Sooooo....I wrote a book....

Front and Back cover

It's funny, sometimes we think about doing something and don't really know where to start so it just kinda sits on the back burner, then something happens and is a catalyst to light a fire under us to actually put feet to plans. I've thought about writing a book for a long time, I mean I write a blog, it seems obvious that I enjoy writing. But what kind of book? I had considered a novel or maybe some sort of fiction but never really considered a children's book.

This book, Melly's Imperfect Quilt, was written for a very sweet girl, I was making her a quilt for graduation gift and it was turning out.......well.......imperfect to say the least. I thought I should enclose some sort of note, or poem or something to explain that I have a little trouble with directions......I'm more of a throw it together and be surprised kinda gal......it's not only with sewing, I do the same with cooking. A note just sort of evolved and a book was born. I then called my dear friend, Lauren Ritta, and asked her if she could help me by illustrating, she did and it was AWESOME! If I could draw- which I can't- I could not have done more exactly what I wanted. Oh... did I mention I made the quilt and wrote the book within a one week period? AND Lauren did all the illustrations in 48 hours? Yah, we got mad skills.

I am thinking now that I'd like to do a series about Melly visiting different places in Kansas and I've got the Cosmosphere in my sights as the destination of the next book. I'm excited and can't wait to get started.

Here's a few pages from the book:

COOL BEANS!- Export your Blog and Make a BOOK!

I am sooo jazzed! Glenn Wiebe, a co-worker here at ESSDACK (and Social Studies guy extraordinaire) just gave me the heads-up on a site, blogbooker.com. It was the coolest thing, you just follow the instructions and export your blog as xml and it creates a pdf copy that you can then make into a book.

It adds a table of contents and annotates your pictures and web links. Now, there was a couple of things I did not like and would like a little more formatting control....I mean I am in the pretty up the pages business, so normal and cookie cutter doesn't work work me. I made a down and dirty front and back cover and bound it and wow, start to finish, 15 minutes. Unbe-freakin-liveable. I know, I know, some of you are probably thinking I'm easily amazed and perhaps I am but I just find this really cool. Think of the possibilities, a kid can make an online journal of sooo many different things, - it takes journaling to a new level. Or - I could isolate just the entries having to do with my Grenada trip and make a kickin' photo album/journal of my trip.