

It’s April! You know what that means. No, not spring. Although that’s an extra benefit. April – it’s the month of the A to Z Blog Challenge! And on that note, here we go. We’re off and running. This month I’ll be sharing some ‘Behind the Scene’ moments of my writing journey.
A: Anthologies
Compiling and self-publishing an anthology was never one of my writing goals. I’ve been included in several other anthologies, but it wasn’t a project that called out to me. But somehow, without an anthology even being one of my goals, I ended up publishing four of them – four years in a row!
In 2016, I was trying to think of what to get my mother for her birthday that year. She was turning 80, and as is the case with many mothers of that age, she didn’t really need anything. She certainly didn’t need another set of bath towels, or trinkets to gather dust. A book – I could write a book featuring her. But that task didn’t come with any clear inspiration for which direction to go. Somehow, I thought of making it an anthology with stories from other writers about their mothers too. I’d include a story about my own mom and have a picture on the front that had me as a baby sitting on her lap. And In Celebration of Mothers was born.
I put out the call and offered an nominal amount as payment for inclusion. Because, as an author myself trying to make a little money from the craft, I couldn’t produce an anthology where the other contributors weren’t compensated. For Mom’s birthday that year her gift was being the subject of a book.
The next year, 2017, I employed the same strategy to feature my sister, for her birthday (which was a long, long way from 80!) In Celebration of Sisters featured one of my favorite pictures of us, taken at one of Mom’s beloved theme parties from several years earlier.
Now that I had two anthologies ‘under my belt’, the following year I put out another one. This was one I’ actually had been thinking of for some time. I’d wanted to write the story of my stepson’s death, too young age of 23. But I didn’t want to write the entire book about him. Including stories from other parents to honor these children – these angels – was the perfect vehicle for this. In 2018 and 2019, Mothers of Angels and Mothers of Angels 2 were born.
Right now, there aren’t any new anthologies in my writing plans. I am so, so far from even approaching a break-even point from any of these four books. But to be honest, much of that is probably my own fault. I’m not an aggressive marketer. So, I’m not out there pitching ‘buy my book’ – ‘buy my book’. Usually once a book is done, I’m onto the next project and putting my energies into writing the next creation. But that’s okay, because the greatest benefit I received from this is one I didn’t expect – I made some wonderful friends. I connected with people that never would have crossed my path because of the distance in our lives. And these friendships have continued on through the years. Even though I ended up spending far more money than I ever made back from the books, I still came out the winner, because you can’t put a price on friendship.

