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My Own Story


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My Own Story
By Dana Ellis

One day out of desperation (and I truly mean desperation), I thought now what?  I am 45 years old, I am very sick and I don’t have any way of taking care of myself should something happen to my husband, my marriage or my living arrangements (which includes the other two items in this sentence).  At the time things were not going so well with any of those things in my life. I remembered that I had written a story for my son, Jeremy, when he was only nine years old.  So, I found that large creative looking book I had bought at Michael’s over a decade ago, with thoughts of writing stories for him one summer to illustrate.  You see, he loves to draw and is really quite talented in that respect and being the great mother that I was, I had bought that really big book with good intentions, but now he was 22 years old, and what did he need it for anyway, right?  I found the story, Jeremiah, the Dragon Persuader safely in the pages of that large creative looking book, but it wasn’t quite finished.  I hadn’t put an end to it and I never had given it to Jeremy to actually illustrate…ok, I know I was a much better mom than that, I guess I was just very busy living life with such a delightful boy!   So, I finished the story and started to research publishing companies on the web.

There are a lot of companies who publish books for you on the web.  A lot of them will gladly take your money.  Some even want as much as $20,000.00 to get the ball rolling and you will be stuck with 1,000,000 books to sell to all of your friends and relatives.  How disappointing all of it seemed!  Not to mention overwhelming to someone who is suffering from fibromyalgia and severe migraines.  Oh, not to mention depression which I have been treated for continually, while seeking the right doctors to find out what has really been going on with this body of mine!  So, on the good days I finally found a little publishing company out of Mustang, OK, Tate Publishing Company.  I really liked Tate Publishing Company because they were a Christian based company.  While they also wanted money for up-front cost (it was very small compared to others), they seemed to be respectable and detailed what they would do with my money and when I would receive it all back should the book sell a certain amount of copies.   Now if I can just find 5,000 best friends.   I sent my little story off to them in January of 2007 and in April of 2007 I received a contract from them saying they loved the characters and would like to work with me to put the story into a book form! Voila…we have Jeremiah, the Dragon Persuader.  The process was a whole year in the making but a learning experience I would not give up.  

Did I mention I have a degree in Elementary Education?  I no longer teach those little first graders, but I sure miss being around children.  I don’t miss teaching or being in the public school system (I even taught in the private sector for half of a year – which is another hilarious story all by itself)!  However, when I received my copies of Jeremiah, the Dragon Persuader, I went into the classroom and read to the children for the first time in ten years, the memories all came flooding back.  I missed the fun of brainstorming teaching strategies with colleagues. I missed the joy of children discovering something new.  I missed the joy of discovering something new!    

Here is where I end my essay…because I am still on my journey at 46 of discovering new and wonderful things.  Having the courage on that dark, dark day to try something new for myself! I am not sure where it is going to lead but I have made a lot of new friends along the way! My husband and I have come to new understandings and brighter days and my son, Jeremy, is on his way to becoming a great adult!  I am discovering life after 40…is neither so dark nor desperate!



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