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| Book Proofs!!! |
What a journey of book writing it has
been! If I’m honest I can barely remember when I first received an email from
SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) Publishers who made my quiet dream a very tangible reality.
An email from SPCK Publishers is how it
all began!
The editor of SPCK
contacted me about the prospect of writing a book, asking the question of
whether it’s something I had ever thought about. I still remember where I stood
when I read the email and absolutely BURST with excitement and bafflement (I think that’s a word?)!!
P.s. it had always
been a dream of mine. I thought it would wait a few more decades but I now see
that God had another plan. Some may see my age (22) as a danger, I see it as a
gift to the readers. I’m in this “stuff” with them, I “get it”, I can relate. I
am thankful to have this opportunity and to have one of my dreams realised.
I met with the editor
(who is absolutely incredible by the way) and we bounced ideas off eachother
and shared our passion for girls; the need for them to read the truth about who
they are!
More Than Just Pretty
has been in the pipeline ever since.
What has been the easiest thing?
It sounds nuts but
when I sat down to write, more often than not, I found it the easiest thing.
Some days I only managed a hundred words, but other days I smashed out a few
thousand.
How?! I have to put it down to God to be honest. I feel like the
opportunity to write this book was a gift from him because it is something so
close to his heart and it’s something he desperately wants communicated to his
daughters. I feel like he inspired me daily, weekly and monthly with the
words, stories and testimonies to share in the book.
What has been the hardest thing?
For me, the hardest thing
was finding the time to write during the final year of my degree…that was fun! Whilst
I didn’t struggle too much to find the words to say (or ‘write’), it was
prioritising book writing over essay writing that sometimes proved tricky. What
helped was the fact that my dissertation was on 21st Century Beauty
Standards, feeding into the book and keeping my passion to communicate the
truth to girls ALIVE.
I also found deciding
on the book cover with the SPCK team VERY difficult. When you write a book all
about how not to judge yourselves or others by their ‘cover’ (image) it proves
interesting to come up with something that ‘isn’t judged by its cover’… When
you write a book all about how we’re more than just pretty, somehow your book
cover cannot JUST be pretty… Do you get me?!
Some days I don’t
feel worthy to be having a book published. When those days hit, I tell myself
off. I remind myself that this book is all about communicating WORTH to us girls!! How silly of me. And flipping heck, I’m praying that every 24 thousand ish words plastered throughout this book are dripping in truth, worth, freedom, encouragement, and hope for girls.
All in all, it’s been
one of the most surreal journey’s I have ever been on. And, in some ways, it’s
only just beginning…
MORE THAN JUST
PRETTY. Released June 21st 2018.
