Possible Car Seat on a Camel Book Signing and Writerly Thoughts

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.

I contacted one of the local bookstores in my town and it's very possible that there will be an event involving me and one of the other writers in the How to Fit a Car Seat on a Camel: And Other Misadventures Traveling With Kids anthology at said bookstore.

I seriously think I might have a heart attack sitting here. Book signing. Me. In a store. ME!

I've written since I was little, but didn't seriously start writing until about 2003, when I took my first college level writing course (Nonfiction Writing). My first story, A Recipe for Potty Training, was miraculously accepted that spring in ParentGuide News... ironically, my professor advised me to take the unpaid offer and two weeks later I was contacted by another magazine who offered to pay me for it. I'd already accepted ParentGuide's offer, however. While a little disappointed, I was nonetheless thrilled anyway to see my name in print.

I took a few more courses (Fiction Writing and the Advanced Writing Seminar) and made a few goals for myself. I wanted to be published again. I wanted a fiction piece to be published. I wanted to get paid for my writing. And I wanted to be in a book.

Not necessarily at the same time, mind you. But just in general.

It took me three and a half years after Recipe was published to break into something else. My story Lines (fiction) was picked up by Healtheseas.com in April of 2007. Since then, I've accomplished all of the goals I had set.

This doesn't mean I'm done, however. I may have accomplished my initial goals, but I'm going to keep striving for more. And they're definitely possible. It's not easy - for me, writing can be draining and very time consuming. But there's a certain reward to all of it, knowing I'm good enough. I feel like I've accomplished something and it gives me a little heart-swell of pride.

Finding out about the signing really knocked everything home for me. I never thought in a million years that I'd be in a book, and in a million more I never thought that I might actually be asked to do a book reading and signing. In all honesty, I never truly thought I was good enough to accomplish any of the goals I had set for myself.

But I did.

So I'll post more information as I get it, but I'm truly and deeply touched that this is happening. I don't think I'll ever get over the thrill of writing and this is one more magical journey for me to take.