This is my title page and it's all over my office and my house. It's the cover for my book, Merili's Wine.

I had lunch with a woman several months ago and she told me a story, well, not a story story, but something that had happened in her life. I must have stared at her with my mouth wide open. After she dropped this deeply moving "bomb" on me, she simply continued eating her lettuce as though nothing were wrong.

I came home after that lunch knowing that I had to write about it. Little did I know that it wasn't just going to be a short story. I think I started in July and it's now March. I'm working on the second draft and I've started an online class on "How to Find a Literary Agent." I don't know where all of this will go, but I feel committed to my book and to the story. They say if you don't do anything, time passes. Might as well do something, you have nothing to lose. This story literally fell out of me.

There were days when I would finish writing and I'd go to see Sam and I felt like I would be frothing in my mouth. I was so esconsed in the character. At that time I had a coach and he suggested that I make an outline. That helped to create some space for me. The story still felt like it was falling out of me faster than I could write it. It literally took over my life.

Some days, I think I must just be filling time. I read my work and think, "what a mess". Other days tears fall down my cheeks as I read how Merili succumbs to Dan's brutality. Although this started out as  my friend's story, it has become a story of so many women, so many people.

Addiction and abuse go hand in hand and yet, its rarely talked about. Merili didn't mean to become an alcoholic, Lisa didn't mean to hit the little boy with her car, Dan didn't mean to punch Sarah, but it all happened. In AA they say the disease is "cunning, baffling, and powerful.

Stay tuned for my next blog to keep you up to date.