The soundtrack of my youth began everyday after school. I would get home and watch Gilligan’s Island, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie.
It was a simple and good life back in the olden days. We only had a black and white TV and the canned laughter always helped me know when something was funny.
I received some good news today. Un-Brella, my first picture book is being reprinted this week. It is so nice that it has found a niche in the crowded market. The book was first published in April 2007 and so it has taken just over a year for it to sell out the first printing.
The only post transplant exercise condoned by my doctors is walking. As it turns out I am most comfortable when walking. So I have been walking around the neighborhood. Today I decided to bring a piece of the walk back with me each day. Here is the first entry from my morning walk.
This is a spread from a book I am working on called Color Buzz. Delicious color mixing: a tragedy. There just aren’t enough picture books about tragedy.
It is mosquito season in Idaho. I saw my first one last night while enjoying the cool shade. Bummer! I do like cool Idaho evenings.
Yesterday was my 6 week “re-birthday”. I feel great and will forever be in debt to an unknown donor who gave me a new life. In addition to the liver transplant that I received, the donor gave 2 kidneys, a pancreas, and a heart. All I know is the donor was a male about my body build and my blood type. To all families of donors out there, thank you.
Each day I am feeling stronger and I am looking forward to being the best husband and father I can be.
One of the biggest surprises for me was the hope for the future that I felt. For the past year it hasn’t been possible to plan anything, because we lived life waiting for the transplant call.
As far as children’s picture books go. I do hope that there are more for me in the future. I have been going through my achieve of ideas and found three ideas that are near completion. I have sent one out to Roaring Brook Press, the publisher of Un-Brella. I enjoyed working with them so much that I hope that they will publish it. I will keep you up to date on what I hear from them.
