The Big Click

I started writing my book, I’m Never Ill, in November 2012. It was just meant to be a short read for brain injury sufferers to help ease the long, dreary hours in hospital. However, as time went on it became bigger and bigger, until I realised that it was going to be a more substantial read. I’m not the fastest of workers, and if I’m honest, the enormity of the task became a little daunting. But it became a case of “in for a penny, in for a pound”, and failing complete the mission was not an option.

When I was about a third of the way through it, Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer. She spent almost a whole year undergoing operations, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I didn’t write a lot during this time. Just after Christmas (this last one), I celebrated its completion. At least, in my mind I’d completed it, but I began to realise that the final proofreading and preparations for publishing my ebook on Amazon Kindle were seemingly endless. It was a little like when you walk up a mountain and the summit comes into view. When you get there you realise that it wasn’t the summit after all, and you have what seems to be a further half a mile to go. And then this process repeats itself a number of times. You know you can’t give up because you’ve come so far, but you feel like you are being sucked deeper and deeper into some endless swamp.

It was Sunday 15th February when I found myself staring at the “publish now” button. A small era was about to end with one tiny click. Sarah looked across to see what I was doing. I told her. We decided that we should do it together – after three. We planned to do it simultaneously, but I know that she got there a split second before me.

That night I barely slept. I was worried about how it would be met with its readers. I’ve not sold many yet, but the feedback that I’ve had so far is that they couldn’t put it down. I don’t think that they were just being polite. There are a few reviews on Amazon too. Some people have said that it has changed the way they think about many things. I genuinely feel that I managed to do a good job and achieved what I set out to do – not just to tell our story of survival, but to challenge people’s ideas and ways of thinking. But then, who am I to say? Time will tell.