I hope that 2024 has started well for you and continues along the same. 

I had hip surgery in October and during my recovery, wrote a lot. But then came the holidays with a side order of life and the writing slid off the to-do list. I’m just getting back to it now, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

The very good news is that I’ve signed a contract for another picture book, this one coming out in 2026. (Patience is required with the long waits in publishing.) This story is about an experience I’ve had twice: having cochlear implant surgery.

You see, technically I am deaf. I didn’t start out that way, but over the years my hearing has basically dwindled away. A cochlear implant is a device that is surgically implanted in the skull. Sounds are captured by an external processor, then sent to the implanted receiver The receiver sends signals to electrodes implanted in the cochlea (inner ear). These signals stimulate the auditory nerve which then sends the signals to the brain. 

I had my first surgery in 2016 and my second in May of last year. In between those dates, I decided to write a version of that experience from a child’s point of view. After I wrote it, a nurse who assists with these surgeries at Children’s Hospital (Vancouver) kindly checked it over to make sure that nothing I’d experienced as an adult was different than how a child’s surgery would be. Then I started sending it out. 

The story has been sold to Owlkids and illustrator Ellen Rooney is just getting started on it. I can hardly wait to see how Ellen sees it!