Ok, so this summer has not been quite as productive as I’d hoped. I’m sitting at a table in Chicago Midway Airport right now waiting on my delayed flight. Who knows when I will actually be on my way back home to Kansas City. As much as it pains me to say this, grad school comes first. My book comes somewhere after that. It’s not that grad school isn’t important. It is. It’s just so hard to not be able to give my whole heart and soul (and every free minute I have) into my book. That’s just who I am. I want to put my whole heart and soul into everything that I do. The problem is that my life doesn’t quite allow that right now. I put my heart and soul into my husband, my sweet baby girl, my family, and my friends. Whatever heart and soul is left now gets divided between work, grad school, My Perfect Little Secret, and everything else. The past few months have been insane for me, and I think it will only get worse from here on out. Grad school has out ranked my book, and will continue to do so until I graduate next August. At least there is a light at the end of the tunnel! So, back to Chicago. I am here in Chicago because this is where my grad school is.
Here’s a little background information for those who don’t know. I go to graduate school at Rush University, which is in the heart of Chicago. I am getting my master’s degree to be a pediatric critical care nurse practitioner. Shorthand: A nurse practitioner that works in a pediatric ICU (where the sickest kids are). Although I can do most of my grad program online, I do have to travel to complete some of it. I have been in Chicago the past two days doing assessment exams and proving that I have what it takes to do this program. I will come back to Chicago for about a week in January, and then again in June. I will also spend about a month in Dallas, Texas at Children’s Medical Center. The trips to Chicago are doable. I have only been here 3 days, and I’ve missed Andrew and Gabby like you couldn’t believe, but we survived it. I am not sure how Dallas will go. A month away from my family seems absolutely unbearable. With a visit or two, cell phones, and Skype, I am sure we will figure it out. Then, after a lot of hard work, I will graduate in August.
Now to get to what this whole blog is about!!! My Perfect Little Secret!!! David has been even busier than I have, if you can even imagine. So, he has given me assignments as he works on editing (word-by-word) my entire book. I have finished my research on every potential agent, made a file on them, and have written the query letters for my top two choices. See my previous post for an explanation of the word “query”. In addition, an aspiring writer named Megan who is 15 years old, has read the first few chapters of my book. David asked my permission to have Megan read them so that she could provide feedback. In David’s words: “I haven’t been 15 in a long time…I want to hear a 15 year old’s opinion”. So, Megan read the first few chapters and provided some excellent feedback. I am very excited to blog that she really liked the book so far…enough so that she is now reading the rest of the book! In addition, Megan will be doing a guest post on my blog!!! I am not good at being patient, but while I’m going through this process, I have adopted a slogan: Slowly but surely! And while it is incredibly slow, I assure you, I will make it surely!!!
