The Turning Point

My little brother and I have sons the same age and in the same school. So we spend a lot of time together...we go to PTA meetings, basketball games, school fundraisers, swimming lessons. And we talk. About the kids, about life, about work. So when he began asking me about self-publishing I never gave it a second thought. I thought it was just him searching for a conversation topic. Not exactly.

I got sick lately and, I guess faced with me being sick, he blurted it all out. "I always thought we would write a book together. You would write and I would illustrate. I even have a story idea." My brother has been drawing since we were kids and recently took up oil painting. The book idea has been percolating for a while but he was waiting...for the right time, for me to get an agent, for us to retire...who knows what for?

Now we stand on the precipice. We could become one of the millions of people who say, "Someday I'm going to write that book. I've got that idea. I'm just waiting for...." Or we could write it. Everyone has a book in them. The tough part is getting it OUT.

Getting sick was the turning point for me. It looms behind me, like a towering ogre. Will it change me? Will it make me less creative? Will it steal my energy? Am I writing on borrowed time? What about you? What made you stop saying, "I have great ideas" and say "This is it! It's time to create!"

P.S. I would have liked to include a photo of my brother and me but since we're the family photographers we never seem to be in the same photo together. Enjoy my mom and brother!