I’ve been hesitant to make a big deal out of this. In fact, I’ve mostly been telling myself it’s not true. But after opening the envelope with the advance check made out to me last week and having a conference call today with the whole team, it seems pretty official.

I may as well get it out in the open: I’m writing a book.

I haven’t wanted to plaster it all over social media for a couple reasons. For one, I have friends who have been trying to get published for years without any luck. If you’ve ever tried to get pregnant, then you know the pang you feel seeing one announcement after another of friends getting pregnant “on accident.” Having yet another friend announce their book deal is painful and I want to be sensitive to that.

Secondly, I’ve mostly been in denial. I kept thinking I’d get a call telling me they’d made a mistake, that they didn’t mean to tell me they wanted to publish my book. Until I held the check in my hands, I truly didn’t believe this was happening.

But it is. My book will be published fall of 2019. It’s really happening.

In August of 2017, an acquistions editor contacted me via the query form on my blog, telling me she had found me through Redbud Writers’ Guild and wondered if I was working on anything. I wrote a writer friend, “What do I say??” She told me to say “I was working a few ideas into proposals.” I quickly emailed the editor back, surprised that I had three ideas. She said she’d love to see a proposal for one, maybe two of the ideas.

“I’ll get back to you in a few weeks,” I said, which turned into three months.

Writing a book proposal felt like packing for a long trip, but not being sure what I should take and what I should leave behind. And much like packing, it wasn’t until right before I was finished that I felt close to being done. Clothing, shoes, books and cosmetics were strewn around the room in a huge mess–ideas, words, stories and quotes all piled in a heap.

I probably spent 100 hours on that proposal, inviting over 10 different friends to give their input on various parts and stages. People had said it was difficult, but I had no idea what it felt like to pull a book magically out of thin air and write a one page book overview on a book that DOESN’T EXIST.

My husband took a couple mornings off of work just to watch the kids so I could write. I stood in my office and nearly burst into tears because 1) I had an office and 2) he actually believed I could do this. He is the only reason I’m even walking this journey right now.

Looking back on the book proposal process, it felt like piecing together the outer edges of a puzzle–enough structure to guide your next step, but not enough of the picture to tell you what the whole puzzle would actually look like in the end.

I turned in my proposal on December 5th, 2017 and I felt like the answer would be a lose-lose rather than a win-win. If they didn’t want it, then I did all that work for nothing. If they did want it, I’d have to actually write a book. They got back to me on January 23rd.

“Look,” I said to my husband, holding out the phone. “They want to publish my book…” The tears came and the familiar feeling I had when I found out I was pregnant the previous three times: elated, but overwhelmed.

I didn’t have an agent, so a few friends with Rebud Writer’s Guild helped me navigate the intricacies of the contract and I finally signed it in early February.

I’ve written seven chapters of a 10 to 12 chapter book that I’ll turn in this December. It still feels surreal.

When I’m writing, I believe it’s happening–I get caught up in the flow and follow where it leads, but as soon as I step away, the voices start in on me.

The hardest part has been writing more than 1000 words. Most blog posts and articles I’ve written are short, so writing a book feels like trying to run a marathon when I’ve mostly trained as a sprinter. It can feel choppy and disjointed. But I’m also enjoying indulging in long-form narrative, much like the episodic story arcs of T.V. shows with six, seven or eight seasons. For the first time, I can laze about with my story.

“So what’s your book about?” is the million dollar question these days. Honest answer? I’m still figuring that out.

But according to the edges of the puzzle that are guiding me, and the outline I offered in my book proposal, my book is about reimagining biblical hospitality from a cross-cultural point of view.

It is a mosaic of personal stories and lessons I’ve learned from living overseas, studying culture, and having international students live with us. It’s about what the western church can learn from non-western cultures about practicing biblical hospitality to family, friends and strangers, living in community, and deepening our relationships.

Biblical hospitality is less about pretty tables and more about dying to ourselves. Less about image and more about imagination. It’s about inviting and being invited by Jesus and turning around and doing the same thing in our ordinary lives. It’s about quenching our loneliness by pouring ourselves out.

This book is kicking my tail, because I can’t write one way and live another way. If I’m going to write about selfless hospitality, I need to be living it. If I’m going to write about reserving space for people, I need to actually do it.

So that’s the scoop. I’m writing a book and I’m terrified. I’m scared no one will read it and that I’ll get it all wrong. But I’m also trying to let go and trust the woo woo writer magic to wave it’s pixie dust on my words. Mainly, I’m trusting the mystical Holy Ghost to guide me and give me words as I go. I didn’t seek this out, the book found me.

And on my runs as I slow to a walk along the lake in the gold morning light, I’ve been praying like crazy for myself and for you, my reader. (In fact, the other morning on my run, I was praying loudly and very audibly for my readers when I spotted a man on his back deck cradling his coffee just a few feet away. I pretended I was talking into my phone). I’m praying this message will be for us.

Writing a book feels scary and sacred, weighty and wild, so I appreciate your prayers for me as well. Please send me personal messages if I come to mind to let me know you’re mentioning me in your prayers. I’m going to need all the help I can get.

xo

Leslie, soon-to-be author

***

If you want to win a copy of Mystics and Misfits, sign up for my newsletter by Monday, August 30th at midnight (MT)! Already a subscriber? Tag up to four friends on my Instagram post about this book and I’ll enter you once per time!

Sign up for the Mid-month Digest and Secret Newsletter Here:

Leave this field empty if you're human: