We Are Not Promised Tomorrow

Sep 4

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Michele L. Sayre Author Interview

The Long, Lazy Summer follows a young boy who spends one last summer with his terminally ill mother, which deepens into lessons about love, loss, and the beauty of small moments. What made you write a story about this topic? Anything pulled from your life experiences?

Most of the children books I write are fiction fantasy with a lot of humor. The last few years, I’ve watched the Newbery Awards, and the books that won usually have a more serious tone to them. That really is the main reason I tackled this subject matter. I’ve had friends and family who have died of cancer, so that’s mainly why I focused on this area.

Surprisingly, real life ended up imitating art. My illustrator ended up finding out she had cancer when I was ready to start this book. She’s fine now, but this book almost didn’t happen. Then I faced my own mortality as well when I had heart problems this year. The ending of the book reflects the kind of thoughts running through my head at that time period.

What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?

The main ideas that were important to me were:

  • Honesty of emotion. How would any adult feel going through that – facing their mortality and how do you explain that to a child?
  • Love – what do we leave our loved ones after we are gone?
  • Legacy – if you have a limited time left, what would be important to still do before you go? What do you want to be remembered for?

What is one thing that you hope readers take away from your story?

None of us are promised tomorrow. Look around you – are you living the life you truly wish to live? What do you think your loved ones will remember as being the most important part of your life?

I hope the Wonders of Childhood & Beyond series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers?

This series is intended to be unusual and perhaps unexpected. If the reader can learn to look at the world in a way different than they have before, then I will have done my job well as a writer.

Author Links: GoodReads | X | Instagram | Facebook | Website

Love never dies.

For some of us, the greatest love and memories that we will hold in our hearts our whole lives through are the ones we experience and share with our parents.

They are part of our earliest memories and shape the lives we learn to live. They are our whole world, and when they leave us – when they pass over to the other side where pain and death can no longer touch us, we are left with an emptiness we can never again fill. To lose a parent is like losing a limb – you remember it being an essential part of your life even though it is no longer there. In many ways, you can still feel their spirits nearby, but they have moved beyond this realm where our five senses reign supreme and register into other senses of extraordinary perception we never knew we had.

For Raymond, it’s simple. He spends a beautifully long, lazy summer with his mother that he will never forget. His last one with her.

Nobody is promised forever. Any of us could leave this world at any moment. That being the case, what kind of memories would you leave your loved ones if you had a choice?

Posted on September 4, 2025, in Interviews and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.

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