All Work and No Play...sort of

Sometimes the life of a writer can be very solitary and lonely as you live in a world that no one else knows about until your work is published and shared. Creating the scenes and the setting are all unique to the writer and the writer's experiences. That's why I'm a firm advocate of research and having many life experiences. Not only does it make a life richer and fuller, if you're a writer it can fuel your muse. Something I discovered yesterday, enjoying a fabulous tour of a winery in Hood River, Oregon with my husband. Not only was the behind the scenes tour amazing and educational, the wine was fabulous and I was inspired. So, just a little head's up to all you awaiting the next book, we're going to Oregon's wine country....

Me out among the vines.

Getting set up with some fabulous wine selections and crackling fire in the background. Oh, and a fabulous day out with my husband.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins

 

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins

What to do when you plant the wrong pumpkins…

 

After carefully reading and selecting the best variety of pumpkins for roasting we bought three plants, thinking this would be plenty to fill our freezer with puree for our favorite holiday treats. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, a pumpkin roll, and those blessed pumpkin cinnamon buns that Christmas morning wouldn't be complete without. But alas in keeping with our terrible garden luck of the summer we ended up with two plants (yes, that’s right, one plant didn’t survive) chock-full of these tiny boogers.

 

 

 

So, last weekend to fill in those slow Saturday afternoon hours we embarked on a decorating adventure. And just look at the cute decorations we have filling our house this autumn.

 

 

Cover Reveal: Beautiful Me by Meg Gray

   

Beautiful Me

Publication date: July 1, 2014

Genre: Children’s picture book

Book Description

Beautiful Me takes the abstract concept of inner beauty and puts it into concrete terms, emphasizing actions, not appearances. Child-crafted illustrations give an authentic interpretation of inner beauty. This book provides a springboard for opening up the conversation about the control each little girl has over her own beauty. For ages 4-9.

A Mama to Girls (Part One)…

Here is what keeps me up at night as I traipse through this experience of being a mama to two fabulous girls…

I worry they will fall down and skin their knee when I am not there to kiss it better.

I worry they will be teased for their fashion and flair (rain boots and tutus are still in style at our house).

I worry they will feel left out or ignored by their friends.

I worry they will look in the mirror one day and not like what they see. And then, I worry they will try to alter their appearance to fit someone else’s definition of beauty.

I worry they will suffer a heartache that makes them question their worthiness.

I worry they will let one person’s opinion or criticism change the course of their dreams.

I worry about them being treated like an object rather than a precious gift.

I worry that one day I will wake up and realize they aren’t my babies anymore, but someone else’s to cherish and adore.

I worry they will forget the great power they have inside their hearts to do good things in this world and will sit aside, letting life pass them by.

I worry that I am not a strong enough role model for them to follow.

I worry they will know fear.

I worry they will know defeat.

I worry they will know pain.

The Story Behind the Story (Beautiful Me)…

It all started about ten years ago. I was sitting on my couch in the afternoon watching a TV program. It’s not on anymore, but maybe you’ve heard of it…The Oprah Winfrey Show.

The topic of the day was self-esteem and girls or maybe it was body image and girls. I don’t remember exactly, but I do remember a number of celebrity guests on the show discussing girls and body image.

Ten years ago, I wasn’t a mommy yet, but the issues being discussed were still relevant and important to me. Especially if I did have a daughter someday, because I would want to make sure that I was using all the strategies I could to help her build a strong self-image.

I wasn’t completely out of touch with the topic, though, because I was teaching kindergarten and witnessed young girls that passed through my doorway struggle with self-confidence…and they were just five and six-year-olds.

I found myself agreeing with the arguments being presented about how the media gives our young women a false sense of beauty and that our nation of young girls are suffering poor self-esteem. Then, one celebrity looked into the camera and with her perfectly red glossed lips said, “It’s not what you look like on the outside, but what’s on the inside that counts…” (This might not be a direct quote, but it is a very close approximation to what I remember hearing). In that moment, I was hit with the thought that I—as a full grown and mature woman—understood what she was saying, but would a young child understand? If I were trying to communicate to a young one that she was beautiful because of what’s on the inside, would she get it?

My early childhood education brain said to me, “No, she wouldn’t.” A young child’s concrete-thinking mind would need less of an abstract explanation than, “…it’s what’s on the inside that matters…”, especially when she’s being inundated with media and fairytale stories that illustrate beauty with such a strong connection to outward appearances…the beautiful gowns, the fancy hair-do’s, the pink lips and delicate fingers, etc.

So, with a sudden sense of immediacy I reached for a pen and paper to scribe the first words of Beautiful Me, which I think has had several different titles since its conception.

At the time, I did not consider myself a writer and had no idea what to do with the words I had written. But I felt inspired by the act of writing and tried my hand at a couple other manuscripts. Life changes quickly came along and put Beautiful Me as well as all other writing aspirations on hold. All my pages went into a drawer.

