New Year, New Words

Well...this place has been quite silent for some time.

There are points in a writer's life where you sometimes have to decide where to put your words first, and because my time was limited, my blog wasn't going to be that place. I enjoy talking with the readers of this blog, but I was under a mountain and needed to step back.

What kind of mountain?

The sick infant kind of mountain. See, I'm more than a writer. I'm a mom first and foremost. My son B was born in May last year. He is, without a doubt, the happiest baby you could ever meet. Seriously. He had blood drawn and smiled for the phlebotomist. Oh, did I say blood drawn? Yeah. He had a lot of health problems starting at five weeks old which culminated in December. Such a tiny thing, he got his first chest cold at five weeks old. And quickly had two more. Then his skin started to break down in his diaper area. Then he stopped gaining weight altogether for three months. Then his blood tests showed he had a liver infection no one could find from where it stemmed. Then he had multiple ear infections. We saw his pediatrician, a GI specialist, conferred with a liver specialist, saw an ear/nose/throat specialist. He endured multiple rounds of blood work, a barium swallow test, a liver ultrasound, and eventually needed tubes put into his ears. I was in doctor's offices with him usually twice a week. Sometimes more.

It was stressful. It was scary. It is not good when you can tell that your child's doctors are scared.

So words had to become less of a priority for me. Words for this blog were even further down the list.

Add to the stress of what was going on with B, my six-year-old daughter had a flare up of a chronic GI condition called eosinophilic esophagitis. It is characterized by severe acid reflux, choking and gagging on food, and seems to be related in some manner to food allergies and/or the autoimmune system. She missed nine days of school second quarter because she was so sick. She had an endoscopy that had a freak reaction to either the intubation or the placement of the endoscope--her uvula swelled up to fill the back of her throat and was lying on her tongue. She had to hospitalized for medications and observations. No, we don't know why this happened. Yes, the hospital is investigating.

Now for some good news: ever since B's ear surgery in December, his health has dramatically improved. He's not sick nearly as much and he's actually gaining weight! I'm ecstatic, honestly. And as for G, she has recovered. Her EE is kind of in a remission but she's not asymptomatic yet, so she's being put on some new medication to see if this will help out her little system. Slow, steady steps forward.

Now for some more good news: I'm writing again. I have to say that my agent and my crit partners were great sources of support during this time. They all assured me that, yes, they would still be there when I got out from under the mountain. My husband, God love him, has been a trooper and is giving me time to finish up the YA horror novel I'm working on, a novel that has so far gotten some good reviews among my CPs and agent.

And last part of good news: I'm expanding from writing only YA to also writing some adult urban fantasy work, which will be under the name Sarah John Bromley.

All in all, the past five months have been a period where I felt both isolated but supported. I felt like my life was reduced to minutes spent in the waiting rooms of doctors' offices. I felt like there were question marks in any direction I looked. That said, I lost both my parents before I was twenty-four years old. I know what real illness looks like, and I can say that I had faith in God that whatever was going on with B wasn't going to be one of those real illnesses. It also inspired me to do a lot more to take better care of myself.

I hope to not be so quiet this year, and soon I'll be posting a chance to win a book with a signed bookplate from the author! So stay tuned.

I'm glad to be back.