My Dream of Being A Writer

Thirty-five years ago, I had a noodling idea.💡I'm a former Kindergarten teacher, with a Master's in Early Childhood Education. I wrote my thesis on how to publish a children's book.📖 My idea was to write my own children's book, and I wanted it to be called, "Oodles of Noodles." I envisioned a child who loved noodles and ate and played with them all day long.🍝

I had a thirty-five year detour raising my four wonderful sons. 👬👬  Fifteen of those years, I provided a daycare home for teacher's children. It was great to share my knowledge and experience with other parents. I loved that my life was full of children.💜

As my retirement approached, one of my sons suggested I finally write my noodle children's book. 📖  I was very intrigued and felt butterflies in my stomach. My enthusiasm grew everytime I cooked noodles.

With my family's support and encouragement, I started to put my idea's on paper. I also began to research how to write a children's book in the twenty-first century. My vision was about a little boy who was so obsessed with noodles--- it was all he could think about.🍝 I wanted to call my book , "Oodles and Oodles of Noodley Noodles."

  I was having the time of my life!  I never knew how much I would love writing! 💜  Each day, I woke up full of excitement to write more of my story. I knew I had found my passion.  It took me four months to write an 800-word rhyming manuscript. I loved every minute of it!

So many notes and ideas!

As I wrote my manuscript (I literally wrote it with paper and pencil📝), my time was filled reading everything I could find online on how to write a children's book.  I joined groups full of authors to learn about their experiences. I watched podcasts, and took classes on writing, illustrating, publishing and marketing children's books. I filled up many notebooks with ideas. I was using my noodle.😂

Through one of the writing groups, I was fortunate enough to meet a fun, lively, passionate, new writer, Katie.🙋  We clicked from the start!  What are the odds that both of us have 4 sons? Or that both of us would be writing our first children's book? 📚  Not only did I learn that Katie enjoys writing, but I soon discovered that she is an amazing artist! I immediately fell in love with her sketches and her style. Yippee, I found my illustrator! ✍🏻🌈

Portrait of Grayson, my “original” main character.

I decided to base the main character of my story on one of the boys from my daycare.🏃🏻 I sent Katie pictures of him, and she illustrated an incredible portrait of him. I loved it!💜

Eventually, I sent my manuscript off to be edited. I couldn't believe I got this far--- it was unreal!  I felt like a little kid in a candy store.🍭 Well, more like a noodle store!  When I got the first edit back, I quickly felt deflated.😢 It seemed like the editor didn't like what I wrote or how I wrote it. She advised me not to use the name for the main character that I had in mind. That he shouldn't ride his scooter to grandma's or use the nickname for grandma that he used. I could feel my story unraveling.😬This boy is who I pictured in my book. I couldn't wrap my mind around this feedback for days. "Too bad!" I thought!  "This is my book, and I can do whatever I want!" But, eventually, I put on my "Big Girl Panties" and noodled forth.

One night, while sleeping and dreaming about noodles, I had a vision.💡 My main character would be a girl with long, spaghetti hair.  I awoke with my heart racing and couldn't wait to tell Katie. "What?!" she yelled, clearly taken back. I felt bad but couldn't help laughing.😂 We had been talking together for three months. She had spent so much time and effort on sketches and drawings. After telling her how I envisioned my new character, Katie began to sketch. Seeing her brought to life was one of the best gifts ever.🎁 Together, we named her Charli.❤️

 After numerous rewrites, I felt my manuscript was ready to be edited again-- this time by a new editor😂. (My feelings were still hurt.) When I heard back, she gave me hope that I was onto something good.👍🏻 📝 I agreed with her suggestions and could feel my story evolving.

After four months of writing, rewriting and editing,🤑 I discovered an editor that made my story flow magically. I felt it was finally perfect!💜

 As I continued to learn more about the writing adventure, Katie began creatively sketching all the illustrations and awaited my approval. ✍🏻🏜

Katie, a talented artist, was bringing my story to life.💜 I could see it! I could feel it! It was amazing!  I was so incredibly happy!😄

One incredible experience on my journey was flying to meet Katie and her wonderful family and sitting side-by-side with her 👭 as she performed her magic.✈️🏠🎨  Katie is an exceptional person! Not only did she give me a gorgeous framed keepsake that says," If you can dream it, you can do it," she also made me the coolest mug that says, "Look at me becoming an author and shit." 💝 This was the moment I felt I was truly becoming an author. And then, to top it off, Katie arranged a professional photo shoot for the two of us to use in our book AND made me look twenty years younger. 👭💄👚( What's photoshop? LOL). I just love and adore her!💜

 And now, as Katie digitally adds color 🎨 to all her amazing sketches 🎸🚂 🛀 🏜 💩 and sends me the finished illustrations, I see my story becoming a noodle, I mean a book, I mean a book about noodles.

Some of Katie’s sketches along the way.

 After lots of research and because I love my country, I reached out to a printing company in Maryland. (My book will be printed in the U.S.A.🇺🇸)

Once the illustrations are all done, and Katie does the formatting (Did I mention how incredible she is? She's also a graphic designer!), my book will be sent off to the printer. 

My book is at the printer! Yippee! Let the presses roll!🤗(The printing will take about 5 weeks before I hold my baby in my hands.📖)

As I wait for the birth 👶🏼 of my book, I'm working on my author website, along with Katie ( Yep, so cool!💻), and of course, continuing classes and learning more about how to introduce Charli into the hearts of children all around the world.🌎

Lastly, now that I have the writing bug, 🐞  in my next book, Charli will again be the main character. Katie, of course, is on board!  (Yeah! Not only are we a good team, but we've become life-long friends.💜)

I feel  so proud of myself for following my dream, sticking with it, and accomplishing what I set out to do thirty-five years ago. (If you can dream it, you can do it.📝📖)

So, if you've ever thought of writing-- go for it!📝  You can do it, too!📝It's an amazing, incredible, remarkable, heart-pounding journey!