Let's Make It Official, Shall We?

So this is my 100th blog post. Can you believe that? I've been writing this blog for almost 15 months. Thank you for continuing to show up for my ramblings and musings.

I think that it is incredibly fitting that I hit the century mark as I am poised to make an exciting announcement. (Drum roll please...)

I have a release date for my book!

Four Seasons for Charlotte will be available in wide release on May 15th of this year. The book is already available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I searched for it today and found it! How exciting is that? Electronic versions of the book will also be available.

We will also sell copies through the CJSTUF website. I am also excited to let you know that 50% of all of my royalties from sales of the book will go directly to CJSTUF. We will have details about a release party and some local signings coming soon.

As some of you noticed via my announcement on Twitter and Facebook on Friday, I am currently sending advance reader copies of the book via PDF to members of the media, bloggers, and others willing to review the book. If you are interested in this, please contact me directly. I know I disappointed a few of you on Friday when I teased that PDF copies were available. Unless you have media credentials, you don't get a sneak peek just yet. Even my mother hasn't read the book yet! Just a few more months!

The other exciting development is that I am now an official Goodreads author. If you are on this social networking site, check me (and the book) out. You can officially add it to your "to-read" list and follow all upcoming announcements (including this blog) there. I will probably do a giveaway or two in April or May so stay tuned.

The Edge of Seventeen

It's that time of year when the blog musings center on my grief journey. Every year, it seems like we are busy with end-of-the-year school activities and the start of summer, planning vacations, and then (kablam)...it's almost July 9. Grief is funny. Grief is weird. I remember very early after Charlotte died, I watched the movie Rabbit Hole. There's an amazingly poignant scene where Nicole Kidman's character is talking with another woman who lost a child over 10 years before (played by Dianne Wiest). She talks about grief being like a brick in your pocket. It never goes away. Sometimes you can even forget it's there. But it comes back and makes its presence known from time to time. And (she says) "it's what you have of them." I probably did not fully realize then what a powerful and true analogy that is. As time goes on, our grief changes. Yet, it is always there on the edge of things. It sits in that pocket and sometimes makes itself known. This...

Bittersweet Sixteen

I think about Charlotte every single day. However, this time of year, I'm flooded with all kinds of memories as we commemorate the anniversary of her birth. This year feels like a bit of a milestone. Sixteen. If cancer had not taken her life back in 2010, I have a feeling I would be planning a massive birthday celebration this year. 16 always feels like a landmark year in someone's life. I have been thinking a great deal about the last birthday party we had for Charlotte in 2009. We didn't know it at the time, but we were halfway through her treatment journey. We had been through three major brain surgeries and a few rounds of inpatient chemotherapy. Treatments were not going well. In fact, right after her birthday, we would make the trip to Houston, Texas where we would settle in for about 10 weeks of proton beam radiation treatments and a new customized chemotherapy protocol. This was the unspoken "last chance option" to beat that aggressive brain tumor into ...

It's a (not quite) Jolly Holiday

I was sitting in a doctor's office waiting room a few weeks ago. While I waited, another patient came out into the reception area to make her next appointment. The receptionist offered a few dates, including one on a Saturday. The woman (I have no idea who she was; let's call her Maude) originally said yes to the Saturday date. Then the following conversation ensued: Maude: Wait! Is that Mother's Day weekend? Receptionist: Hmm. You know what? I'm not sure. When is Mother's Day? Maude: You don't know? Receptionist: (nervous laugh) Well, I guess I should know this.... Maude: Are you a mother? Receptionist: No. Maude: But...you have a mother, right? You should know these things! At this point, I was incensed with "Maude". This woman knew nothing about the receptionist. She could have recently lost a child. She could have been struggling with infertility. She could have had a mother who recently died. Or she could have a strained or just very compli...

I See What You Meme

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