I Wrote a Book. Really.

Two years ago my friend Jessica, who is also my patient, invited me lunch. Jessica and I met in a small group at our church. We were merely acquaintances when she first became my patient, but our friendship had deepened over the years.

After the lunch date pleasantries had past, there was a long pause in conversation. “I have an idea,” she said, “Remember when I was pregnant and I would pull out all my pregnancy books every time I felt any twinge of pain? The books would scare me to death, so I would call you freaking out that my baby was going to die from eating deli meat. Then you would explain it to me and calm me down?”

Me, “Yeah”

Jessica replied, “Well not everyone is friends with their OB and can do that. Let’s write a book together! You write the medical information and I’ll write from a patient perspective. We can write from a Christian slant as well, to help women lean into their faith to give them a greater amount of peace as they walk through their pregnancy.”

Me, “Sure, sounds like a great idea, though I have never done anything like this before.” I will now admit, I didn’t really think anything would come of it at the time.

We wrote a proposal and the first chapter. A few months later we got an agent. Then we waited.

On November 11, 2009 my husband and I brought home our son from the hospital. On November 14, 2009, Jessica and I got a book deal. The manuscript was due in four months. So when I wrote this post about my maternity leave, I left out a few stressful details: like getting up every morning at 5 am to frantically write for 2 hours before work each day.

We finished the book mostly on time. Then there were a zillion rounds of edits. I learned to enjoy the process, but it was stressful because there were so many unknowns for me.

Jessica was attempting to have another baby as we were writing the book, so we decided to start a blog to journal her process and promote the book. Sadly her journey was a little more exciting than we had planned, but after a ruptured ectopic and 4 rounds of clomid, she is now expecting a baby boy.

I was very torn as to whether to ‘out’ myself and mention my book on this blog. My publisher does not know I that I write for this site. Yes, I recognize the irony that most bloggers are eager to get a book deal, while I have failed to mention to my editor that I am a ‘blogger.’ After much thought, I decided to mention my book on this site for a three reasons:

I am so amazingly proud of the book and all the hard work that went into it. I think it’s an awesome resource for women and I want as many people as possible to know about it.

I can cross post at both my book blog and this blog and save TIME! Sadly this is probably the key reason.

I wanted to say thank you to our readers and my fellow MIM writers for their support and encouragement over the last few years. I know that my experience here helped give me the confidence I needed to attack this project.

Yesterday was our first book signing (That's me on the right). It was surreal. So, many people came out to support us and our book, that we sold out the store. It was amazingly gratifying to see all our hard work pay off.

So here's my book: buy it, link to it, contact our website if you are interested in reviewing it or simply ignore it.

When we were done with the writing, and we entered the marketing stage, I was asked to come up with "just a few lines to describe the book." Really? Describing a years worth of work in a few lines is more challenging than you would think, but here's my blurb:

"My prayer is that this book will enable women to enjoy as much of their pregnancy as possible, relishing the hope that is growing inside them, and not be deprived of their peace by unnecessary fears.”