November 2010, I successfully completed the Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. A year and a few months later and 5 years ago this month, we published Grounded for Good. It’s a story of a boy learning to juggle (of course!) More importantly, throughout the events in the story he develops a growth mindset and learns to see beyond the assumptions we often make about others.  

Some of my favorite comments from people that have read it range from “I was up late last night because I couldn’t put it down” (from an adult) to a parent that told me reading it with their 5th grader lead to thoughtful conversations to this Amazon review from someone I don’t know:

"I gave this book a five star review. The reason I did was because this book portrayed emotion and how different people can be from others and get judged. Derek reminded me of myself. Everyone in my family loves to run, play or do something with a sport, even watch sports, but I prefer studying, reading, band, being in the woods, etc. I think you should make this into a movie. I will be your director when I get out of high school. Thank you for the privilege of reading your book."

We haven’t put a lot of energy into promoting the book, but happy to see it has still had an impact.