The Inspiration for the book

The inspiration for The Best Baker in the World came from a couple of places.  First, I love to bake!  I bake all kinds of things.  Am I the best baker in the world?  Certainly not even close, but I have turned out a few good things.  Secondly, I used to have a home based embroidery business.  If anyone has ever owned a home based business, you know where this is going.  There are no business hours.  You can work until midnight or as long as it takes to finish the job.   There are no holidays.  People call you at dinner time with, "I really need it tomorrow."  My husband's philosophy is "your failure to plan does not constitute an emergency on my part."  I'm much easier than that and would jump through hoops to get things done in a jiffy and many times even deliver  the finished product.  After several years, I finally had to say, ENOUGH!"  I loathe that embroidery machine now.  No more embroidery for me.  I will eventually enjoy doing fun projects again, but it will take some time. The character in my book has a similar experience.   She loves to bake and is talked into selling her baked goods.  I guess you can never really take a hobby and turn it into a job!  Some people do, but I am not disciplined enough to set boundaries and keep it all in check.

How my book came to be

I've always enjoyed writing.  Even in high school, when we were assigned an English paper and everyone was moaning and groaning, I kind of enjoyed it. Through the years, being a wife, homemaker and working mom didn't leave much time for my extracurricular activities, so I didn't get to write much other than the yearly Christmas letter. After Emily went away to college, I started putting some stories on paper.  Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not a public speaker...but to write things on paper, that's more my style.  So I had several stories ready to go, but where do you find a publisher?  I sent one to New York City with the reply date supposed to be 6-9 months.  I put it on my calendar and the day came and went with no reply from the publishing company.  After that, I put my stories back in the folder and forgot about publishing.  Almost 2 years passed and I was still writing. I ran across the name Tate Publishing and thought I'd give it another shot.  I picked a random story and sent it in.  The response time was supposed to be 6-9 weeks.  I marked the calendar for spring break week and then forgot about it.  Then after only 1 1/2 weeks, the reply came.  They actually wanted to publish my story!  We were shocked and skeptical.   We didn't want to tell anyone until a decision was made. We prayed about it and consulted a couple of close friends. Nearly 2 weeks passed before I signed the contract and UPS overnighted it back to them.   It was like we were amazed and  in disbelief that this was really happening.  The big question was why did the acceptance come so quickly?  After talking to acquistions, the answer was the Oklahoma bad weather.  We had really bad weather and the publishing company was closed for a few days.  When they reopened, they had manuscripts piled up and instead of taking from the bottom of the pile, they picked up the one on top and there was "The Best Baker in the World".  
We are learning about what it takes to get a book published.  I'm on the production schedule to begin in May.  It will go through a couple of separate editings, then illustrations, etc.  All total, about 6 months.  I am very excited  and  will keep you all posted on the progress.

Under Construction

This is a work in progress. I am excited to learn something new so please check back soon and hopefully my blog will be in full swing!