About that new book I said I'd publish this summer

Becoming a writer is hard, they said. It takes a long time, they said. There are no shortcuts. Don’t quit your day job. You won’t get paid right away. You’ll want to quit way before you make it. Rejections will come by the dozens. You’ll wonder what’s the point. You may never make it. You’ll know you’re a writer when none of this matters. You’ll be a writer because you’re still writing anyway.

That’s what writers who know their stuff say about starting out as a new writer (especially to someone like me who came to writing with no connections, from a career field completely unrelated to writing).

I didn’t care.

Something inside of me was telling me I had to go for it.

Four years later, I’m still going for it. And while I certainly haven’t made it (if that’s even a real thing), I feel so incredibly grateful to still be writing and to have my words published in magazines every couple of months, on the shelf in book form twice over, and right here with you every Friday morning.

Earlier this year, when you and I started talking about how good books can help us go after our biggest dreams, I told you about my own big dream for this year — to publish three new books for big dreamers and have them all available online and on bookstore shelves by the end of 2023. It was an ambitious goal, but the myriad of almost-finished manuscripts on my computer and my experience with cost-free self-publishing told me I could do it.

You already know the first of those books Big Dreams, Big Change, Big Growth hit the shelves back in March. The second one Becoming a Woman Who Writes was scheduled for this summer and the third (title TBD) was set for November/December.

But last week, something happened. . .

Here in Maine, there’s an annual writers’ conference called PITCH where writers pitch their book ideas to literary agents. I’ve been wanting to participate ever since I joined the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance a couple of years ago, but every May when the application came due, I chickened out.

Until this year.

This year, I didn’t chicken out.

This year, I sent in my application.

And now for the exciting part. . .

As of last week, I’ve officially secured a spot to pitch my Becoming a Woman Who Writes manuscript to my top choice literary agent — a real literary agent who I’ll be asking to represent this book (and maybe even me and all of my future books) and help me get it ready for a traditional publishing house.

It’s happening in September. So between now and then, instead of turning that manuscript into a self-published book that goes straight to the shelf, I’ll be editing it, beefing it up, and getting it ready to submit to the agent and pitch at the conference. Then, if she takes it on, I’m sure there will be loads more edits before it’s sent to a publishing house and finally sent to print and ready for you. Or, if it gets turned down, I’ll get to decide what to do from there.

So, dear reader, I hope you’re happy to wait a little while longer for this one.

No matter what happens with the agent, I promise it will be all the better for it.

Wish me luck!

💛

& Just in case you’re looking for a good read today. . .

The book that’s on my nightstand this week is still All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. (I’m a slow reader and this is a big, juicy book I don’t want to end, so I’m taking my time.) Recently a friend reminded me that she and I both tried to read this book a handful of years ago and couldn’t get into it—a fact I had completely forgotten and something that reminds me how much a person can change over a handful of years and how much her tastes might change along with her. “Is it worth a second try?” she asked. Yes, I think it is. I’ll also add that we’re watching Band of Brothers as a family in the evenings right now, which is good, really good, and might just send me into a summer full of WWII reading—a penchant I catch every couple of years. If you have a favorite WWII book, fiction or nonfiction, do let me know!

The book I’m listening to right now is One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle, read by the one and only Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham). It’s a book I chose because it’s about a woman in her thirties whose mother died and somehow, quite magically, she’s given a chance to spend time with her again. I chose it because I realized last week that I completely skipped Mother’s Day this year (due to a jetlag haze on our little family trip to England) and I wanted to spend some time thinking about my own mother and letting myself miss her. It’s a beautiful story so far.

What about you?

I hope you’re deep into something that lights your soul on fire and sends you in the direction of your biggest dreams.

I hope this little story of mine helps shift the universe just a little bit this morning and leaves you knowing without a doubt that those big dreams absolutely can come true.

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