How were you planning to spend your time promoting and talking about your book?

We had a few events lined up. The book launch was March 24, scheduled to be at the Center for Fiction, and I was excited to be in conversation with Shirin Neshat, the Iranian visual artist and filmmaker. Then I was heading to Australia in late April for the Sydney Writers’ Festival (which is canceled, too), and then another festival in New Jersey. It was about half a dozen events, all of them canceled. Some postponed — well, hopefully all postponed. Then there is the baby my wife just had yesterday, who was overdue, a week after due date. I was looking forward to the birth of these two things, one human, one book. One born all right, the other one … facing a lot issues.

How are you spending it now?

I’ll still be doing an NPR interview. To be honest with you, I’m so preoccupied with the baby that I don’t care very much at the moment. It’s kind of a blessing in disguise. I was concerned that I would be away from my family, and it’s nice to be with them.

I also teach at CUNY in Harlem. Those classes are also canceled. It’s weird to think — it feels like everything was put on hold as soon as he was born.

Is there anything else you want to add or that’s been on your mind in connection with this?

I don’t really know. It’s a very weird coincidence. To have your life, all of these events of intensity meeting at one point within the span of a couple days. It’s very complicated. I haven’t really thought through it that much yet. If you have any kind of belief in the fact that no coincidence is entirely coincidental, then this is good material for obsessive thinking.

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Elisabeth Thomas, ‘Catherine House,’ May 12

Describe your book in a sentence.

“Catherine House” is a gothic literary suspense novel set at a mysterious cultlike college with a dangerous secret agenda.

How were you planning to spend your time promoting and talking about your book?

We were planning to do podcasts and interviews, book giveaways, social media pushes, bookseller dinners, media events and, of course, launch events at bookstores when it comes out.