I’ve got exciting news that can’t wait for next week’s “Writing on Wednesday” post: I just got a publishing deal for my book, Tangles and Plaques: A Mother and Daughter Face Alzheimer’s! It’s a collection of essays culled from eight years of blog posts. I’m over the moon with excitement. But here’s something I didn’t see coming. The publisher is a small, faith-based press (they also publish secular work, and mine really isn’t a “Christian” book) with a pretty loyal readership (they send out regular newsletters with their catalogue), so they asked me to edit out the four-letter words!
The funny part is, they don’t even know my husband is a priest. He’s probably rolling his eyes if he’s reading this, although he really likes my novel, Cherry Bomb, which will not be published by a faith-based press.
The bottom line is I’m happy to oblige, and I certainly don’t want to offend any potential readers. The publisher is thinking the target audience is baby boomers who are caregivers—at some level—for their aging parents. Or maybe even some of those aging parents themselves. But I hope that younger folks will also read Tangles and Plaques. Maybe it will help some people who might be facing these issues in the future. And evidently that’s a lot of people. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. One in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, and more than fifteen million people provide care to people with dementia.
So, I hope the censorship protestors will forgive me for taking out some of those colorful words. Hopefully the words that are left will be enough to move you to tears, laughter, or both.
Congratulations! Let me know where I can get a copy of your sanitized book. Believe me, when you’ve lived through Alzheimers or dementia, the colorful words just help you get through it. Been there, done that, surfed it. Many kudos!
LOL Alison, re “sanitized”!I’ll be posting info about the publication date some time this fall. Thanks for reading!
Congratulations, Susan! Thank you for sharing the wonderful news! I look forward to reading more as you go through the publication process and get ready for us to put in our orders!
Thanks, Joanne! I’m over the moon with excitement!
Susan, Congrats. Did you ever think this would happen when we met so many years ago at the Berry Conference? Patience and perseverance. That’s what it takes. Congrats to you.
Thanks so much Renea! I had forgotten that we met at Berry… what a great conference. I met several terrific authors there, and participated in my first ever panel. Wonderful experience. And yes, I DID think it would happen eventually… and now I may have a 3rd book deal soon! Stay tuned…. and thanks for reading!