As a writer, I often get asked if I have intentions to write a book. If by “write” one means to create, publish, and hopefully sell a book, then my honest reply falls along the lines of "I don’t know."

Writing fiction has never been all that interesting to me. For starters, I can’t seem to find a storyline that hasn’t been touched upon many times over.  And then there’s the challenge of finding an agent and then a publisher. An agent will not work with you if you are unpublished, and yet you need an agent to get published. Go figure.

As for non-fiction, I do have a book inside of me that, when life allows, I would love to write. Readers of this column will not be surprised to hear that this book would deal with the topic of grief.  Most – if not all – lives are touched by grief.  There is grief when a loved one dies or when a meaningful relationship ends.  Most people suffer grief when fired from a job or when the family pet passes on.

Yet, the process of grieving for a loss is as unique for each person it touches as a fingerprint. In addition, I have gleaned that there is absolutely no right way to grieve. Some people pass through the well-noted grief stages in a linear way, and some do not. Some are comfortable grieving publicly, some prefer it to be a private journey. Finally, for most, there is no point at which the grief is over and completed. It really doesn’t seem to end.

But grief is serious stuff. And to write this book, I will need time to interview lots of different people and explore their grief experiences. The weightiness of this undertaking makes it difficult to initiate.

Meanwhile, as “a Belmont mother of three, wife and chronicler of the life around her,” I have established several other subject areas in the non-fiction realm that I have become more than qualified to opine on. Whether anyone would read such raw “slice of life” volumes is unclear. And, for the purposes of this column, irrelevant.

I only have the titles so far, but here you go:

• How I Lost 7 Pounds in 7 Years! The Amazing True Story

• Tips From an Adult Child of Depression-Era Parents: How Not to Hyperventilate Over Utility Bills

• Why I Left a Successful Career to Raise Ungrateful Children Who Bicker Constantly

• 1,200 Square Feet ÷ 5 People = Daily Thoughts of Homicide

• Hours I Have Lost Searching for Nits*

* And the things I actually found there (including leaves, lint, feathers, glitter, paint, and string)

• When All That Gets You Through the Day is Chocolate and the Thought That At Least You’re Not Dead Yet

• How Catholicism, Mormonism, and Unitarianism Led My Children to Atheism

• Road Rage, and Other Justifications for Swearing in Front of Your Kids

• The Compleat Rhode Islander: How to Fear Traffic, Say “Cawfee,” Root for the Yankees and Get Lost 3 Miles from Home

• The Disney Dilemma: Kids Should Be Over 10, Adults Under 30 (and even more reasons why we’ll never go again)

• The Upside to Suicide: How Claiming Your Life Now Can Reduce Fears of an Underfunded Retirement and/or Terminal Illness

Agents and publishers: please send my advance care of this news site. You’re welcome.

Happy New Year, everyone!