Adventures in Writing my First Book (Part 1 of 4)

Writing a book has been a lifelong dream of mine. Earlier this year, I learned that my dream was finally coming true. My career path led me to presenting at the DevOps Enterprise Summit, which is put on by IT Revolution, which has also published a number of my favorite books. After submitting my presentation titled "Adventures in Agile Auditing: Don't Just Survive Your Audit... Thrive in it!" Gene Kim reached out to me, asking me and my co-presenter to re-record the session as a plenary talk, rather than a break-out session. After re-recording the presentation with Gene's guidance, he and I exchanged a few emails, and I expressed my interest in writing a book on the topic of applying DevOps and Agile concepts to the audit process. I knew I was on to something that could help organizations, and I wanted to share it so others could benefit. Gene agreed and got me in touch with key contacts at IT Revolution press.

Since then, it's been a whirlwind of excitement. Over the summer, I wrote the first draft of my manuscript, translating my experiences and research into a draft of the book I know will transform the auditing profession. This summer was also busy on more than a professional level. My family and I traveled for vacations and hockey tournaments throughout the summer. Luckily, I balanced writing and family time (albeit with strong support from my husband and son - I couldn't have done any of this as well without their support). I have a blue journal that goes everywhere with me. I bought it in an airport earlier this year because I had free time in the airport and ideas were flowing. I needed something that fit in my purse that I could have on me at all times in case ideas came to me on the road. So I bought my blue journal and took it everywhere with me this summer.

Our first trip was to Detroit in May, where my son played in the Spring Grinder Tournament as goalie with the Battery Hockey Academy. These tournaments go from Friday morning through Sunday afternoon. It's a great opportunity for the kids to get to know one another and bond over a weekend of hockey and goofing off at the hotel pool. The games are typically spread across multiple arenas throughout the area, and you're running from one arena to the next to make it to your kid's next game. In the time spent while my husband drove us from one game to the next, and as the team changed and warmed up, I grabbed my blue journal and started writing. Sure I could have dragged my laptop around with me, but the book was much lighter and easier to start and stop (hanging out at hockey rinks isn't exactly the best way to get uninterrupted time to yourself). It certainly wasn't the ideal setting, but it worked nonetheless. I continued to make progress toward my goal of a book to help change the auditing profession for the better.

And I got to watch as my son learned how to be part of a team, to work toward a collective goal with his teammates. He learned how to share in the ups and downs one experiences throughout a weekend of almost non-stop hockey. He also learned how to have fun with his new friends on and off the ice; after all, hockey is a game, and games should be fun.

Between writing and hockey, we also made time to visit the Henry Ford Museum and enjoy Detroit-style pizza (one of my new favorite styles!). It was a fun-filled and productive weekend, setting the stage for the rest of the summer. Throughout the summer, we had additional tournaments in Nashville and Niagara Falls. I'll post about those in the next few weeks.