When selecting my Word of the Year for 2021, no matter how much I resisted, I kept coming back to the same word: WRITE.

I didn’t like it.

I’ve said for most of my adult life that I would start writing books when the time was right and it just didn’t seem right yet. Writing is something I have always known I would do eventually. Just not right now.

When the word WRITE kept coming up again and again it became more than I could ignore. So I sat down and started making list after list of things I would like to write and one day the title came to me.

I opened a new document on my laptop and typed the title: Jessi on Guam.

And with those three simple words, the time was suddenly right.

One Saturday in February I pulled my laptop out and started typing. Once I had the title I knew exactly where the story would start. So I wrote that. My intention that day was just start the story and see where it led. Before I even realized it, I had most of 3 chapters written. And a basic outline for the rest of the book.

The time was definitely right.

Over the next 8 months I spent every free moment outside of my day job writing, editing, and learning how to self-publish a book. I had help from the most incredible family and friends with editing, cover art, and formatting. But for the most part… I did it on my own.

I got a crash course in publishing from the University of Google and made so many mistakes along the way. Formatting a 55,000 word/12 chapter book is no joke, my friends. It. Is. Complicated. Making sure the margins are right. Page numbers and headers are in the right spots. No weird trailing words or paragraphs. Page breaks and chapter breaks. Picking a font. Changing that font. Going back to the original font. Chapter headers. Then making it all fit for an eBook.

Looking back on last year I don’t know how I did it. Not that any one part was super challenging (except formatting, Jesus take on the wheel on formatting) but I didn’t quit. I never stopped. I took the next single step. Then the next. And the next.

Almost 9 months to the day from when I wrote the first 3 chapters, I hit the publish button.

And that was it. After all the work. The writing, the learning, the frustration. With one push of a button and a few hours for Amazon to approve it, I was officially a published author.

It’s still hard to wrap my head around. And I plan to share more about the self publishing process in the future. But for now… I’m just so excited to be able to share this REAL LIFE BOOK! THAT I WROTE! And published myself!

I hope Jessi on Guam inspires you to dream bigger and trust yourself!

Love you big,

Jessi