The Breathings of the Heart.

William Wordsworth once wrote "Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart." I've heard the saying "Write what you know" but the "breathings of the heart"? That's so much more than just knowing. It took a decade, but I finally gave myself permission to write about a subject that pierced my heart when I first heard about it.

There was a book inside me that  needed to be told, and I was uniquely qualified to tell it. But I didn't want to. For years it was too painful a subject for me to personally tackle. Too close. Too personal. But enough time has passed since that awful day my granddaughter was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, and the angst has settled down to a numbing sorrow.

My granddaughter is in college now. She's a beautiful child/woman who still has to cope with tics and obsessions and the embarrassment of both. She's shy about talking about it. I can't blame her. Anything that focuses on the symptoms makes them worse. But she knew that I needed to write this novel about living with this neurological disorder and she gave her tacit approval by not saying no.

So, for the past year I've been writing DIFFERENT, a novel about a twelve-year-old child with Tourette Syndrome. Not only has writing this book been cathartic for me, I'm hoping it will help parents, teachers, and the every day citizen to understand the disorder a little better. It's not about cursing. It's about living with embarrassing, uncontrollable urges. It's about not judging. It's about forgiveness and love. It's about being different.

DIFFERENT isn't available yet. It's looking for a home. I'll be sure to let you know when it finds one.