One in the Hopper!

Well contracts are signed and have been mailed back to my publisher.  I guess it’s official.  I AM an author!  Well of a children’s book anyway.  “Donald and the New Baby” is going to be released sometime this spring and will be available at Barns and Nobel, Borders, Amazon dot com and Christian bookstores throughout the nation. 

It’s hard to believe that my baby sister Sharon is now 40 plus years old.  I wrote this little story as a fortieth birthday gift for her.  It was done as a children’s book so that she could share the story with her two youngsters.  It follows the true-life account of a big brother (me) awaiting the birth of his mother’s new baby.  With three sisters already under his belt, he is sure that a brother is at long last due.  He dreams about all the wonderful things that he can do with a new little brother, but learns a valuable life lesson in the end. 

My intention was always to try and get the story published, but I never expected for it to be pick-up by the first publisher I tried.  I remembered that my research had revealed that this publishing house only accepted about 2% out of all of the thousands of manuscripts sent to them each month.  I know it was a long shot, but figured that I had nothing to lose.  I sent the story in and waited for what I was sure would be a very polite rejection letter.  After all, this was the first material I had ever tried to publish.  Receiving an email that started with the word “congratulations” was a very exciting moment in my life.  I couldn’t wait to call my sister Sharon back in New York and share the good news with her. 

I guess it only goes to show, that if you don’t ever try to follow your dream, then you have no chance of actually having “a dream come true!”  

Until next time,

Don