The dream of writing a book, like most other dreams, is one that’s come with a lot of rejection and redirection.
From the outside it may look like I got lucky and won a contest. And maybe that’s part of it. But this was not my first merry go round.
The book proposal for The Journey Home was my THIRD, not first or second, but third proposal.
I wrote, crafted and pitched to agents and publishers. I received lots of rejection — mostly that my platform was too small but also that my idea had already been written about or was boring.
But I also got some helpful feedback.
Each time I went back to the drawing board, I felt hopeful, thinking maybe this will be the one.
When I decided to join the Book Proposal Bootcamp in the fall of 2020, already pregnant at the time, I knew this was it.
It was going to be my last shot, my last attempt.
Not forever, but for the time being.
If this proposal never materialized into a publishing contract, it was time to press pause on my book writing endeavors and shift into motherhood, trusting that when the time was right, I would also bring a book into the world, much like I was about to bring a baby into the world.
But this was the idea that stuck.
This was the one they picked!
It was either going to be my third strike or the third time that was the charm
It was the latter and I’m so grateful!
If you’re holding onto a dream, nursing some wounds from rejection, I’m sorry. I see you, I’ve been there (and still am in some areas now still).
I won’t offer you sweet nothings to medicate the pain.
But the truth of Ecclesiastes 3:11 reminded and sustained me during seasons of rejection and redirection.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
We can’t fathom what God is doing here in the middle of our broken dreams and disappointed hearts. But he is making everything beautiful in its time.
This is the book that might have never been.
The Journey Home was a back pocket pitch. It was an idea of a title and tagline, that was it. No words written or outlined, a loose idea at best.
And He brought it to life in his time, making it into something beautiful.
Even with rejection and redirection, where do you sense or see God working today in your life to make everything beautiful in its time?
If you want more of the BTS of the book, read more about it here.
