Redefining my life…

Or, why I really want to make the USA Today bestseller list.

Eleven years ago today, I started my private psychology practice. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long, and I’m so grateful for all the support I’ve gotten, especially from my husband and family. It’s allowed me to have a life with a lot of flexibility than I would have had in a regular job working for someone else. It’s also been a lot of work, and while I love helping people, face-to-face clinical work is tough for a strong introvert like me. Plus, it’s only one person at a time, and there are only so many hours I can see clients in a week.

I started thinking about how to redefine my life when I turned 40, which is the age when I began to accept that kids wouldn’t be part of the picture. I have endometriosis, which is associated with infertility, and so I never got pregnant in spite of being happily married for thirteen years at that point. Hubby and I enjoy our lives, and perhaps this makes us selfish, but we were never interested in adoption or other ways of having kids. So, what to do?

I admit I didn’t think that much about it. I just worked and played and wrote and went on for another year or so. Then I started having more GYN problems – specifically, my overachieving uterus decided to grow both a polyp AND a fibroid – and my doctor, who had been hesitant to recommend something as extreme as a hysterectomy before I turned 40, said it may not be a bad idea.

So, I ended up having a hysterectomy at the age of forty-one on September 7, 2018. I refer to it as my uterine eviction. The surgery went well, I went home the next day, and I thought it would be an easy recovery. Why wouldn’t it? I’d lost 15 pounds and was in the best shape I’d ever been in my adult life, at least since getting married.

Then, a week after surgery, I got short of breath while lying on my right side to watch television. I also felt like something was wrong, although that’s harder to explain. I’m all-too-familiar with anxiety. This was different. One of my cousins who’s a nurse commented on my later Facebook post about what happened that some of her patients described their experiences as having a “feeling of doom.” That sounds about right.

Yes, supposedly healthy me had kicked a clot and ended up with a pulmonary embolism. So last year at this time, I was admitted to the hospital, and I spent the ten-year anniversary of my practice on the cardiac ward while being given blood thinners through an I.V. It wasn’t fun, but at least I did a lot of reading.

If giving up on having kids made me realize I needed to choose a new script, having a pulmonary embolism reminded me that life is often shorter than we think it will be, so I needed to figure out what I wanted that new script to look like. I remember telling my husband that since I love speaking, I want to get paid to travel and speak.

A few months after my P.E., I got the opportunity to apply to join a group of science fiction and fantasy authors who would be combining efforts to make the USA Today bestseller list. As an indie author, it’s tough to make these lists, so combining efforts makes sense. But I had more reason than just “getting my letters,” as authors refer to it. Being able to say I’m a USA Today bestselling author will open up more conference guest and speaking opportunities.

So that’s why I’m really hoping Rogue Skies will make the USA Today list. Teaching others to do what I do will help more people than just my face-to-face work, and I’ll achieve my dreams of more traveling and speaking. Will you help me out?

Buy Rogue Skies on:

Apple Books

Nook

Amazon