A Vision Bursting Into Reality
Have you ever had a dream or a goal and thought maybe it was too far of a reach? That there was no way it would happen or be attainable? Let me begin to tell you that anything is possible if you want it to happen.
A book is a dream you hold in your hand – Neil Gaiman
Many years ago, while I was at work for the morning, I had a vision of writing a children’s book. Before I headed home, I had the whole story in my head and once home and the kids were napping, it was on paper. My vision had burst into reality.
When my husband returned home that evening from work, he asked me how my afternoon was. I told him that I wrote a children’s book. He gave me a bit of a puzzled look, but asked me about it.
I sat him down and read it to him. He was amazed. He was actually more than that. He was so proud and supportive and excited for this vision to become real.
I printed off many copies of my story and sent them to numerous publishers across Canada. Each envelope I mailed sent butterflies to my stomach in anticipation for their response. However, each reply was not what I was hoping for. Each reply was of similar format, “Thank you for your submission, however we are not accepting new authors that this time”. Each reply I opened resulted in yet another discouragement .
That was until I found a local publisher – Baico Publishing. It was a family owned and operated self -publishing company with connections to Chapters and an ability to encourage and see my dream come to fruition. They worked with me until we had created what was exactly my vision was. My children’s book – Arnie the Ant Gets An Allowance had become a reality.
Side note: We knew of someone whose son was in art school at the time and was more than willing to draw my words to life. He quickly sent me some ideas and they were exactly what I envisioned.
It wasn’t long before Arnie came to life. My books were in print and I could call myself an author. My two children were in primary school at the time, so I offered to come to their classes and read Arnie to them. This led to a few other teachers requesting a reading. Our local bookstore set up a book signing and reading hour for me as well. Social media was not out in full force yet, so promoting myself was not abundant, but through my friends and family, my Arnie book swept across Canada and into the United States.
I often give an Arnie book to a friend or co-worker for their young child as a gift. Not long ago, I gave one away and I was later told it was her daughter’s favourite book and that she did a whole book report on it. She told her class it was ‘cool’ because her mom knew the author. How sweet is that? She had sent me a video of her daughter reading her report and it brought me to tears.
A once long ago dream of writing a children’s book had burst into reality. Was it scary? Certainly. Was it easy? No, not at all. But! I listened to my heart and God made my dream flourish. My accomplished dream will not only inspire my children and their own children someday, but seeing how it is inspiring our current young generation is priceless.
If you have a dream or a goal that has been on your heart for sometime, go after it. Just jump right in. You’ll see from a past blog (Dream Boards), that by writing them down, dreams do come true. God has a dream for you – listen close and you’ll hear it.
If you’d like a copy of Arnie The Ant Gets An Allowance, please click the link below.
