Living with Hope

For this post, I'm going to quote a fabulous up-and-coming author who wrote a future NYT bestseller and is also perhaps known for embellishment and sarcasm. You'll find these nuggets in Chapter Ten: #BabesWithMobilityAids. I made an appointment with Andrew McPhail, who has been my oustanding orthotist for a number years. He is skilled, intelligent, and also incredibly kind. He’s a master at his work and in making me feel like a person and not a patient. I’m thankful to have benefited from many different practitioners who treat me with dignity, and Andrew is a shining example of this. Andrew is one of my favourite healthcare people. I tend to make a lot of "best friends." When I connect strongly with someone, I will often say something like, "We should be best friends." I am not actually a fan of ranking the people in my life, so if I call someone a best friend , it's a compliment and means I hold them in high esteem. Many of my medical people...

I was so proud of the manuscript I submitted for editing. I worked diligently to clean it up and tighten it up. I was almost convinced there'd hardly be any work left for my editor. After all, I'm the person many of my family and friends go to when they need grammar advice. Ha! I heard from my editor almost two weeks ago. I was so delighted and excited to receive her email. But very soon after reading the annotated file with comments and countless red (deletion), blue (addition), and green (move) marks, I understood the advantage of hiring a professional. Yes! I do need a governess an editor! This process has taught me a lot about myself as well as what goes into publishing a book: Very quickly, I caught on that I was going to need thick skin. To quote an author I met yesterday, "You need skin as thick as an elephant's when you're in the editing stage." My editor's job is to help the manuscript be the best it can be, and sometimes that means sa...

The first endorsement I received arrived with impeccable timing. But let me give some backstory. I met Dr. Saab in October 2023. I'd been waiting for over two years to be assigned to a new neurologist after Dr. Marriott left Manitoba to pursue other opportunities. Kevin was with me for my first appointment with Dr. Saab, and we were both impressed by his professionalism, knowledge, and personable nature. I was confident I was in good hands. I was so thankful and encouraged to have him on my healthcare team that I thought it was only fitting to send him a thank-you card. Over the last number of years, I've been drawing cartoon animals on cards accompanied by a corny pun related to the animal. As we talked, we learned that Dr. Saab is from Lebanon. We were quite ignorant about Lebanon, so we asked questions about his country. Through our conversation, we learned that Lebanon is the only country in the region without a desert. I concluded there probably aren't man...

I was intimidated by the suggestion in the WAP Blueprint to reach out to others who could endorse the book. But in the middle of June, I did manage to humbly ask a number of people. My targets were experts in fields that relate to themes in Invisibly Ill and Living with Hope . Word Alive Press gave me a soft deadline of August 15 for endorsements to come in. They had less than two months, and the assignment I gave these busy people was significant. I hoped to get one or two endorsements, but I wasn't counting on any. Each time a potential endorser said yes, I prepared an "Advanced Reader Copy" or ARC for each of them. These ARCs were watermarked manuscripts and sometimes differed from each other as the project was a living document and constantly being subjected to revisions; hence, the watermark "working copy." I also highlighted areas of the text that would be of special interest to each endorser given their areas of expertise. I was stunned by the sup...

I completed the bulk of the blueprint by early July, which was important because on July 3, I had oral surgery that saw me in recovery mode for most of the rest of the month. My invisible illnesses made sure my convalescing wasn't short, and I became rather invisible as I spent an enormous amount of time resting, sleeping, taking care of myself, and certainly not showering as regularly. My swollen and bruised face made me quite a sight, so I reasoned it was best to stay out of sight anyway. Word Alive Press predicted that the editing process would likely start in the middle of August. They advised me to finish any changes I wanted to make to my manuscript and to compile endorsements I received. I re-read my manuscript many times, amazed that each time I could find myriad places to make changes. A new friend who is a writer and editor gave sage advice during this period, which motivated me to make the text more focused. The last two re-reads saw me reducing the word count eac...

On June 13th, I emailed the lovely Crystal from Word Alive Press with the subject, Let's do this thing!!!! She and I had been emailing a fair bit while I asked numerous questions about the publishing process. She graciously provided answers to all my queries with reassurance that I really wasn't being a bother or too much. Once I was signed on, suddenly I had many tasks. They gave me a "WAP Blueprint." There were numerous questions to answers, decisions to make, and tasks to complete. It was exciting to feel that the process was moving along, but with deadlines for the different aspects of the blueprint, I found myself dedicating much time to what was required. The following is a breakdown of what I needed to do to satisfy the blueprint's requests: Indicate my request for the print date. I loved this question because it pointed to a finished product! I indicated that I'd like to see the books printed and ready for sale by Christmas of this year....

So much has happened since July 2022, the most significant being Word Alive Press entering the picture. July 2022 - Fall 2023: Writing, writing, writing. During this period, I wrote without thinking too much. As in, I just got the ideas out. I can't help being me and caring about grammar, so there was care taken with mechanics. As I eventually learned, there would still be endless editing and rewriting to do. Sometime in Fall 2023: I started feeling sad, alone, and overwhelmed by the project. I put out a plea to some friends and family to see if anyone wanted to read some words and give feedback. One of the people I approached was my Uncle Randy. He and Auntie Jan have had their own medical drama, and he has also served as a pastor. I thought his insight into both the medical and spiritual side of things would be valuable. Uncle Randy had time to read and give important insight on a number of chapters in the first part of the book. His involvement re-inspired me and gave me moti...

July 2022 I just finished reading a book about disability justice in the church and was left feeling sad for the author. She has been poorly treated as the result of her visible disability. I have a different story, and I decided it was time to tell it. The other motivation was that I regularly get asked about my health. People seem to have a curiosity about what I deal with, and I often gather that others are concerned for me. I wanted to set the record straight on how poorly I'm not doing. I also wanted to get my health history on record. Kevin has often encouraged me to write a book, and apparently this was the nudge I needed.