That ABC Book for Grammy's Darlings...It's Coming Along (The Letter D, Pages 7 and 8)

Quite a while back, I blogged about an ABC picture book that I was working on for my twin granddaughters.  It was one that I'd begun when my youngest son was a baby, but I'd abandoned it for almost twenty years, with just a handful of pages completed.  Inspired by the arrival of my little sweetie pies in June of 2011, I started working on it once again.  My goal was to complete it, with two pages of pictures for each letter of the alphabet, in time to give it to them as a birthday present when they turned one.  (Chuckle.  First deadline not met.)  Then I thought I'd give it as a present on their second Christmas in 2012.  (Laugh.  Another deadline came and went.)  A new baby sister arrived for the twins in February of 2013, giving me even more impetus to complete the book, and I was determined that it would be done in time for the twins' second birthday last June...Uhh, nope.  Christmas 2013?  Nope again.

Okay, folks, the new deadline is the twins' third birthday in June of 2014.  And this time I mean it!  If I don't hurry, they're going to outgrow their love for ABC picture books before I ever finish it!

The A's (pages 1 and 2) have been completed for a long time now, as well as the B's (pages 3 and 4).  And I just yesterday finally finished the D's.  (Yes, I do know that C comes before D--but I was just overly excited to get to the D's because of the DINOSAUR.  Obviously.)

So pages 5 and 6 are coming soon (let's hope, anyway).  But here is page 7:

And here is page 8:

Way back when I was newly married and my only child was a female half Black Lab-half Golden Retriever named Shamus, I submitted some children's books I'd worked on to a publisher for consideration.  Their rejections were swift but kind.  This time around, I have no illusions about seeing this work published.  It's enough of a miracle that Finding Grace is really in print, and not just stacks of 8 and1/2 by 11-inch pages that I've run off using my home printer and handed out to family members (which was my plan at the outset)--that alone is more that I could have ever hoped for. 

So no more rejection letters for Grammy.  Instead, I'm going to have my baby sister, who is a genius at putting together hardcover memory books using Shutterfly, walk me through the process so I can run off copies of this ABC book for all of my grandkids.  I've never used Shutterfly, but I think it's amazing how professional their products look!

And before I sign off, here's a quick shout-out for Finding Grace (because I've been encouraged by my publisher to keep plugging away at promoting it).  This article, calling it one of the "best books you haven't read" and announcing the newly lowered Kindle price, was posted on The Association of Catholic Women Bloggers website today.

Now off to tackle the C's!