Ann Lewis Hamilton | Translating Terrible Events

Years ago when I was a young writer working on the TV show thirtysomething, I had a miscarriage. When the executive producers called to express their sympathy, they talked about how even though when something bad happens, writers are lucky because we can write about the experience. Writing about something painful can be cathartic and healing – exactly what we need.

Later in the season it became necessary for one of the characters on the show to
have a miscarriage. I was respectfully approached by the producers who asked if
I would be interested in writing the episode. I jumped at the chance. Not that
it was easy to do, but it helped my healing process. (And in an odd
coincidence, months and months later, an hour after the miscarriage episode
aired, my water broke and my son was born the next day.)

Expecting is about a young couple and their journey through miscarriages and
infertility. After the birth of my son, we found ourselves unable to get
pregnant again. Our infertility journey progressed as far as IUI (intrauterine
insemination) where my husband joked how he hoped I’d end up with his baby and
not a stranger’s.

Ah-ha. Miscarriages, potential switched sperm - the spark for a novel. Laurie
and Alan, the couple in Expecting, go through IUI and when Laurie finds herself
pregnant, everything seems perfect... until they find out a disgruntled
fertility clinic employee has switched around sperm samples and Laurie isn’t
carrying her husband’s child – she’s pregnant by an anonymous sperm donor.
Should she track him down and get to know the biological father of her child
(who turns out to be a slacker UCLA student who has been donating sperm samples
to pay back money he’s stolen from his fraternity party fund)? How will her
husband react to Laurie meeting the sperm donor? Will he be uncomfortable
raising someone else’s child?

This, thank goodness, did not happen to us. I did get pregnant again, but had
another miscarriage. Goodbye fertility clinics. Hello adoption and our
beautiful daughter from India.

Even though a great deal of Expecting is funny, I had to revisit some bad
memories along the way. Like waking up in the morning after one of the
miscarriages and thinking, “Hooray, I’m pregnant,” only to realize that no, I
wasn’t. Or walking into my OB/GYN’s office for a checkup after the first
miscarriage and finding the waiting room filled with pregnant women – hugely
pregnant woman. I remember sitting down with them and trying very hard not to
cry.

I wish I’d never gone through miscarriages and infertility. But as those
producers said years ago, being a writer helped me in an amazing way. I
wouldn’t have been able to write Expecting without having that experience, not
matter how painful it was.

Thank you for letting me post about my first novel. If you’d like, check out my website or Facebook page.