Publishing deal during hard times

The last few months have been tough. No, no. The last few years. I’ve been fighting endometriosis tooth and nail for a while now. There’s been so many darn surgeries and so many complications from all the scar tissue that’s making my pelvic organs resemble a ball of packing tape. Through everything, somehow, I’ve kept writing fiction. I landed my literary agent in 2021, right as my endometriosis mayhem was beginning. My first book died on submission, but I quickly moved onto the next project after I couldn’t get the swamps of the Everglades out of my head. I drafted a swampy, witchy, magical book that my critique partner and my agent helped me polish up to go out on submission.

Fast forward to recent days. I had surgery on August 22nd, 2025. Three years to the day since my first endometriosis surgery and my seventh major surgery in three years. I had high hopes this would be my last hurdle to feeling more like myself. It was a bowel resection to resolve some residual issues from a near-death endometriosis-related complication in 2023. This time, in the process of separating my pelvic organs again (because endo glues my organs together every time) my left ureter tore. Four or five days after surgery I started leaking urine into my belly. Things got ugly fast. My belly blew up like I was six months pregnant, and inflammation from the urine around my organs created an enormous amount of pain. I ended up back in the hospital, where they had to drain my belly and install a nephrostomy – which means my left kidney drained into a bag.

If I’m honest, the FOMO this ordeal has caused has been tough. I’ve had angry days. I’ve had days where I’m awfully low. I missed the last hurrah of summer. I’m physically limited during my most favorite season, when I would normally be sitting in a tree stand with my bow. The air is crisp and the leaves are crunchy and I’m in my jammie pants on my couch. Recovery has been slow. I was finally starting to feel well enough to ease back into work at the end of September, and then on October 1st, the government shut down, meaning I was put on furlough. Surprisingly that same day, my agent and I got on the phone with Lake Union Publishing, and they made an offer on Ghost Orchid.

I signed the contract for them to publish my book one week after they installed a stent in my left ureter, which I can only describe as carrying around a piece of barbed wire between my bladder and kidney. The stent might improve my chances of that ureter healing without major surgical reconstruction, and it allowed my surgeon to remove the nephrostomy (thank goodness because I was terrified the dogs would jump on me and rip it out). Time will tell on whether I’ll need another surgery. In the meantime, I’ll edit this book with my team at Lake Union and get it ready to go out in the world. I’ll focus on the coziness of fall – writing and books and blankets and hot mugs of tea. The first few frosty nights with a fire roaring in the woodstove.

Life can be really hard. But there’s often magic in the timing of things – my book deal (the first of many I hope) came at time when I really, really needed some good news. And now the publishing process will be the happy distraction I need to carry me through this last surgical hurdle. This is why I keep investing in the things (and the people!) I love, even on the days I’m too tired and it hurts too much. Because when I really need it, those things (and people!) will carry me through.