some of it was based on my life, most of it was fiction. The characters were figments of my imagination. They weren’t real.

Malnourished, on the other hand, is real. It’s the story of my life, and my sister’s life, or at least the parts of our lives I chose to share. The most difficult part is knowing that I will be judged for writing a book about the truth of being a woman in a certain family in a certain part of the country in a certain age and time where certain things happened, and no one talked about them.

Publishing Malnourished has been emotionally shattering in some respects and extremely empowering in others.

So, today, on my launch day, instead of hosting a launch party or giving readings or talks (I will do all of this, of course, but just at a later date), I’m celebrating that I’m alive, and my life is strong and good, and that however hard and tough and brutal my past might have been, it’s shaped me into the person I am now. 

My hope for Malnourished isn’t for big book sales or bestseller lists or tons of Amazon reviews. What I hope for is smaller and simpler and closer to the bone: I hope my book finds its way to the readers who need it most, the readers who need to hear the story of a woman who lost her sister and lost her way and fucked up over and over again until, little by little, she pulls herself up and finds a life of small and ordinary beauty.

Happy publication day to me, and also to my sister Cathie, who died of complications of an eating disorder over 15 years ago, and whose memory gave me the strength and courage to write this book.

My sister Cathie, in one of her school pictures, I think this was from 8th or 9th grade.

 

13 thoughts on “Malnourished launches today”

  2. Congrats, Cinthia! And I’ve already been able to get a review onto Amazon (and Goodreads earlier).

    I can imagine the cascade of feelings you’re going through today, but just know that this story is going to impact readers in the most positive ways. It will help them talk about similar issues and show them they’re not alone.

    Enjoy your launch day!

    Liked by 1 person

      2. Awesome! Thanks so, so much, Kevin. I really appreciate that you got the review up on the day the book launched. That is pretty perfect, in my view. Hope all is going well. I haven’t been on social media much so have no idea what is happening with anyone. I have been hibernating. It has been a good and quiet time. Anyway, hope you are writing like crazy, hiking and hanging out and having good times with your music, and your wife. P.S. I have barely written a word in months. Has that ever happened to you? I don’t really miss it, or at least not yet. Maybe I just need a vacation. I keep thinking of that Mary Oliver poem, about what I plan to do with my wild and precious life, and I really don’t know. I think I’m having a mid-life crisis at 60 (late, as always). P.S.S. I saw a woman who looked like Blazes, hiking in Sabino Canyon, isn’t that wild? I knew she looked familiar and I couldn’t place her, and then I realized that she reminded me of how I pictured Blazes in my head while reading. Strange, how these things happen. P.S.S.S. I just found out that a running friend of mine passed away earlier today. That really puts things into perspective, how short our time is, how none of us knows how many days or even hours we have left. (Sorry to be a downer, like I said, mid-life crisis and all.) Take care, Kevin, and enjoy your writing, music, and your one wild and precious life, okay?  –CinthiaCinthia Ritchie”Malnourished: A Memoir of Sisterhood and Hunger”Releasing January 21 from Raised Voice Press”Dolls Behaving Badly”Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Groupwww.cinthiaritchie.com http://www.cinthiaruns.comwww.twitter.com/cinthiaritchie1

        Liked by 1 person

  4. I, along with many, have been awaiting this day & have already purchased your book. I honor your courage, your truth & your journey, Cinthia. ‘Small & ordinary beauty.’ Simple words that hold the universe of a life.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Cinthia! Okay, here’s my story. I pre-ordered your book, and waited. Waited. Waited. When you announced that it had come out, and I had not received my copy, I waited another week and then contacted the published with my order information. They looked into it and discovered that even though they had sent it, it was never delivered. They do not know what happened to it! They graciously sent me another copy, which just arrived a week ago. I finished my review of it today and then had trouble getting it onto the Amazon site. Their message said it would take a few days to post. Why, I do not know. At any rate, I was so moved by it and I’m sure that your sister would be honored that you told the story. I was stunned by your courage, by the inner strength it must have taken to write this memoir. I was full of tears in several places, and then again at the end when I saw my name in the acknowledgements. What a surprise! Congratulations on this publication, Cinthia. Quite an accomplishment.

    Like

  7. Hope you don’t mind, but I added you to my “bookshelf” 🙂
    https://negativespacey.com/my-bookshelf/
    You are such a TALENTED and INSPIRATIONAL writer! I know this must have been incredibly difficult for you to “release”, but I hope you know, it was WORTH IT…whatever it took, because it reached me, and has inspired me, and helped me to realize, I am..not..alone..in my daily/weekly/monthly/for the rest of my life….struggles.
    THANK YOU 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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