Published Author (!!!)

In first grade, I was behind the rest of the class when I was learning how to read. I was doing great with other subjects including math (which is hilarious because I am now terrible at math!) We were separated into groups in class based on how quickly we were picking up reading: accelerated, average, and remedial. I was in the remedial group. I struggled and struggled, but my teacher didn’t give up on me.

But by third grade, I was the top reader, having read more books than anyone else in my entire school. Somewhere between first and third grade, reading just clicked with me (along with spelling), and I suddenly excelled in both. I distinctly remember in third grade that my weekly spelling lists were being pulled from the fifth grade’s list at the upper elementary school.

In second grade, I had started writing my first story. It was about myself and my best friend at the time, Jessie. In the book, we were sisters and we went on tons of adventures. I filled pages and pages of lined notebook paper with my writing.

Ever since then, it’s been a dream of mine to be published.

I have started and stopped so many manuscripts over the years it is absurd. In high school I had started a book called Me Vs Me about a girl dealing with abuse, addiction, and death, that was going to be formatted as pages out of a diary, but I never got very far on it. In 2014 I began working on a manuscript called Plainwell, about two diabetic high schoolers who fall in love. I got about 80% of the way through that one before I realized I HATED one of the main characters and there was no way for me to save him without changing vital parts of the story, so I scrapped it.

In January 2016, I was out of photos to edit and life was slow. I had recently gotten a Kindle, and I set a goal to read 20 books in one year (I ended up reading 58!). A lot of what I ended up reading was romance novels, which is where I discovered the hockey romance category. I thought to myself “I could totally write something like this.” So I started on it…

I wrote the first 90% of the story in less than 90 days.

Then I tapered off. I started a sequel, then a book after that, but never finished the first book. Then life got busy and the manuscript sat untouched for many months.

At the beginning of 2018, I set goals for the year and made one of them that I wanted to finish – and publish – my novel. It was a lofty goal, but gradually, I kept plugging away at it.

Proofreaders got their notes back to me, rewrites were done, the cover was designed, and redesigned, and redesigned again. I didn’t give up. I ordered a proof copy and worked on it while on vacation. I wrote and revised in all my spare time. I cursed Kindle Direct Publishing for being so easy and so confusing simultaneously.

It took a lot of blood, sweat, tears, rants on twitter, late nights, thesauruses, and beer, but I published my debut novel, Lighting the Lamp, on both Kindle and paperback on November 5th 2018.

When I hit submit, my husband came into the room with a bottle of champagne, cracked it open, and we toasted the achievement. Almost two years of work finally came together and became my first published work.

And people are buying it. And enjoying it!

I am blown away.

If you are interested in supporting my dream and checking out my novel, it is able here: Lighting the Lamp (Chicago Velocity #1)

Thank you to everyone who proofread, purchased the book, lent it to a friend, or encouraged me not to give up. I did it!

Now to work on book 2 this winter.

New City, New Possibilities

I haven’t posted in quite a while and there’s a good reason for that: we moved!

Allen got a new job back in October which took him from a 5 minute commute to 75 minute commute.

Plus, we were both born and raised in the same city. We were tired of the familiarity, limitations, and we were ready for a new adventure.

It took a bit of finagling with my work, but I was approved to work from home, wherever home may be…

So now we live in Indiana! Our new apartment is absolutely amazing and we love it so much! We even have a deck now… and a grill! That’s something we’ve both always wanted.

We are only 45 minutes from our old city, and 40 minutes from Allen’s work. If we would have gotten any closer to his job, we would have been living in the middle of nowhere, so our new city was a good compromise since there is so much to do here! We’ve been here for 2 months now and we are still in awe of all the restaurants, grocery stores, and even an affordable gym that are all within a short distance of our apartment. Plus we live close to a few friends so we’ve still got a little bit of familiarity and comfort here.

Speaking of gym, we signed up! There’s a Planet Fitness here, which is cheap enough to be totally worth it. Plus the murder rate in our new city is significantly higher than our old city, so I wouldn’t feel comfortable running around town by myself here 😉 I also joined the local Type One Run chapter although I’m not confident enough to run with them yet – maybe later this year!

I have a 5k this weekend and I’m aiming to do another 10k this year as well. And I’d like to learn how to use all the machines in the gym! I never pictured myself enjoying going to a gym when I did gym class as a freshman in high school, but so far, so good.

I am still loving my t:slim and using my Dexcom nearly all the time. Life is good!

Food food food

I’ve been trying to eat healthier for the past week or so. I started telecommuting (working from home) last week, and after day 2 I realized that the temptation to get something to snack on from the fridge every hour was going to be detrimental. So I started filling the house with healthy snacks. 

I have many friends who are beachbody coaches, or have done competitive body building, or follow IIFYM, or are just legit amazing people who are all on a journey to better themselves. I want to be like that too, so that’s another aspect of my drive to eat healthier. 

