Today my book finished its first draft. It's a benchmark, but not a finish line. I've alluded to what I'm doing, without saying more. I'm writing a children's book for children with military mother's. When deploying I always look for books for my girls to help them understand what I'm doing and why. There are tons of books written for children whose father's are deploying, but absolutely nothing for the children with mothers deploying.
We make up nearly 20% of the military. That's more than a quarter of a million women. 38% of us are mothers and among those mothers there are often more than 2 children. That's a lot of children who are ignored.
I don't want to give away too much of my story, or I'll ruin the book, but here is a short gyst. My story is written from the perspective of a child who has an Army Pop and a Navy Mom. Go figure. Mom is about to deploy and the girl talks about the things they do to prepare for the deployment. She talks about giving her mom her favorite stuffed animal, Buster. For those of you that know me, you know who Buster is. If you don't know, look at my mySpace page and there is a photo album entitled 'Buster's travels'. www.myspace.com/rhondareagan
When I deploy I take one of my daughter's stuffed animals with me. I attach it to my backpack and take it with me in every port. I take pictures of myself and the animal. My last deployment I took Buster. I sent pictures of Buster back to my daughters and tell them where we were. They track my progress on a map and share the journey with me & Buster. When I come home, I bring Buster back a little worn and worse for wear, but well traveled. The girls have always liked that. My book ends when the mom returns. Don't worry, there is a story line in there, but I am not ready to put myself out there yet.
It's a small child's book, early reader level, about 1800 words. Lots of editing to do and tons of illustrating before sending it to publishers. I'm not a professional writer, but I know what it is these kids need to hear. I want books for children like mine.
So what if I wear combat boots or flight deck boots! I'm still a mom and it shouldn't matter that I'm military. I want to give the kids of military moms something to be proud of too. Instead of being teased with "Your mom wears combat boots!", it will be "Wow, your mom wears combat boots? ahhhhhhh.".
Stay tuned to my virtual daily diary of sorts.
You know I will. :)
ReplyDelete