I finally got around to thinking about publishing the book after my first daughter was born. I started to research publishers and agents and found very few that published anything like what I was proposing, but I still wanted to give it a try so I sent out a couple of queries. I got one rejection back and another non-responder. So, Beautiful Me hit the drawer again.

Self-doubt swarmed over me. Who was I to write some words that might help young girls understand inner beauty? Maybe the idea wasn’t as good as I thought it was. I let self-doubt’s strong hold take over as more life changes happened, including the birth of our second daughter.

I soon realized with two young girls growing and looking to me as a mentor that I needed to start living my life as an example. And I would never want them to see me as someone who gave up easily or refused to follow my passions. What was my passion again? These early years of motherhood can cause a woman to forget about her passions, because she is so absorbed with caring for precious new babies, but I kept searching for what to do and at every turn, I came back to writing. I still had no idea what to do with Beautiful Me, so I jumped into writing novels (I still have no idea why writing a whole new 70,000 word manuscript seemed like a better idea than working out the wrinkles of a 250 word manuscript, but I’ve learned to not always question my instincts and to just go with them.)

Writing and completing my novels were huge accomplishments and now after self-publishing both of them, I have moved into a position where I’m ready to re-examine my children’s book. I’m not only ready to push this book through now because of my publishing experience, but also because as my husband and I raise our girls we continue to find ourselves coming back to the foundational elements of this book as we talk to our girls about their inner beauty.

The whole book and process has come full circle for me as my little loves took on their own roles as creators in this project. Something powerful happened while we sat and talked about the words on the page and as I listened to them talk out how to illustrate a picture that matched. It was amazing for me to see and feel their interpretation of inner beauty. Now, more than ever, I want to share this experience with others.

There is nothing like Beautiful Me on the bookshelves. Good sign or bad sign? I don’t know.

Most books don’t start targeting inner beauty for girls until the teen or ‘tween ages. And so, I have to ask why aren’t we starting to talk about inner beauty sooner? If we start sending the message to girls earlier rather than later that their actions define them more than their appearance, then maybe, just maybe when they hit those tumultuous teen years they’ll be better armed with a stronger self-esteem. Maybe?

I believe it is worth a try…

By no means am I trying to suggest that if you simply read this book to a young girl you will combat a low self-esteem later. I wish I could promise that, but there are so many factors that can and will affect a girl’s image of her body as she grows. I only hope that Beautiful Me is one tool people will use to open up the conversation about loving the goodness and kindness inside one’s heart.

Release date for Beautiful Me is set for July….stay tuned for more updates!

The Family that Publishes Together Stays Together

Yes, this is a spin-off of those old license plate frames I used to see in the church parking lot every Sunday morning growing up. The family that prays together stays together.

Over the years, I’ve seen many variations of the saying as I am sure you have too. The verb may change, but the heart of the statement stays consistent. The family that does something productive together is stronger for it.

In the next few weeks, the team here at Gray Digital Ink will be issuing its first picture book, Beautiful Me. Now, there is quite a story behind this story, but that will come in a later post. But it has certainly turned into a family project.

I wrote the words with a minor assist from the little ones when I struggled to find just the right verbiage for my new and younger audience of readers. My little girls never failed to come up with the perfect kid-word I needed.

Team Gray did the illustrations. Each of us had a hand in pulling this work of art together. And since everyone has been involved there is a buzz running through our house about its release. The patience level of the below age ten crowd is next to nothing.

The best part of working on this book for me was that my family took a genuine interest and active role in helping it come together. My original idea for writing a book about inner beauty in young girls has been brought to life in way I never imagined possible. So, whether I sell ten or ten-thousand copies of the book, it really doesn’t matter to me. The experience of creating this book with my husband and children is a far greater reward than any number of dollars I will pocket from its sales.

My family is very connected—our children are still young enough that we aren’t running on crazy teen-ager schedules yet. We still eat dinner together every night, a traditional sit at the table with no TV running in the background kind of dinner. We work in the garden together. We have movie night together. We go hiking together. We go on walks together. We read together and we bake together. There are no shortage of verbs for our family to throw into the above statement, because time spent doing something together is important to us and makes us a strong family.


How would your family complete this statement: “The family that [insert verb here] together stays together."?

I'm a Quarter-finalist!!!

So HAPPY to announce that "The Bridesmaid" has made it to the Quarter Finals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA)competition!!!!
Yay! There are 500 entries remaining in the competition, 100 of them are in the romance category.
I have been informed that excerpts from all the contestants will be uploaded by the end of the week. Customers will be able to download excerpts and leave ratings and reviews. If you can't wait that long to see what a quarter finalist's excerpt looks like just hop on over to the book on Amazon where you can read the first few chapters (this is actually more content than was judged in the last round).

Thanks again to everyone and their support of my new career.

Here's a link to get to the book:http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H6OOSPG?tag=megr-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=B00H6OOSPG&adid=19HCZ48VCAHVFX3WNXYP&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.megcgray.com%2F#reader_B00H6OOSPG