No, that is not a typo in the title.

I am going through massive shifts in my life, in my career, and in myself.

Frankly, it’s scary.

These shifts started last year with some major eye-opening situations in both my professional life and personal life.

Life Shift:

December 2021, my mom was diagnosed with inoperable stage 3-B lung cancer. (She was never a smoker.) I was driving home the night of November 28th after my mom was admitted into the hospital and there was Christmas Music on the radio. Every song I heard during those two days she was in the hospital made me cry. Christmas stopped being happy. Christmas music did not bring me joy. 

Fortunately, she came home the next day.

My mom is going through once-a-week chemo Treatments and five-days-a-week radiation treatments. Her treatments started in January and will last six weeks in all. I am bringing her to all of her treatments and caring for her.

Her last chemo treatment is on Valentine's Day.

Career Shift:

The day my mom had a biopsy done, I received a Rejection that broke me.

Background: In 2020, I submitted to an independent publisher (who shall remain nameless) that rejected my story, but one of the line editors gave me feedback that I used—with the help of an amazing critique partner—to make my story better. I was invited to resubmit in six months. 

April 2021, I resubmitted. 

In June, I received an update from the assistant publisher asking me if they could have more time reviewing my submission. Of course, I granted them more time and my hopes rose, but months went by and no response. Come October (six months after I resubmitted), I started to query agents again. 

Then on the day my mom had her biopsy and got her official staging diagnosis and it was confirmed she has cancer (eight months after I resubmitted), I got the rejection from the publisher. A form rejection. After all that. After resubmitting and them asking for more time, I got a form rejection, and on the worst day possible.