Making Dreams Come True – Part 5

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If you haven't read the previous parts, you may want to do so first. See:

·         Making Dreams Come True – Part 1

·         Making Dreams Come True – Part 2

·         Making Dreams Come True – Part 3

·         Making Dreams Come True – Part 4

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Endoscopic Surgery

The next step was to check for a problem with the bile duct. We went to the Scott and White Hospital in Temple, Texas, on April 11, 2008, and had one of the only two doctors in the area who could go examine and fix the bile duct if needed using endoscopic surgery.

After the procedure, the doctor came to talk to us. He may be a super specialist and tops in his field, but his bedside manner was lacking. He said she had inoperable pancreatic cancer. Wham! Just like that, without any preparation we went from bile duct to terminal illness. He'd put in a stent and said we should talk to a surgeon to get another opinion.

We cancelled the trip to the Holy Land and found the best pancreatic surgeon in the area.

Lois had the Whipple surgery from one of the best surgeons around, and then another surgery to repair the liver. But she never recovered enough for treatment and the cancer came back quickly. She was in and out of hospitals for eight months and I was with her nearly every day and night. She had a fear of being alone in the hospital, so I slept where I could, sometimes beds and sometimes chairs, to be with her. I got a few breaks along the way when others offered to stay overnight.

White Rose Publishing wrote back on May 13, 2008.

They loved the book, but said there were too many subplots. If I wanted to delete this and that, they'd take another look at it. I said okay, not knowing when I would be able to write again.

Lois encouraged me to make the changes to the book, but I don't think she realized I couldn't think about fiction with all that we were dealing with. Besides, when I had enough time to write, I chose to take a shower or take a nap.

In the next post, I describe what happened next.

Making Dreams Come True – Part 4

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If you haven't read the previous parts, you may want to do so first. See:

·         Making Dreams Come True – Part 1

·         Making Dreams Come True – Part 2

·         Making Dreams Come True – Part 3

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I sent queries to many agents and publishers

After the book was complete, I sent queries to many agents and publishers. I never did find an agent, but in April 2008, White Rose Publishing, a company that publishes only Christian Romance, read the beginning and a synopsis and asked to see the whole book. That was something none of my writing friends had experienced yet at the time. I sent the manuscript to White Rose immediately. As I had learned in class, I started working on a new novel while waiting to hear back from the publishers.

Planning a trip to the Holy Land

My wife Lois and I were leaving soon after sending the manuscript to the publisher on a trip to the Holy Land. However, I knew the publisher would need at least 90 days to decide, so I wasn't concerned about the book. In fact, I was looking at the trip and good way to keep from thinking about what the publisher might say.

Soon, I forgot all about the book.

Just a few weeks before or planned departure we learned that Lois was too ill to go anywhere.

She had been having minor respiratory problems off and on since we got back from China in the summer 0f 2007. The doctors had not been able to find anything wrong. Then, during a routine check just before our departure, her dermatologist said she was jaundiced. Again, we thought it must have something to do with the China trip. We had taken a river cruise on the Yangtze and had visited a number of smaller towns. I had been banned from donating blood for a year because of the possibility of malaria. Lois' doctor checked her for malaria. The test was negative.

In the next post, I'll tell you what happened when Lois had endoscopic surgery.