The write stuff

I have a little confession to make. I made a halfhearted attempt at becoming a published author this winter.

I'll never know what gave me the chutzpah to risk putting myself out there that day, but what started as a whim turned into a great writing exercise for me. I read a call for submissions for a series of anthologies about raising boys and girls on Andi Buchanan's site and I realized that a blog entry I'd recently written might be a good starting point for an essay that could be a good fit. I queried Andi via email, she responded immediately requesting a draft and, after 24 frenzied hours of editing and revising, I sent it out to her.

In the end, my essay didn't make the cut. Andi was incredibly gracious and complimentary about my writing and went out of her way to impress upon me that it was the flow of the essays in the book, rather than the piece I'd submitted, that ended up leading to its rejection. "It's good enough," she told me, and she encouraged me to submit it elsewhere and to keep writing. I was a little star struck, having so enjoyed her Mothershock book, to get such positive feedback from a writer whom I admire so much. I made immediate plans to start shopping around that essay, as well as several others I've been sitting on for a while now. "I'm not going to let fear of rejection or apathy hold me back this time," I told myself. And then I let a week, two weeks, a month pass by and I did nothing more about it.

I'm not really sure what's still holding me back from getting serious about a writing career. But while I'm dithering around making excuses and procrastinating, other women are writing some really fabulous stuff and it's getting published. This week, Andi started a blog book tour to promote the "It's a Boy" anthology and today she posted the first essay from the book. It says what I've tried more than once to say better than I could ever say it. So go check out her site. Maybe even buy the book if you're into that kind of thing. Just save a little of your money, because someday I really am going to get my act together. And when that happens, I want to make sure you've got some cash left to buy the book or magazine where my work finally finds a home.