It's sort of crazy how things come full circle. Two years ago at BlissDom (incidentally, where I'm headed off to shortly), I had several people tell me I should write a book -- a huge compliment. And at that conference, I actually thought of a book idea -- I was so excited about the idea that I drafted an outline on the plane ride home. But then I couldn't quite take the idea forward. It was a busy year -- I was traveling a lot, I got distracted by another book idea later that year (again, I outlined the concept during the ride home). And then I unexpectedly got pregnant. Which meant another busy year followed.
But then this past fall, one of the cofounders of Bibliomotion -- a Boston-based publishing house -- approached me after Pivot (apparently my co-host Whitney Johnson told Jill Friedlander to come talk to me). Jill and I had a very friendly chat but I honestly didn't think much of it -- that night I was truly in pure help-other-people-connect-to-one-another mode, not advance-my-own-agenda mode. Until Jill emailed me a week later asking to talk on the phone. We chatted about my book ideas and I was tasked with deciding which book I wanted to formally propose. After some mulling, I felt very much that I wanted to start with the book idea I had hatched first (at BlissDom 2010), but I wanted a co-pilot on the adventure. And as I prepared to depart for Camp Mighty in November, I realized that I had the utterly perfect potential partner in my brilliant friend Asha Dornfest, and I was thrilled that during our time together at Camp Mighty, she agreed to be my co-author. I returned home, dusted off my nearly two year old book outline, and within a mind-numbingly short amount of time, Asha and I edited and submitted the proposal, received an offer, signed with an amazing agent (OMG I feel like such a grownup...I have a literary agent!), and as of this morning, our book deal is official. I almost cannot believe this is really and truly happening!
But it is. And I am beyond excited. To collaborate with an amazing friend (incidentally, one of the very first bloggers I "met" on the internet) on a topic about which we feel immense collective passion. To be represented by a wonderful agent. To work with a fantastic, forward thinking publishing house. To be on my way to fulfilling a life list item. I'm so very grateful.
Asha and I will be sharing more about the book soon, but in a nutshell, the tentative title is Minimalist Parenting: Enjoy Modern Family Life More By Doing Less and we are viewing it as a "MacGyver's guide for modern parents" -- including advice to help overwhelmed and guilt-ridden parents shed the pressure to constantly "do" and instead make more mindful choices for their family time and resources. Incidentally, the title of my talk tomorrow at BlissDom is DO LESS as a Life Strategy. Clearly, I think about this stuff pretty much all the time.
Asha and I have some ideas about how we hope to integrate the community into the process. I hope you will come along for the ride!
Image credit: vintage typewriter illustration by Bear & Robot via Etsy
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been planning on announcing a new editorial series that puts your awesomeness in the spotlight. The new series is called Lessons Learned and in it, I want to feature your stories about lessons learned from everyday experiences, whether it’s something unexpected or challenging you have learned at work or home.
