I’ve been a writer for a long time. But this week I became an author! My memoir, Pulling Up Dandelions ~ A Woman’s Journey to Redeem Her Adolescence, was published. I’m pretty excited and to be honest, pretty darn proud of myself.

Writing this book has taken much longer than expected and many times during the process I was close to giving up. When the first draft of my manuscript came back from my editor, I put down her suggestions and didn’t pick them back up for a year. I remember thinking, There’s no way I’m going to do that and I don’t care if you’re a professional editor, you can’t tell me what to do. It’s just too much! Then I ruminated for the next 11 months.

She was right. What started out as a self-help book about how you could heal YOUR past, slowly turned into a memoir about how I healed mine. The thought of sharing my story and being that vulnerable was extremely hard for me to open up to. But once I decided, I painstakingly went through her suggestions one by one and re-worked my book. I’m so glad I did.

I completely understand when I read that 97% of writers don’t ever publish their books. The work that’s involved from start to finish is daunting. I can remember my husband calling mid-morning to see how my writing was coming. I’d say, I’ve written three words in the last two hours. It really was that hard some days. The layers of editing, the re-working of stories, the details having to do with the actual physical book…there was just so much. I kept completing one task at a time. One post-it-note at a time, (post-it-notes were my friend) one deadline at a time.

I cried the day I got the message that my book had been published. My tears represented so many things. Relief, pride, gratitude and more. I’d been in labor for YEARS and I’d finally given birth. I felt relief that I didn’t have this project on my to-do list anymore, proud of myself for accomplishing a life’s goal and gratitude for the MANY people who helped and supported me along the way. I went from a writer to an author just like that, and it felt really good!

So, now that I’m an author, I have the task of launching my book…another layer. One that seems a lot easier than what I’ve been doing for the last few years! I’ve got out a new stack of post-it-notes and I’m ready! I hope you’ll read my memoir, it was a labor of love.

Always encouraging you,

Letha