Deye mon gen mon

“Behind one mountain is another mountain.” I finished my novel last night, the novel I started back in 2003. I needed some help with a Haitian proverb and my friend Gabrielle kindly shared this one with me: “Deye mon gen mon.” I needed something an elder might say to a young person struggling to be true to herself, and this makes perfect sense. If you conquer one problem, there will always be another for you to deal with. So be prepared to keep climbing and don’t waste energy trying to dodge obstacles. I’ve finished a draft of The Door at the Crossroads, but I still have revisions to do and the fact-checking will take hours of additional research and I’ve got another MG novel to finish next month AND I’m working on a new picture book right now! But I’m still going to celebrate with cake later today. When it comes to publishing my work, there are too many mountains to count. But 2016 is the year for me to focus on abundance instead of lack. I still have over a dozen manuscripts on my hard drive and that means more opportunities to collaborate with talented people. Purple Wong (who illustrated I Love Snow) is working on another book for me and I’m loving her illustrations. I’m 43 and my dad died 12 years ago, but I still miss holding his hand and that prompted me to write A Hand to Hold. I don’t know how I’m going to turn the rest of these stories into books, but I know it can be done because I’ve already self-published 16 books! And if this editor rejects Crossroads, I’ll self-publish that as well. And then start climbing the next mountain…