Moving along

Just to keep you in the loop, I finished the interior edits to the book today! Bring on the aching neck cream!

Now the publisher has to work them into the book and get it back to me for final approval. After that, we tackle the cover design, which is already 90% done thanks to my sister, Pat.

Once approved, it takes four weeks to have the book up on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com,  as well as Kindle, and in my hands, so I can begin running around to reading groups, stores, and libraries to sell it. There's also some exciting news coming in the next few weeks, so stay tuned! This has been an amazing process. Thanks to everyone for signing on! I'll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I'm off to the Outer Banks for a week of rest before things really heat up. Enjoy the sunshine, all! 

If it's to be...

Make no mistake. We all write our own life story. No one does it for us—no one else controls the narrative. Whether we write it with a pen, or with our choices, our story is told by our actions. All of us leave an impression on others and the world we eventually leave behind.

Some write their stories with focused intention. They organize and follow a plan. Others experiment. They try, fail, succeed, and try something new. Still others stumble along, changing only when circumstances demand they must, struggling to find a foothold. All of us learn from others. We learn in school, from our teachers, parents, and mentors. We especially learn from and try to emulate those we admire. But often, the most important lessons are learned by accident. By this I mean, our most important lessons are inside the experience, they are behind the obvious, buried in our subconscious, but when they appear, they burst before us like magicians, miraculously clear—and these lessons change our lives forever.

Once Hugh made up his mind to heal as fully as humanly possible, he often repeated a phrase that became an integral part of how he lives his life every day. He said,
“If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” This one sentence soon defined him. He’s who he is today because he accepted what he could not change and made the very best of everything he had going for him. He’s a walking miracle, in part because he took control of his own life story—and what a life story it’s turning out to be.

Book Buzz

It's getting near the time when I will realize a lifelong dream. I will have written and published a book. I will hold it in my hands. I will see others reading my story.

This is satisfying, exhilarating and frightening beyond belief. Every word of this book is my version of the truth. I have exposed my thought process, my fears, and my neurosis. I've placed my family on a glass slide for everyone to examine. They have cheerfully allowed me to do this, trusting all will go well.

Why would I do this? I've asked myself this many times. So here are the reasons I have for publishing a memoir about the most difficult experience of my life:

1. From the day of the accident until years later, I was so overcome with things that needed doing while at the same time overcome with emotion, that I could not organize my thoughts enough to make sense of them. Writing was my way of telling the story without holding someone hostage while I talked for weeks on end.

2. From the day of the accident until about two years out, I lost myself. I was not the same woman. I could not find myself in the mirror, in my heart, or in my mind. I was full of self-talk that alternated between panic and words meant to calm myself down: Oh My God, he can't focus his eyes. He can't talk to me! Calm down, Rosemary, he'll get better. Smile at the girls, don't let them see you freaking out!

3. "We're fine," became my two word response to the world when asked how things were going. How else could I answer? It soon became clear that no one knew anything about brain injury and what was going on in my house. If it happened in my house, it must be happening in most houses where brain injury occurs. So the book is that glimpse behind the front door, into the living room that has become a quiet room, into the bedroom that has become a hospital room, into the home that has become another place entirely.

4. I wrote this book as a tribute to those with brain injury, who struggle daily to find themselves, to wake up from an exhaustion so bone deep they want to sleep forever, who wonder who they used to be, and who simply want to get back to life. I wrote it as a tribute to caregivers who rearrange their lives for their loved ones, hoping beyond hope that their life will someday resemble normal again, hoping they can calm the trembling of their own heart so they can endure the marathon caregiving required of brain injury.

The interior book design is complete. I'm in the process of proofreading before we begin work on the beautiful cover design. The cover picture was taken by my friend Nancy Tomlinson at the beach and the cover is being designed by my sister, Pat Waters. This is a totally homegrown project. I can hardly wait to launch! I'll keep you posted.