Day One: The Beginning Of A Book

I'm starting the "30 Days 'Til A Book Release Party" with the story of how a book was ever imagined.  I figure you need the back story from the beginning if this is going to be at all interesting to the 5 of you reading. Ricky had just died, and the fog that death lives in was hanging thick around us for a few days, the way it normally does, as anyone who has lost can tell you.  This fog works just like early morning fog on a road.  It brings schedules to a halt and incites confusion and a little bit of nausea as you walk through it.  The most someone can usually muster in this state is the small bit of planning it takes to arrange a funeral and burial.  That's all your brain can handle, if even.  So it's highly unlikely that, in the middle of this fog, writing a book about the experience would be a topic of conversation.  But that's where it originated, a few short days after Rick's death, between me and my good friend, Shannon Scott.

Now, I've said before that I didn't set out to write a book like this.  It sounds like I'm contradicting myself with that last statement from the previous paragraph.  But it's true.  I thought a book, if it ever came to fruition, would be a self-published chronicling of the journey for the friends and family who traveled with us.  The writing would no doubt help me in my processing through the grief, but most of that wouldn't make it into public view.

So, in the middle of the fog, the conversation went something like this (I can't remember verbatim, but it's close):

Me- "Shannon, I think we should write a book."

Shannon- "I'm here, sista.  I think so, too."

Me- "I already know what it's called."

Shannon- "What is it?"

Me- "The Aftermath Of Hope." *

Shannon- "YES!"

Simple as that.  In a few words the book became the twinkle in my eye.

Who knew that birthing a book would take this many years?!

I'll pick up the rest of the beginning tomorrow.

God, I pray for Your grace to recall the perfect moments You constructed all along this process, and for a newfound excitement and expectancy about the power of Your story through my brother's death as we lead up to the release of this book.  Amen.

*  This is not the title of the book anymore, obviously.  We'll discuss that in the 30 days as well.  :)