So the past several months have been a big blur for me and my family. I have been extremely busy with full time graduate school and part time work. On top of that, we have all been passing around the Kansas City “crud” for the past couple of weeks. The biggest thing that has happened this fall is that my aunt Eileen passed away in October. She fought a short, but very courageous battle with renal cell carcinoma. I haven’t shared that loss with very many people outside of my immediate family. I mention it today because Eileen was one of my very biggest supporters in life, including writing this book. She was always so encouraging of my writing, but even more so, she was there for me as l lived out a lot of this book in real life. She understood the realities of my writing and believed in my ability to bring the voices of my characters to life. Eileen was an amazing woman, loving mother, caring wife, and one of the most selfless women I have ever known. She was a second mom to me and I’m so thankful that she was such a huge part of my life. All of us who got to experience Eileen are the absolute luckiest.
As you may have guessed, I have spent very little time on editing my book. The semester ended on Tuesday though, and I’m out of school until January 2nd. It’s go time. Stay tuned! 
Aunt Eileen holding Gabby