Since today is a day of Thanksgiving here in the US, I thought it was a good time to combine saying thanks and sharing just a little more about the book-writing process in one post.  I had already turned in the final manuscript and my editor, Michelle, asked me to write my acknowledgements.  Oh…I hadn’t even thought about that!  I felt like I could write a book of thank yous to people, but I didn’t want to bore readers, so I mentioned the key people and kept it brief.  I’d like to expand on those acknowledgements here, though, to let you know why I mentioned who I did… My family, of course, for all of their love.  This one is obvious.  My family has been a huge part of this entire journey.  My mom prodded me to start a business and my parents were my initial investors.  They have also

The impossiblepossible thing had happened.  I had received a book contract from Thomas Nelson and I signed it.  (You can read about how it happened HERE.)  It was now my job to produce 35,000 encouraging words and over 250 inspiring photographs in 10 chapters.  And I only had about 3 months to do it.  AND I’ve never written a book before.  Oh crap.  Lots of deep breaths and tears and prayers and pep talks came after that realization.  I kept bringing myself back to taking one page, one photograph, one chapter, one idea at a time.  I also kept reminding myself that the people at Thomas Nelson are good at what they do and they had confidence in me.  I can do this. The first thing we did was put together an outline for the book.  I sent along my initial ideas and then went back and forth with my

I’m being a bit facetious with that title.  Or perhaps hopelessly optimistic.  The amazing thing about this blog journey is that it always surprises me.  I think, “Oh, such-and-such would be pretty far-fetched, so it probably won’t happen.”  But then it does in some unexpected and amazing way.  So, will my book end up taking me on a world tour?  Who knows.  Probably not, but I’m getting an updated passport just in case I have the chance to visit our northern neighbors or visit my girls in the UK! I don’t have a grand book tour scheduled through Thomas Nelson, my publisher.  This is going to be a grassroots “book tour.”  Me coordinating with people who want me to come to their place of business to sign books, teach a workshop, give a seminar, or to fetch coffee and doughnuts or all of the above.  Having never done this before, I’m totally

Despite the fact that I just wrote a book I feel like I’m totally the wrong person to give advice to an aspiring author on how to get published.  I thought it might be helpful, though, or at least interesting, for me to share my experience and the process.  So, here we go… I’ve shared before that I’ve never thought of myself as a writer.  I was never good in English at school, disliked writing papers immensely and have always been lousy at spelling and grammar.  I have always thought it would be fun to put together a decorating book, but that thought was the kind of thought you have like – it would be so fun to own a horse farm or it would be fun to live in Paris.  It’s something you talk about and think about, but it’s something other people do.  Not you. I started to think it

 November 17, 2010, I put it out there – I said I was going to start working on a book and just see where it took me. In November 2011, I had a book contract in hand from Thomas Nelson.  In November 2012, I’ll be at my first book signing.  Totally insane.  I finally have my book, Inspired You, in hand.   I posted it on Facebook, but haven’t mentioned it otherwise.  My friend Barb Blair texted me last night, asking why I didn’t call her screaming when I got it in the mail and she called me a stinker.  Once I got the giggles out about a grown woman calling me, also a grown woman, a stinker, I thought about it.  Why didn’t I?  I’m in love with the book.  I’m proud of it.  (I can, of course, see tons of things I would do a little differently, but