Outside the Lines

A few years back someone handed me this poem and said- this made me think of you. The poem was about being different. Not fitting in. How lonely and yet liberating it can be at the same time. She was right. I've always been different. I've looked at the world from a different view than most of the people around me. Not so easy when you are a kid but it fits now that I'm an adult. This poem called "Coloring" inspired me to write and illustrate a book about growing up and not quite fitting in. The title of my book is "Outside the Lines". Writing a book is alot like being pregnant for the first time, and going through editing and rewrites is alot like childbirth. The hardest part of wirting the book for me was letting my publisher (Smiling Stone Soup) take the "protoype" copy and show it to bookstore owners. What if they didn't like it? What if...What if...What if...I cried. I felt like I did when my oldest daughter left home for college. I was glad to see her spread her wings and fly. I knew she could do it because of the foundation we laid for her but still... letting go isn't easy. So now my book is 'out there' and people like it. Borders ordered copies of it to sell this fall.