As of today, I’m officially, publicly, mostly, on maternity leave. In reality, Maddie has been more or less in charge of APW for the last week, and I’ve been puttering around behind the scenes tidying things up. Last week, our Doula asked us how me “resting” was going. David said, “Well, I think today was her first day of maternity leave, and she worked for nine hours.” I gave the obvious response, which was, “Now that I’m not in charge, I have so much time to get things done! Plus, working is so much more relaxing than sitting around.” True, y’all.
As the APW team makes the transition, it seemed like a fitting time to announce a few (excellent) changes.
First up, Maddie has been promoted to Managing Editor of APW. Three cheers for Maddie! She’s done more and more work, and she has contributed in huge ways to APW over the past year. So her taking the reins for maternity leave seemed like the perfect time to officially promote her. Also, during wedding season, she’s done a phenomenal job of running her own business and making APW tick, and she’s slept a frighteningly small amount (frightening to me, because I really like sleep).
Which brings me to the fact that I’m thrilled to introduce our Editorial Assistant for the duration of maternity leave, Emily Threlkeld. Longtime readers will know Emily from her New Orleans Elopement, her essay on faith, proof, and the immigration process, Confessions of A Bridal Registry Consultant, and her crazy, ballsy, non-anonymous essay How I very Nearly Almost Cheated On My Husband. She’s also quoted in the APW book. I think what I mostly want to say about Emily joining the APW staff is that she’s a reminder to me that you make your own luck (something her husband told her on their wedding day). Unbeknownst to me, Emily put a post-it on her bathroom mirror saying that she wanted to work for APW. (Maybe after the Atlanta book talk where I claimed that was the way I reminded myself of all my most important goals?) But then there were the other things she did, like write lots of amazing things for the site and get to know the staff; drive for seven hours to meet Maddie and me at the Atlanta book event; send me her résumé after said event; and then in May send me an email outlining why I should hire her and what exactly she could bring to the team. Fast-forward to this month, when I realized we needed to hire someone to help Maddie for maternity leave, and I didn’t have time for a full-scale search, and I said, “SELF! Hire Emily! She is great!” And so we did. That, my friends, is a woman who makes her own luck.
And with that, my friends, I’m out. (At least mostly. For now). See you on the other side.
Photos from the Atlanta Book Talk by Leah and Mark, Me with Leah and Mark’s baby, That’s Emily right in the front!, Me
