Dear Friends,
Some time ago, I mentioned that I was meeting with someone about co-authoring a book with me that is unlike anything I’ve ever written. While my co-author’s identity will remain a secret until the book is finished, I can now tell you a little bit about the project: an autobiographical journey through grief tentatively called Grace In Our Grieving.
Those of you that know me as more than just “that writer guy” know that, over the course of about six years, I lost my maternal grandfather, my father, my mother and then my younger brother. As I worked on my recent publication, the poetry collection entitled I Am A Broken House, I began to notice how much of the work was inspired either by my grief or the grace that became evident as I struggled through it. I realized that I couldn’t really talk about the book without talking about grief…and, if I had to talk about grief, it should be in a way that carries more impact and benefit than a few poems in a collection.
In the past, poetry has been the one avenue of writing through which I’ve opened up my own story. True, not every poem is a glimpse of me as I’m fond of employing my “fiction brain” at times, but poetry tends to dig down into my joy and my pain and uproot it for all to see. But writing out my story…retracing the steps I’ve walked through the darkest period of my life in the hope that some other grieving soul might find something useful (hope? kinship?courage?) was something I hadn’t really considered before. The thought of it is quite frightening, to be honest. But I thought about it. I prayed about it. I talked about it with my wife and my teenaged daughter. I consulted a friend or two. In the end, it was clear that, if I wanted to talk about grief and the grace that carried me through it, I had to dig it all up and lay it out. I had to tell my story from the beginning and hope that it helps someone. But…I also realized it needed to be more than that.
Grief is intensely personal. My story is just that—my story. For this book to help in the way that I wanted it to, it had to reach beyond the personal. To that end, I secured a co-author. In my journey through grief, I sought help in the form of grief counseling and, though I know not everyone feels the need to talk their way through that pain, it helped me immensely. So, I’ve asked a grief counselor to co-author this book and follow each of my autobiographical chapters with a more professional look at the elements I introduce. Where I may see my journey toward recovery as a spiritual one, my co-author can broaden the scope to fit everyone’s story.
So, friends, once my editing work is complete on Worlds Apart, a fantasy novel that should see the light of day near the end of this year, I’ll turn my attention to the story of my grief and work closely with my co-author to produce a work that, hopefully, will help bring healing to those who are held fast in the quicksand of their loss and grief. It may end up being the most difficult thing I’ve ever attempted, so I ask that your thoughts and prayers be with me as I take on this challenge. Your support, dear friends, means more than I could ever say and is, in part, grace in my grieving.
J
