On a Limb with a Dream
I started this blog as a new mom desperately in need of a creative outlet. In a way I was lost, navigating the waters of early motherhood, reevaluating dreams, and trying to rediscover myself as a woman. There were so many pieces of my life that I could not define or control, but the one thing that remained constant was my interest in this space and the community I found with other bloggers online.
Since that somewhat muddled beginning, I’ve found that it’s not just this space that matters deeply to me and the relationships I’ve found here, but the actual act of writing. I could never allow myself to admit this, but I have always, even in my earliest memories, been a writer. The people who love me knew this, and were sometimes brave enough to tell me, but I didn’t have the capacity to hear them until the noise around me grew quiet, and I left the world I knew to be a stay-at-home mom.
The challenge today is finding the space in a life full of mothering and teaching to make the dream a reality. For me, it’s never been an issue of what to write, but how and when to get the ideas in my head settled cohesively into strokes on a keyboard. After doing a lot of unnecessary complaining about time (and the lack thereof), watching other moms inch towards their dreams, I finally made the decision to set a goal and start.
Since September, I’ve been working on a 19-day Christmas devotional set to release December 1st, post-by-post (Monday-Friday) through Christmas Day. It’s been one of the project ideas shouting loudest in my heart, one that resonates with me deeply, and one I feel like I could actually attain in the chaos of my right-now life.
The more daunting goal, after the last post goes live, is the expansion and revision of the devotional into a real live book. I’m not exactly sure how I’ll get there from here, but I’m stepping out of my comfort zone in faith, taking small steps, making terrifying admissions, and walking on a limb with my dream out so people can see.
To have even the smallest amount of success in self-publishing, I will need help. So here I am on that same crazy, shaky limb by asking for it here. There are a few really practical things during the month of December that readers can do to support me as I work towards this goal of becoming a published author.
Sign up to receive posts by email.
Each post will be released first to newsletter subscribers by email and then to the various social media outlets. Signing up is simple and easy and can be done quickly by clicking here. With all of the changing algorithms of social media, email is the most reliable way we can stay connected.
Share meaningful posts with your friends.
If a particular post resonates with you, it would be absolutely incredible if you would pass that link along to your friends through social media and/or email. Social shares and readership are literal currency for anyone hoping to break into the publishing world.
Send me feedback.
Your thoughts on this devotional are invaluable to me as I attempt to revise and expand this series into a book. Specifically, it would help me to know what posts engaged you most, which posts didn’t, and why you felt the way you did.
You can do this in one of three ways:
- Commenting directly on the post you have feedback for,
- Sending your comments through the online contact form,
- Or emailing your thoughts directly to christine[dot]j[dot]trevino[at]gmail[dot]com