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Last fall, I did an interview with an up-and-coming suspense author named Mike Dellosso. At the time, he was waiting with bated (yes, that’s how it’s spelled) - bated breath to hear whether his novel, The Hunted, was going to be released by Realms. Shortly after that, I was able to congratulate him on a contract successfully negotiated.

In that correspondence, Mike really humanized the later parts of the writing process for me - I mean, I know the part about putting words together nicely. But then there’s the selling part and the public self-presentation part and all that stuff. It finally clicked into my reality that all writers, editors and company managers are just people. I like people. I prefer people who say hi to me first, which Mike did on ShoutLife. But I especially like people who write things that drag me right into the story, which is what Mike’s first chapter did. That was why I interviewed him. He wrote something cool.

When I started hanging around here again this spring, Gina Conroy submitted a post about the Writer…Interrupted community. And she mentioned that Mike Dellosso had been diagnosed with cancer.

Mike’s book comes out tomorrow. For the past week, a number of folks in the writing community have been organizing a blog tour to support Mike as he adjusts to the huge changes sweeping his life. Recently, he wrote in a blog post of his own:

When an athlete is on the injured list there’s a way of listing him or her as “day to day.” There was a sportscaster for ESPN that used to tag on to that: “Aren’t we all.”

And isn’t that true? Aren’t we all just living this life day to day. That fact has never been hit home harder to me than in these past two-plus months.

Life is fragile, like walking on a thin sheet of ice that could break without a moment’s notice, or at least crack and threaten to break.

Best wishes, Mike and Jen. I’m glad the book release has created a bright spot in the midst of upheaval. May it go far for you, and may every day count in the eternal balance.