Mormon Mommy Writers and Friends

I am so excited to join! Here is a little about how I started writing books.
I have been praying and fasting for the past year that Heavenly Father would use my talents to their fullest potential. I always thought it would be through the church but I wanted to do more. I offered to teach classes of all sorts and did a little here and there but still it wasn't enough. I am a crafty person and have been crafting for the past 13 years. I find the ordinary and make it extraordinary! So I sold my wares at craft shows, boutiques and stores but I still felt like I needed to reach a larger group. A friend of mine wanted to test market one of my ideas in Thailand and so I developed a t-shirt in a can that has instructions on how to change your t-shirt with only scissors, masking tape and the ability to tie double knots! Ideas started to flow so freely that I thought,"I should turn this into a book!" Thus Tie It Up was born.
I bought 2 craft books for the first time in my life (if I like something I like I just make it, I never thought to spend the money to buy a craft book). I bought these craft books to see how to make one. I noticed the good and saw a lot of confusion. So I decided to make mine easy to understand with photographs (I love taking pix and photography) and writing. So I made a fully designed, colored and photographed mock-up book. Then I researched on the Internet on how to get published. I remembered that Stephanie Meyers website had the steps she took, so I followed and learned a lot. I found great websites along the way and started querying ( I almost had a panic attack each time I sent one out, but after 100 or so that feeling left. You can see all the steps I took on my blog at www.olses7.blogspot.com). After sending out about 350 individual e-mail queries I got some positives. 5 agents wanted to see my work! I was excited but knew that it was just a step. They could still reject me (and one did). My family prayed and fasted and I made sure I didn't work on Sundays (I wanted to show the Lord that I was grateful for this opportunity and I also wanted to show him how much of a sacrifice it was to not work on Sunday. It was killing me!). After 3 days of waiting I got another agent requesting my work and a feeling came over me that this was the one! I sent her my proposal and manuscript and after I told her the 9 other books I wanted to do, she asked to sign with me. Apparently she had already got the word out to several publishers about my book and book ideas and they wanted to see more.
So now we have finished up the proposal and she sent it out today (let me just tell you that my agent is worth every penny. She is like the uber/super agent as well as a muse. She seems to pull ideas out of me. Crazy weird!) So, I'll be hearing something by next week. That's the short story version thus far. I hope there's a happy ending to this fairytale!
Thanks again for giving me this opportunity to share! It is so nice to be around people going through the same stuff (as a writer and a mother) as I am. Can't wait to share more. In the mean time... Have Fun, Be Creative, Look Fantastic! It's Your Time to Shine!!!
Mary Olsen