Birthing a Book Baby (And Mrs. Billy's Embarrassing Question)

I'm glad I didn’t know my first embarrassing pregnancy moment would be one of many. Followed by many embarrassing parenting moments. Followed by many embarrassing grandparenting moments.

Except by the time you become a grandparent, you think everything kids do is cute, and you cease to be embarrassed.

Until then, there’s about a forty-year window where you can and will be embarrassed. 

My moment came in early December 1988. I was about four months pregnant with my first child. On the other side of morning sickness, by belly was just beginning to grow.

For the first time, I slipped into my jeans and couldn’t button the button. No worries, I thought. I’m wearing a long sweater. I’ll just leave it unbuttoned. No one will ever know.

And no one would have known, except we ran into one of my mother-in-law’s friends, Mrs. Billy, in the center aisle of Kmart.

“Oh, Honey,” she exclaimed in a voice that carried all the way to the automotive department. “I heard you’re expecting. Are you showing yet?”

And with that question, she lifted my sweater, exposing my unbuttoned blue jeans for every Christmas shopper in the store to see.

“Well I guess you are!” she exclaimed delightedly. “You’ll be big as a house by Valentine’s Day.”

She planted a kiss on my burning cheek and disappeared down the sporting goods aisle. Mortified, I prayed for a blue light special to distract everyone’s attention from me and my exposed belly.

Like Mrs. Billy, many of you have been watching for signs of progress as I incubate my latest book baby, Refresh Your Faith, Uncommon Devotions from Every Book of the Bible. Before you embarrass me, I’d like to reward your patience (and your tact) and give you an update.

The publishing process is slow, more like an elephant’s gestation than a human’s. As of this week, we’re 13 months into a 16 month process, but we’re getting closer. My publisher, Our Daily Bread Publishing, and I have completed final manuscript edits, galley proofs, proofreading, and the final final edit.

The publicity wheels have begun to turn, and soon I’ll be asking you to join my launch team to help get the word out. Advanced reader copies (ARCs) will go out to influencers, librarians, and reviewers. Best of all, the listing is up on Amazon. Would you like a peek? Click HERE to visit Refresh Your Faith, Uncommon Devotions from Every Book of the Bible’s Amazon page.

Because you are so faithful to read my simple words, leave comments, and share your thoughts by email, I’d like to ask you to pray for me in the next few months. 

*That I will do everything I can to help this book succeed.

*That God will connect Refresh Your Faith with people who are bored with their devotional time and want to fall in love with God and His Word all over again.

*That I will seek God every day, take my marching orders from Him, and please Him in all I do.

I want to be a good steward of the opportunities God (and Our Daily Bread Publishing) have entrusted to me through this book.

Thanks for listening, reading, and praying. Y’all are the best readers a writer could ask for!


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