Sometimes you recognize it as you are making it.  Other times you only realize later, long after the answer and its effects have rippled outward through your life, just how much rested on – and sprang from – that question.  Will you help me with this?  Do you know anyone who does xyz?  What do you think of this idea?

Several years ago I read an article that gave this phenomenon a name, to which I pay homage in this title. You can read it here, and I highly recommend that you do; it makes you want to jump up and shout your big, scary, but potentially life-altering question from the rooftops.

Which is, on a smaller scale, exactly what I intend to do here.

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a writer. I became a doctor who loves to write, and now my goal is to make a career of both in the tradition of my idols Danielle Ofri, Atul Gawande, Pauline Chen. In fact, I wrote a collection of essays during medical school. Several have been published on their own, but I am hopeful that I might be able to publish them together as a book.

So here it is: I’m looking for an agent. Or a publisher. Someone to take stock of what I have written and help me toward the next step, or to guide me in reworking what I’ve done so far. And I will appreciate any thoughts/recommendations/general advice that anyone has to offer.

This ask might not end up being the big one. But maybe it will lead me somewhere. And at the very least, it’s good practice for the next one.