My Next Big Thing

My talented, creative, soon-to-be MFA friend Andrea of the Remains of the Day gave me a kick in the pants last week when she tapped me to participate in a cool meme that is making the rounds in different iterations among several of my favorite blogs: “The Next Big Thing.”

It’s no secret that I’ve been spinning my wheels a bit these past few post-holiday weeks, but Andrea’s invitation helped motivate me to clarify and organize my writing goals for the year and, more importantly, to shut up and start writing.

And, in the spirit of the meme, she’s inspired me to share with you my own Next Big Thing.

So here goes: I’m writing a book – a nonfiction work about mothers who were writers and writers who were mothers. In the next couple of months as I continue to read and research and dig up facts about mother-writers from long ago, I hope to give shape to a real, honest-to-goodness book proposal that I will shop to agents.

As much as I love blogging and writing essays and book reviews, I’m never as deep in my flow as when I’m researching and writing historical pieces. I like to think of it as blending my former life with my current one in a way that feels seamless and energizing and good – and, as I’m learning from the mother-writers throughout history – that’s not always so easy to do once you have kids.

So, yeah. I’m writing a book. My book. That’s my Next Big Thing.

I’d love to hear about yours.

Image: Typewriter Keys by Kristin Nador via Flickr under a Creative Commons license.