Over the last year as I’ve been writing and working on this book, I’ve had countless people say that either they or someone they know has always wanted to write a book. I admire that because I was once one of those people. Of course, if you know me, I still want to tackle the fiction genre at some point as well. There are a lot of steps that a writer must take in the creation of a new work.

First, an idea must be born. Then the idea must be fleshed out and sometimes flushed down the toilet. At no time is it easy. Then the idea must be turned into a lot of words… and I mean a lot! Then those words are deleted to the ever growing heap pile of passive verbs and then sentences, paragraphs and sometimes entire pages are re-written.

I had to re-write a whole chapter of Anything is Possible! In fact that’s what this photo is of. The night of editing Chapter 8, I worked until the early morning hours and tried to hand write some thoughts at the end of the night, only to not be able to read them the next morning.

I haven’t even touched on the publishing process which is many many posts worth of information. I’ll just say I learned a lot, got rejected and still found a way to finish this project in a way I am proud of.

After all this work and all the time and energy, the blood, sweat and tears (okay, maybe not blood), the book needed a cover. Nathanael worked for hours trying to find the right cover for me. But as the writer, the artist, I knew what I wanted and we couldn’t find it. Then came the turtle. Within a day of seeing it I knew it was perfect.

I will say this, the stress was absolutely worth it. It was worth it because it was the fulfillment of a dream. And I believe any dream you have and keep dreaming is a dream worth chasing.