My Authoring Journey...Update 1

Hello, family and friends.

My how time flies when you are having fun! (And when you are 35 weeks pregnant...also fun.) And when you are in the process of having your first book published. So many exciting things are happening with the development of my children's book. The process has been more time consuming and involved than I ever would have thought it would be, but I am soaking up every minute. This has been a long time dream of mine, to be a published author, and while the journey isn't always easy, it has so far been wonderful. Before I fill you in on the current status of my book, let me tell you a short story. This is the story of how I got to this point in the first place with writing a book at all.

When I was in junior high, I was extremely insecure (that is probably an understatement) and was the victim of bullying. To say that I experienced growing pains would be putting it lightly. I was awkward, angry, confused, and depressed. It was difficult for me to put myself out there in most circumstances, and that was certainly true of the day to day interactions I had with my peers at school. I found myself spending a lot of time in the library and reading library books. Writing became a natural companion to that, and it is something that gave me an outlet for all of the thoughts and emotions I was dealing with during that time. Don't get me wrong, I had always been an avid reader; even in elementary school, I loved getting lost in the worlds of Nancy Drew and Laura Ingles Wilder and The Boxcar Children. In middle school, I put all of my efforts into advancing through the accelerated reader program in my free time by reading anything and everything I could get my hands on. Each new story gave me a new world to get lost in, a new character to meet and know, and a haven to escape to when things were hard. While I (thankfully) outgrew a lot of the social anxieties and issues I had in middle school (thanks to a loving family and very good friends who came into my life), my love for reading and writing remained with me.

I have always known that I couldn't wait to read to my own children, and when sweet Eli-man was born, I was ready to tell him stories, sing him songs, and teach him nursery rhymes. While I started out with the classics and love to read him his favorite books again and again, I started coming up with my own twist on the stories, and that is where my first book was born. It is a tribute to him, and even if it never turns a dime in profit, I can't wait to have it published so that he can one day say that it is the book his mom wrote for him.

While things are moving along, there have already been some set backs and disappointments. There was a short while that I thought a friend of Prince Charming's mom would be able to illustrate the book for me, and I was very excited about the possibility that someone I knew and had a connection with would be able to take this journey with me. Unfortunately, after a few talks, she decided that illustrating a book would just be too much of an undertaking for her at this point. While I was disappointed, I am thankful for a publisher that is so involved in my journey. Ampersand immediately stepped in and asked an artist they routinely work with if she would be willing to illustrate my book for me. She said yes, and we are now in the process of working out what that will entail. I am also, at the recommendation of a successful author at Ampersand and with a very kind attorney friend, currently working on setting up an LLC for the book to be published under to safeguard our personal lives from my publishing life.

I have also begun working on the setup needed to launch my Kickstarter campaign that I will be running in the next month or two in an effort to raise funding for the first publication of the book. While exciting and awesome, the first round of publishing is also expensive between set up fees, illustrator fees, etc. Kickstarter is a great way to open up a creative endeavor to include others in the creation of a product. Whether you contribute $5 or $5,000, it all goes toward helping to reach a goal that is needed to make something happen. Be on the lookout for those posts to come soon.

The journey is far from over, and while there are certainly uncertainties that still lie ahead, I am excited for what all of this means. There are moments of fear even now because while things are moving along, nothing is guaranteed. But even if everything suddenly fell through and none of it worked out, or if the book gets published and doesn't move, I will know that I chased a dream and gave it all I had. I will know, as I try to remember in all things, that God has a reason and purpose for everything that happens, and that is the ultimate comfort when things are good or bad.

Thanks for taking this journey with me!

In Christ Alone,
Brittney