If you’ve been paying any attention to my progress bars over there, you may have noticed one ignored forlorn little bar mysteriously titled “my craft book”. You may also vaguely remember some time around, let’s see….TWO YEARS AGO that I was asking for titles for a book proposal. And then of course my life exploded as I’ve diligently documented and all previous plans were tossed right out the window with the whole struggling not to go insane bit.
The other day a couple of the teenagers I work with at church came over and we had ourselves a crafty geek-out when we all realized we were in to the same stuff. I started showing them some of the things I’d made, and they got so excited about it all, it totally jump started my interest in finishing this book project off.
I’ve had it on my to-do list for the whole past two years, but it seemed like such an enormous undertaking. I kept thinking that there was so much work still to go into it that I’d never be able to get a handle on it. Right now I look for projects that can easily be broken up into ten minute chunks and done with one hand. Something that required so much organization and energy….I just couldn’t see it happening anytime soon. Having my girls cheer me on motivated me to at least take a peek at where I left everything to see what I could do with it, and I was astounded to discover that I had two projects to finish, and pictures to take. That was all that was keeping me away from being far enough along to see if anyone would want to publish it.
I finished the projects over the weekend, took the pictures about four dozen times over Sunday and Monday (San Diego does not give you ideal overcast picture taking weather. Oh I wish I was a better photographer), printed the photos and gathered all my writing together yesterday, and now my finished proposal is ready to send off into the hands of the publishers at Deseret Book.
I’ve been so close so many times with this creative stuff. The guys behind the kids show Yo Gabba Gabba are family friends of ours, and over the 4th I was talking briefly with one of them. We were joking about their fifteen year long overnight success and how many times they almost hit the big time. I had to just shake my head. If any one of the dozens of things I’ve tried had happened, I would be set. And so many of them were *thisclose* before they fell apart. I remember when Bear was still in law school, we went on a walk one night where he did the math on one of the deals that nearly went through, and it was big. Not just starving law student big, really big. One day I was emailing with Chinese manufacturers, and the very next the company had to completely restructure to stave off bankruptcy. And there went my big deal. The creative life is not for the faint of heart.
After all this I know so much better than to start planning for this to happen. There are a million reasons why the publishers could take one look at my proposal and throw it right in the trash. Maybe they think there’s not enough interest, maybe they’re already publishing something similar, maybe they think it would be too expensive, maybe they don’t get it, maybe they decide they don’t like me just by reading my letter, maybe they hate everything I made; who the heck knows.
After all these years of professional creativity, I’ve learned that all I have to offer is myself. I’ve done the very best I can with what is in me, and after that it is out of my hands. I have no way of predicting the response to it. This is a project I really really believe in. I’m so proud of what I’ve made, I really feel like there is a need for it. Despite all my caution, I still can’t help but think that this has a real shot.