People have started to call me an author. In my entire life, I never seriously considered the option of being an author. I always thought it would be something that you just did in your spare time. No one could actually make a living being an author. You had to have an amazing idea and a series! I never thought for a moment that could be me. The thought of being an author was like being an astronaut or a famous actress. It all sounds possible, but that would never be for me.

Then one day, I had an idea. I wrote it down and the more I thought of it the more I realized it was a good idea. I shared it with Family and Friends they agreed it was a good idea. That was all it was though, an idea for a story. I had a lot of those in the past. I always enjoyed writing. I also had stories I wanted to share. I just never had the time or follow through to finish them.

That changed one day.  One day I shared my dream. It was no longer a half-hearted attempt, I was going to make this happen.  It was a slow process and I kept talking myself out of it. It became one of those projects that I could work real hard on but then I would never finish. The first obstacle was writing the story. After two sessions, I wrote it! I was thrilled. The more I read and edited it, the more it just became a reality and got better.

However, I knew that it would not go anywhere if I did not have good illustrations to go with it. I couldn’t draw to save my life. I asked around, I begged, and I pleaded. I couldn’t find anyone to help make this a reality. It got pushed to the back burner and I started to give up. I just assumed it was a good idea and that is all it would ever be, an idea. This would be one of my many failed dreams.

One day at the end of June,  I started researching publishers. Seeing who I needed to talk to in order to make this a reality. I filled out a form and got contacted by a publishing company the next day. They explained self-publishing. Everything they could do and the difference between them and a publisher. Needless to say I was overwhelmed and overjoyed. The problem, only 3 g’s to make it all happen, illustrations and published.  I had no idea what to do. I was completely broke that is why I wanted to publish in the first place. I needed someone to help pay for the illustrator. I had no money. Then I remembered I had been saving money for my girl’s future. So I asked them, ” Can I borrow your money to publish my book or should we save it for other things like toys and things.” They both said to publish my book. They were 5 and 3. For two little girls, to pick my dream over toys or other things they may wanted, it touched my heart in ways you will never be able to imagine.  I knew then this was going to happen. I was going to get this book published and make my children proud of me.

I got my husband involved, we knew this was something we had to make happen. We were discussing illustrators and hiring our own. I thought if I can just get the e-book ready I can make this famous! I just needed pictures. I was going to swallow my budget and use my girls money to hire an illustrator but one I picked and for a lot less than 3K. I was going to try the cheap route. I gave myself to the end of July to get it all figured out. If I couldn’t make it happen I would contact the publisher and get the help I needed.

Then one day, it hit me… PHOTOS! Why didn’t I think of this before?! I take pictures. I have taken them my whole life. It’s amazing what I can do with a photo. I will take photos and use those. No illustrator needed, best of all I knew the perfect model! I immediately sent her my story, told her my idea and we met up within days. I told my sister my idea of photos and she says, “What about one of those things to make it look like a cartoon.” It was all I needed.  This was it. I had it all figured out. I planned the photos. I even cleaned my house to stage my photoshoot. This was a major admonishment with two toddlers running behind you and messing up my hard work. For the most part they actually helped. They knew how important this dream was to me and they wanted to make it happen for me!

I had been anticipating a release at the end of July. I couldn’t stop working on my book. I couldn’t wait to get the photos done. I found the perfect dress for my model. I had the perfect shoes. I love shoes so I had those picked before the outfit! My model came ready to shoot with her son who was the perfect teen! We only took a few hours to shoot over a 100 photos. As soon as I had them, I started to convert them to cartoon. I had been playing with editing software for weeks, in anticipation of this moment! As soon as I converted them, I knew this was exactly what I had seen and imagined when I was writing the story.

I loaded those photos and got to work. The cover, was the hardest. I kept working on it. Finally, I moved passed it and after a couple days of delays, I worked pretty much non stop on the pages.  It went faster than I could have ever imagined. The only delay, waiting for my photos to convert to cartoon! At about Midnight, when I was waiting for a new photo every 5 minutes or so, I was very upset I hadn’t converted the photos earlier in the day. I had an early morning and went to bed to let the photos convert. I laid in bed tossing and turning for hours. I just wanted to get it done, but I knew I would work faster than the software could update my photos. I was so excited it was all going so well. All I could think of was how amazing it would look finished!

I finished my day early, went through my photographs and got my pages exactly the way I wanted. I was still waiting for the photos to finish converting. It didn’t even bother me cause the finish line was so close. I finished! I got the book just the way I wanted. I didn’t include all my photo ideas, but it didn’t even matter cause it was done and it was amazing. I never imagined it could have turned out how it did.  How could the idea of a Pot Brownie, being accidentally eaten by an unsuspecting Mom turn into a book that had blown my wildest expectations.

I am filled with pride and excitement as the release date approaches. I have set it up to be an e-book and impatiently sit here waiting for it to publish. I can only imagine the response it will get. I hope more than anything it will be as good as I dream, because I am so proud of this.

I am impatiently waiting for the story to be available to share. I cannot wait for people to enjoy it and laugh. I feel like this could definitely be the start of a writing career for me. Fun stories like When you give a Mom a Brownie.  Of course I have tons of spin-offs in mind. However, I may actually be able to write other stories I have always wanted.  I suppose this means I should brush up on my grammar or hire an editor. But until then, the mistakes are due to the excitement and my inability to remember simple English rules.  Thanks for your understanding and happy reading!

Update When you Give a Mom a brownie is now available on Amazon as an ebook and available for free via Kindle Unlimited.

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