If At First You Don’t Succeed…

Back in May I pitched CBC Radio’s Outfront with a synopsis of our quest to write and illustrate a children’s picture book, only to discover that the documentary-style radio program, by and for the average, everyday person, had, sadly, been axed.
The idea behind the pitch was to share with a larger audience the steps we have taken, and will continue to take, in making our dream come true. Like this very blog, broadcasting our quest on a show like Outfront was our stab at self-promotion.

You may ask: But who really cares about two friends looking to make it in kids’ books? To that I answer: Lots. Try googling: writing + illustrating + picture books. You’ll get 56,600,000 results, which tells me that there’s a large group of people – people like Dan and me - who are equally captivated by the idea.

I close my eyes and imagine a child lying on the floor, tummy down, dirty socks up, totally engrossed as he flips through a much-loved book with the tell-tale signs of torn pages, dog-eared corners, and chocolate drippings. The expression of pure enchantment on his little moon face is clear: the child is here in body, but his imagination has been swept far, far away, floating on a cotton ball cloud to destinations unknown.

Life doesn’t get much better. For the child. And for me.

To imagine my words capable of absorbing a pint-sized person’s imagination to the point of otherworldliness… What a thrill! It’s definitely in the top five of my Life List.*

Then I think: How audacious! Really, who do I think I am?! I’m not Margaret Wise Brown (Goodnight Moon), Don Freeman (Corduroy), Ezra Jack Keats (The Snowy Day). I’m just me. Once again the venomous self-doubt snakes though my thoughts.

But we won’t know until we try, and try we will. Again. Last night I sent a pitch to two more most excellent radio programs, both along the same lines as Outfront: This American Life on Chicago Public Radio, www.thislife.org, and Radio Diaries, part of the All Things Considered program on National Public Radio, www.npr.org.

I regularly download both of these programs from iTunes – they are amazing! If you haven’t listened to them, I highly recommend that you do.

In the meantime, we shall wait. Will we be successful? We shall see.

* The Life List is a work in progress, but essentially it’s a selection of meaningful goals to achieve over my lifetime. At the top of the list is being a Mmmarvelous Mom to my twins, but the list also includes goals like racing in the Scotia Bank Waterfront 5km run this September – and placing in the top 10 in my age category.

~ Sherryll