Many people imagine that my husband Robert McClellan must have read every word of my book Into The Planet. The truth is that it was only a few weeks ago that he finally read the book. Writing and editing a manuscript take years. While I worked with editors Bhavna Chauhan at Doubleday Books and Denise Oswald at ECCO, I often felt like I was getting psychotherapy, rather than editing. I had imagined that the process would be akin to a teacher grading a term paper, counseling me on grammar and tense. But it was so much more. Detailed notes asked me to dig deeper into my memory banks. How did I feel about a particular situation? What did it sound like? Was I afraid or elated? The coaching left me digging through old journals and finding details that I had forgotten about. They also helped me frame the narrative of my life, examining how one life lesson led to a new opportunity or a shift in my priorities. They helped me figure out how all the relationships in my life wove through my expeditions and journeys and helped form the person I am today. Sometimes I was reduced to tears. At other times, I began to understand myself better. Yet through the experience of writing, I was still left with some personal doubts. Would people connect with my story? Was it good enough? Would the people in the book feel that I represented them well and fairly?
The most important review for me was the love of my life Robert McClellan. The book is dedicated to him. When he finished the book and loved it, the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders. He doesn’t appear in my memoir until late in the book, a chapter called 7R. He shared his review to me:
“I don’t think there are many men whose partner writes an entire chapter of a mass market book in the form of a subtle love letter to her husband. Some guys get greeting cards and love notes, but Jill expresses her love for all the world to share, disguised as a chapter in her book Into The Planet.”
The book hits the shelves of booksellers everywhere on August 27, 2019. You can pre-order a copy right now:
