Back in 2008 I hurt my back while I was in the military. In 2010 I had my first discectomy, followed by another in 2016. Then in 2022 (Thanksgiving night) I hurt my back again (sneezing is super dangerous!). Finally in June I had my third back surgery at only 34 years old.

This time it wasn’t just a discectomy though, this time it was a fusion. When I tell you the healing from it is a difficult journey, I am minimizing it. The first couple of days after surgery I was downright miserable and even today almost a full 2 months after the surgery, I find myself struggling at times. I have numbness in weird areas, walking up and down my road is enough to tire me out and my physical therapy is walking in a pool. But this blog isn’t about my back pain, it is about the journey of finishing my book.

I started writing my book while I was laid up with my previous back surgery, and initially my plan was to finish it back in 2017ish. Instead I felt amazing after surgery and didn’t want to be tied to my computer, so I postponed it and put it off for what seemed like forever. I always had some sort of excuse. I even wrote an entirely different book in order to postpone writing this book, the one I truly care about.

Today my neighbor brought me 2 books from the library that she is a librarian for. One of them was written by someone from Wisconsin, so of course I picked that almost 700 page monstrosity to read first. I haven’t made it very far in the book, I think I am on chapter 2, but it is pulling me in. The best way I can describe it is that it is complex in its simplicity. Each sentence is understandable and easy to read, and yet when you put them all together, it makes you devour the pages. My guess is that by the end of the weekend I will be much further than chapter 2.

While my neighbor was trying to be neighborly and help kill the boredom of being off work for 3 months (which seems great other than you can’t enjoy it), she also sparked something for me. I haven’t worked on my book since surgery, largely because I have felt often like I had brain fog and sometimes struggle for the right word to use, even though that is something I have never struggled with. I need to find a way to get back to it this weekend. Find a way to sit comfortably for an hour while I type or proofread on the laptop. Find a way to make sure I get up once in a while to do some walking so I don’t tighten up and regret life. In the end, I simply have to find a way.

I may have only read one chapter today, but it was enough to spark that drive in me. That drive makes writing less like it is something I want to do, it is more something I HAVE to do. Reading has always brought me joy in life. Writing is just an extension of that except you are the one that gets to tell the story. You can decide what twists and turns the characters encounter, you can decide their names and their life stories, the only thing that holds the story back is the limit of your imagination.

Today my neighbor’s friendly act, her perfect choice of book, one chapter, has ignited the spark in me again. This weekend is the weekend I finish proofreading what I have, and hopefully start to bring the first book in my series to a close.