BlessBack Book update

Hi all,
Here's some more background on the BlessBack book:

This is simply a mock up of the front cover. I had put the project away, out of my mind, since March of this year. I was stuck. I didn't know the exact direction I was going with it, I didn't like the title (Gratitude with Wings, also toyed with Ultimate Gratitude), and I could go no further. About 6 weeks ago I started thinking about it again, and was determined to have a final title so I could go on. A friend of mine suggested that I needed to create a word to describe what I'm trying to say, letting a subtitle further reveal what's in the book.

I was in my car as I was working on different titles (I'm always in my car, remember the "taxi days" when your kids were young?), "bless" kept coming up. But I liked the concept of "pay it forward" except it's really "repay it backward". So, after about 1/2 hour of playing with words and parts of words I came up with BlessBack. Also, I liked BlessBacks, but didn't know which way to go.

I still had a lot of questions for God at this point (about the book), such as, "should I still be doing this?", "is it me that you want to spread this information of yours?", "what's my next step and who should I go to?".

I kept praying about this and decided that it never hurts to have a prayer team on your side.....I contacted one of my pastors and told him about the whole project. He asked for my prayer requests, specific ones that the prayer team could focus on and asked that I email him to keep them updated.

I met with my publisher (from my current books) on Thursday (Oct.26). I had a lot of questions and she was fantastic about working through it with me. I specifically wanted confirmation on the title (singular/plural?), wanted a subtitle (she found it in my notes), verified my primary target market (women, 40-60), verified the size (I already had an idea - same as Prayer of Jabez book), decided on the interior visual contents and layout, and came up with some vague ideas for a cover. She is very supportive about this project and she won't even be the one publishing it! She's fantastic...

I came home pretty jazzed and made the cover right away. Actually, there are 3 different color bands on the cover. I will be experimenting with using halftones of my different colored fiber art scarves (they resemble weavings) to create this background. It ties into the concept that we are made up of our many experiences, moments, and people who've entered our lives - these all come together to make the whole of who we are.

Funny, I never think of myself as an author. I always think of myself as an artist!

Gotta go!!!!!

De

P.S. I will be writing about the gratitude getaway, I will also, with permission, share some of the stories (like Barb's about never getting to cheerleader practice if it weren't for that friend), I like the booklet that Gretchen made up for you, I like Dana's story about taking photos of the neighbors homes and having a party to thank them, etc. As I start to gather the stories, I'm sure there will be great ones!

"What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" Anonymous

I love this quote. When I saw it I wondered how it would apply to me. Well, I don't seem to have a fear of failure and try all sorts of things, large and small, easy and seemingly impossible. I've succeeded at most, and totally blown others. No biggie. Failure just tells you what you need to either stay away from, or just the opposite – work extra hard on, depending on your situation in life. I wish all of my friends and family would erase that fear of failure – it only holds them back!

My prayer today is that my friends and family would break the chains of fear and be free!!!

Blessing to all,
De

First Time Blogger - Yikes!

Well, here I am, not too old to learn a new trick! I have friends and family that would like to know what's going on in our family's life. I have tons of photos and would like to share some. Maybe this is like electronic scrapbooking? I haven't had time to do that yet either....oh well, here goes............

testing, one, two, three......