My 299-page memoir manuscript just got its first reading from the beta reader I care most about: my husband.

It’s a story involving our forty-year relationship and how I periodically run away (literally, as an ultrarunner), and how at times I’ve hurt both of us. I was so nervous to have him read it. I thought I might need to negotiate reworking the most sensitive parts involving him.

Instead, he said, “It’s really, really good,” and he’s not asking me to change a thing. He says every characterization and line of dialogue rings true. And, he found the funny parts funny.

I am in love with him all over again.