After contacting about a dozen illustrators, I have chosen one to work on my very first Children’s book! She is still finishing up another project, so I am patiently waiting for us to start. In the meantime, we have been chatting here and there. About the book, the illustration plan, and just our daily lives – she is very talented and a genuinely nice person and I am so excited to work with her. While we all wait for some sketches, let me fill you in on how this story came about in the first place.
When I was 8 months pregnant with Sam, I started my maternity leave. Around that time, I heard a lot of variations of “Are you ready?” Of course, there are a million answers to that question. I was definitely ready to NOT be pregnant. I was over the big belly, over the constant heart burn, over getting up to pee 87 times every night. I was ready to meet the little guy I had been housing for the last 8 months, see his face for the first time, hold his little fingers. As far as I could tell, we had all the supplies we needed, at least to last the first couple months. I was not looking forward to the promised sleepless nights (which, luckily for us, only lasted about a week). And of course, no one is ever fully prepared to be in charge of a helpless baby. Twenty-four hours a day. Seven days a week. Who can’t articulate why he’s upset. Or control when he pees (or, more specifically, who he pees on). I could go on.
But most people who asked weren’t looking for a monologue on if I was ready or not. So, I kept my answer short and sweet: “We’re ready, we’ve got everything we need. All we are missing now is the baby!” I said some variation of that so many times, it got stuck in my brain. I had done quite a bit of writing in my time off work by that point, so I jotted down some lines, in case it went somewhere. We were just waiting for baby. We had his room all set up, we were just waiting for him to arrive. The next day, I jotted down another line, about going to the doctor for the first ultrasound. But just waiting for baby. And then there was another milestone with another line. And another. And another. And the next thing I knew, I had the entire journey of pregnancy, from finding out to baby’s arrival, with the common thread of always waiting for baby to arrive.
I tweaked this story until I thought it was pretty good, then I sent it out to my personal editing team: Mom, Grandma Sandy, and Nancy – always happy to read anything I write and give me feedback. I put the finishing touches on, printed it out, framed it, and hung it above Sam’s crib. And that was that. Except it wasn’t.
The story hung there for weeks. Months. Always on my mind. I had briefly mentioned maybe trying to publish after my editing crew looked at it, and I finally got the guts to start taking some action. I contacted a couple of professional editors and ended up sending the story to one of them, just to see what she would suggest. With a few well-selected words she took my manuscript to the next level, while still keeping it mine. After reading my new and improved story, I had to take the next step and research illustrators. Hours of Facebook group searches and dozens of Instagram profile views later, I had my list of illustrators I wanted to contact. Now I have selected the one I want to work with and, just like 13 months ago when I was waiting for Sam, I am currently waiting for my illustrator, to see what this next stage will bring!