My husband, who is the pickiest eater on the planet, decided he wants to try eating better as well. I’ve been making healthier meals, and even bought the ingredients for protein and fruit-packed smoothies and have been having one every weekday morning. 

Of course, it’s been wreaking havoc on my blood sugar numbers, because my body is used to taking in so much junk and much higher amounts of carbs! (Plus I am move physically active now that I started softball – there will be a post on that later). 

Overall I’m feeling more energetic and I’m hoping that I might see a few pounds come off between eating healthier and being more active, but we’ll see. For now the biggest struggles will be finding recipes that both Allen and I will eat (the fajitas were full of compromise lol) and just to not fall off the wagon! The most important thing for me to remember is small compromises are okay – like having a diet pop once in a while (rather than 2x a day, or going cold turkey on them entirely). 

#DBlogWeek: Shout from the Rooftops

#DBlogWeek is this AMAZING Diabetic Online Community event where for one week, all us bloggers have a broad topic given to us for each day and we all tackle it in our own way. It’s hosted by Karen over at Bitter~Sweet and this is year 7 of the event!

The first topic for the week is as follows:

Lets kick off the week by talking about why we are here, in the diabetes blog space. What is the most important diabetes awareness message to you? Why is that message important for you, and what are you trying to accomplish by sharing it on your blog? (Thank you, Heather Gabel, for this topic suggestion.)

So why am I here? If you’ve just started following, I was diagnosed at a PM Care facility with diabetes on July 10, 2012. Unfortunately, I was misdiagnosed as type 2 for five long months before being reclassified as type 1 in December 2012. I was 22, married and fresh out of college at diagnosis, and have no family history of type 1 diabetes.

I’m not a typical diabetes case, which is why I was misdiagnosed. I’ve always been on the thin side, and at 22, I was seen as “too old” to have type 1 diabetes. Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common misconception, and too often with fatal consequences. I am thankful every day that I am alive.

(This photo is from the day I was diagnosed)

Unfortunately, children are misdiagnosed as well, and I’m tired of seeing obituaries for children who have been lost to this disease. It’s hard enough to stay alive when your body is trying to kill you from the inside out 24/7, and the insurance companies are trying to make it impossible for you to afford to survive. So I advocate in the only way I know how: never shutting up.

I won’t stop telling my story. I won’t stop tweeting politicians to support important legislature, I won’t stop blogging about the truth even when it’s SO hard to write, I won’t stop connecting with any and every diabetic I meet, I won’t stop sharing the signs and symptoms of type 1 diabetes, all because I don’t want to attend any more funerals.

So this is the most important diabetes awareness message to me: simply be aware. It can – and does – happen to absolutely anyone. But we keep going, holding out to see a cure someday.

Read more posts for #DBlogWeek here.

My Three Year Diaversary

Tomorrow, July 10 2015, is my three year Diaversary. Three years ago tomorrow, I sat in the Prompt Care exam room as the mom of a girl I graduated high school with explained to me that, by poking my finger and hearing my symptoms, that they were confident that I had diabetes. 

  
It’s amazing to me to look back and think about that moment. How my whole world shattered and I didn’t even fully realize it. I had no idea the scope and breadth of this diagnosis. I didn’t know about the terror and frustration and hopelessness I’d hit in the low points and the friendships I’d develop through it all. 

  
I don’t plan on doing anything special to celebrate this year. Last year, I had celebratory froyo with my husband. Maybe this weekend I’ll be more in a celebratory mood than I am as I write this after hitting 315 for no reason after lunch at work today. But tomorrow is a new day. I’m still diabetic, but it’s a new day. 

  

The Vacation Post, Part Two

For Part One, click here.

So far I’ve covered all the events that happened up to Friday night. I did this on purpose because Saturday was it’s own adventure.

The Vacation Post, Part One

I’m home from vacation and so overwhelmed with so many different emotions – happy to be home, sad to be back in Michigan, missing the Wisneski family (four legged members included, of course). I’m going to try to write a coherent post so, let’s see how this goes.

Happy Anniversary!

I’m a little late, but yesterday was my four year wedding anniversary! I’m going to try to keep it short and sweet.

Body Image

I used to be skinny.

I didn’t have to watch what I ate. In fact, I could have eaten absolutely anything I wanted and gotten away with it.

But in my freshman year of high school, I began battling an eating disorder. And I was obsessed with being as small as physically possible. I wasted so much time rejecting food and over-exercising in pursuit of “perfection.”

After Allen and I got together, I achieved recovery* and began to live a happy, healthy, normal life. I was finally okay with my body, okay with what I was eating, okay with ME.

Then diabetes came and completely ruined it all.

Everyone needs someone

I’m a firm believer that living with type 1 diabetes would be a nearly impossible and miserable experience if I wasn’t lucky enough to have my husband by my side. (yes, this is going to be one of THOSE posts. Kind of.)