The story:
I am a diabetic and went through a Diabetes "Burn-out" phase where I just didn't care and I wasn't going to take care of myself.
Pretty much - depression at it's best!
Well, because of my actions (or lack there of) I landed myself in the hospital for DKA (really high blood sugar).
I'm getting to the book - I promise
I ended up having a stroke due to the severe dehydration. I lost most of my speech and language and all the use in my right arm. It was very life altering, to say the least.
While, I was recovering, I used my poetry to help me relearn how to read and write again. After two months of rehabing, I made a full recovery!
The book was published before the one year anniversary of my stroke. I am very proud of that fact. I never realized that I could write a book, I just wrote to decipher life and try out different perspectives and points-of-view. Someone else first placed the time-tomb in my brain that exploded - no puns intended
The process was relatively quick. I researched for about six months to find a solid publisher. Once I found one that I liked, I started making it happen. I sent in my manuscript in April 2008 and by August 13th of the same year it was published. I used Xlibris, and was treated not great - but fairly.
Well, just over a year later, here I am. I am 31 years old. I am trying to not have to go through "that" again. All is well at this point.