New Year's Special: One Life To Write One, Two Years To Repeat

New Year's Special: One Life To Write One, Two Years To Repeat

As I explained in my installment "How This All Started," my original plan for my book "The Greattastic Adventures: Miracle Child" was to write about my time getting ready to go to college, and some of my college experiences, as someone with autism, but I would write the chapters shortly after the event depicted happened. The problem was that I didn't know what to write about because I didn't know what was necessary for the climax because the climax hadn't happened yet! So the solution was to start a blog (and eventually a podcast) to replace the college/adult timeline and write THREE books about my childhood experiences!

I did run into one more problem. I knew I didn't want to just write about my autism journey; I also wanted to talk about my grief journey. I realized when I was working on the master outline including my grief journey in the same binding, would cause a constant struggle between both stories. So I decided to write a spin-off book that follows my grief journey with S.M. (and a few others, including Elizabeth, who died ten years ago tonight) and how I accepted it all! The two best parts, all of the proceeds go to Sam's Fans, and I planned not to tell S.M.'s family until Thread of Hope in October 2022. For context, I've been writing this book since 2018!

I ended up telling S.M.'s mom, Nikki, in September 2022 instead since I'd kept this secret for four years, and quite honestly, I couldn't do it anymore. So it is with great joy that I announce that my new book, Once In a Lifetime: A Song For Sam, will be coming out this March for her birthday!

Now the person who edits my books, Amy, is actually a family friend I know through my "sisters." The system we developed for editing my books is I send her the rough draft; she leaves comments/suggestions on the Google Doc, and I go through and accept them. Then we do that whole process a second time. Her daughter got married the weekend after Thanksgiving, so Amy couldn't go through Once In a Lifetime the second time until the weekend of December 10th.

When I published my first book, I also learned that self-publishing is stressful, and I don't handle that kind of stress well! With that plus Amy not being able to read the book earlier, but me still wanting to hit the deadline of S.M.'s birthday week…I am about to become a very horrible human! To alleviate some of the stress, until the book is formatted, I will not be posting anything to Rules for a Greattastic Life. I'm hoping to start season 6 in Mid-February which I think is realistic. If something changes, I will let you know.

Mat Kearney is S.M.'s favorite artist. I'm telling you, this man wrote the soundtrack to her life. I don't mean she listened to him all the time (though she did that); most of his songs have lyrics that seemed to be catered to her story. For example, one of the lyrics in his song "In the Middle" is, "Twenty-five here I am with freshman LPs one life to write one, two years to repeat."

That makes me happy because that line is the best way to describe this situation. I'm 25, it took my whole life to write Miracle Child, and now two years later, I'm publishing Once In A Lifetime: A Song For Sam!

I hope you have a Greattastic 2023!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Before I go, I want to congratulate my friend Jane, who got married earlier today (New Year's Eve)! I can't wait to see what's in store for you next!