In 2016 my book on water Water Is… was released by Pixl Press, a small publishing house in Vancouver. The book was long in coming. I’d been a practicing limnologist for years, serving the federal government, various private consulting firms, and as an instructor at the University of Victoria. My thought had been to create a limnology text book for the lay public, something anyone—not just academics—could understand. I sat on the idea for years and then, out it came, all 586 pages worth, not what I had expected to write. Something more boundless and risky.

You see, in the interim, between my practicing traditional science and my research as a writer, mother, and open-minded ecologist, the book morphed into more than a simple book of water facts; it became a celebration of water from many angles, twelve, specifically, all answering the question of what Water Is… And those angles included strange and unexpected ones such as ‘frequency’, ‘beauty’, and ‘prayer.’ I expected scientific blowback for sliding into traditional science heresy. What I received were accolades for “Water Is…” from scientists, writers, environmentalists, ecologists, and interested people. Praise included a wonderful and unexpected testimonial from Margaret Atwood in The New York Times. The book became a #1 Amazon bestseller in several categories.

It pays to take that risk and be sincere and genuine when you write.