The book is out, people want it, and they also
want it signed. I went to sign my first book for someone and hit a wall. What
do I write? I had a bit of writer's block. I struggled for the longest time to
come up with something. However, then I realized my struggle wasn't over. I
didn't want to write the same phrase in everyone's copy, and I certainly
couldn't write the same message for kids and adults, or a single reader vs. a
copy that was going to a family. I asked my husband, but he didn't have any
ideas at that moment, and I had a stack of books in front of me that needed
signing. Then I finally realized I was thinking too hard about it. I wanted
something professional, words of wisdom so to speak, but what I needed was to
write what I would actually say to that person. What would I say to my
students. I tell my students to always use their imaginations. I tell them to
dare to be different. I tell them reading can take them anywhere. With that I
broke free of my writer's block and was able to look at signing these books in
a much more relaxed way. What I wrote was able to be more personal and more
sincere than some 'professional words of wisdom' that I was struggling to think
of. Now I just have to make sure I don't spell any names wrong!
