Emergency brain surgery, family and priorities

As a few of you already know, my dad-in-law had emergency brain surgery recently. To our immense relief, the operation went very well. Because the pre-surgery condition was severely affecting my dad-in-law's short-term memory, nurses had posted some reminder signs on the wall. Just hours after the operation, he is MUCH improved --yay!-- so we could remove most of the reminders (see photo above). I decided to add one reminder, though....guess which one? :-) (apart from the get well card, that is)

The next round of drawings for my current book project (NAKED! written by Michael Ian Black) were due around the same time. I had to write to my editor and art director at Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers to tell them I might be late; I was stressed about having to do so, because I know how missing deadlines potentially affects the process and publication dates. Both my editor and art director, however, were SO supportive. My editor wrote back:

I am so very sorry to hear about your Father-in-Law.  PLEASE take all the time that you need. DO NOT worry about us or the book.  Your family is so much more important than any deadline. 

I ended up being only a day late, but the email meant a great deal to me. I was already a huge fan of Simon & Schuster BFYR (please see this post) but now I am even more so.