50Adventures from p. 9
For the next few months, the project was put on the back burner as Siber threw her efforts headlong into fighting the cancer. “It was actually a lot of work,” she said, describing the medical gauntlet, from research and appointments to chemo and surgery. “I was pretty disoriented in the general scheme of things … all work ground to a halt.” And then, just as she began to come back up for air, the pandemic hit. Siber admits the virus took a bit of a backseat to the cancer, but she still found herself stuck at home due to a chemo-compromised immune system. That’s when she decided to sit back down at her keyboard, with a sense of déjà vu. The last time she sat down to write a book was in January 2017, on the heels of a presidential election that didn’t exactly go as she – and many others – had hoped. “It was like a trauma; it felt like a very bleak time,” she said. “This was almost like a similar situation. These big writing projects were like a tonic for what my life was serving up at the time.” While her husband “sheepishly” snuck out the door to ski last spring, Siber poured herself into the book – writing, fact-checking and working with her young U.K. illustrator, Lydia Hill. “She was just out of school and did an amazing job … I won the illustrator lottery,” Siber said. However, there were some perhaps more American things that Hill wasn’t so familiar with, like surfing. “I had to tell her, ‘OK, we’re going to need to have the surfers pointed toward shore,” Siber recalled. Eventually, with the understanding of her editor, Siber’s book came out in October – on deadline. “It was published on time, and everything ended up being OK,” she said. Since coming out, the new book has sold close to 5,000 copies on Amazon alone and was featured on the site’s chil-
10 n Dec. 10, 2020
The Colorado spread from Kate Siber’s children’s book 50 Adventures in the 50 States, which includes something near and dear to Durangoans’ outdoorsy hearts: ice climbing and mountain bighorns. drens holiday gift guide. Of course, Siber encourages all you locals to buy your copy from Maria’s Bookshop, which will even which will even get Siber to write a personal message on the inside cover. “It was such a delight. It turned into a real blessing,” she said of the book. “It’s fun to have these random things drop in on you. There’s something so gratifying about creating
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an object in this world.” And while Siber has her sights set next on an adult book – subject TBD – perhaps she’ll put down the pen long enough to go on a little adventure of her own. (This time the fun kind.) “A lot of the things I’ve done in (the book),” she said, “but there are some I’d like to do.” n
