As you all know I'm reading selected works by indie and self published writers and helping to spread the word on some of our talented unsung authors. With that in mind I am currently reading Going Home by Sharon Marchisello. I've been reading for two weeks with significant interruption. Life gets in the way of plans so many times, and this is one of the reasons I am such a huge fan of audio books. I promise to have my review out on Going Home by the beginning of the week.
This post is about distraction. The first thing that drew me away from my reading was the arrival via Dropbox of my audio files for intoxic to review. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to hear all the hard work Jennifer Reilly put into the narration. I've gone through and asked for a few changes, things that you would have to be in my head to know, and she is working hard to get my changes finalized and recorded so we can get intoxic out to you. I think she does an outstanding job bringing Alison to audio.
I also got my first draft of Purgus back from one of my advance readers and have some work to do before it goes to the editor. I am so grateful for all of the amazing people who have encouraged this second book and the inspiration they gave me along the way. I really want to have Purgus out by the end of the year, but it has quite a bit of work to be done before that point, and as with reading, sometimes life gets in the way. Friday, right after I got my reviewed draft back ftom one of my most particular readers, covered in ink and questions -- which made my heart sing, because everything my advance readers help me improve makes it better for everybody else. Friday evening was looking like a beautiful night to sit on the deck andwatch the kids play with manuscrit in hand for review until our Fall Festival set for 5:30. We were all gearing up for a wonderful evening of friends and cooler temperatures. My youngest daughter scampered away from the deck and my eldest daughter wasn't far behind. Our Great Dane, Ruger, was off for the chase and paced my youngest to the play set where she leapt for the bar, grabbed it, her feet swung forward and her hands slipped off. She fell, without me actually seeing it happen, smack to the ground. I don't believe she lost consciousness but she did start crying.
This girl is not a crier and so when she does we tend to take it seriously. I got her inside and gave her and icepack, checked for lumps and bumps and found none. We moved inside and a few minutes later, after we had her crying calmed, she handed me her i-pad and said she couldn't focus on it and then she looked at me and said that my eyes were in the wrong places. I asked her to point to my eyes and she pointed to one and about two inches lower on my cheek. I looked like a Picasso painting to her. There was such fear and confusion in her little face that we headed to our nearest ER. My husband met uson the way we arrived. Within minutes of arriving she started vomiting and shortly thereafter we were taken to a room. We were later tranfered to a children's hospital in Atlanta and released on Saturday afternoon.
Talk about life getting in the way. My youngest daughter was brave and easy going through the conversations with doctors and through the CT scan and through the ambulance ride and the late late night. My eldest daughter was such a trooper by helping Daddy to get back up to be with us and getting herself ready, her hair brushed her teeth brushed, picking clothes out for herself and for me and sissy to bring to the hospital. Our son, who is 20, touched base through the night and day making sure his baby sister was ok. The whole experience made me so proud of the people I hold closest in my life. We are strong. I am so lucky for the man I married becasue he is such a good person. His priorities are so right. My children have taken that from him, they are generous and kind and respectful and they want to do the right thing. I am so impressed with these people.
I'll never look at a bump on the head a same after this.