After you have a baby, one thing most people usually hear is “Enjoy this time because they grow up so fast.” That’s supposed to help you overlook the challenging and frustrating moments that exist in early parenthood and remind you to appreciate that phase of your family’s life, complete with the constant cycle of eating, diaper-changing and very little sleep.
And you know what? Those people who told me that were SO right. The time goes SOOO fast. When my youngest son was born, his older brothers were three months away from turning 2 and 4, so that whole period is a bit of a blur.
This week, my youngest son turned 14. Fourteen! He’s graduating eighth grade this month and will be heading to high school in the fall. Each week my phone sends me photo reminders of memories and when I see his little kid face grinning at me, I just want to stop everything and hold all my boys close because even today will someday seem like a long time ago at some point.
These feelings inspired this week’s song, “Enjoy the Ride,” which I wrote about five years ago, and wanted to share it for Mother’s Day. It’s for all those moms out there, regardless of the current age of their children.
Before I share the song, I wanted to share some news that I’m very excited about. I have a new book coming out this month! I’ve been working on it for the past year or so and it’s finally ready to release! It’s coming out right after Mother’s Day so I guess it’s like a Mother’s Day gift to myself (and is dedicated to my mom).
The book is a collection of blog posts from 2021, a project called “52 Weeks in 2021.” That was the year I turned 52, which was the age my mom was when she died from pancreatic cancer, so I shared one song each week that year - 52 songs - both as a way to honor her but also to help me cope with reaching that page. The book is dedicated to her memory and is called “52 Weeks in 2021: A Songwriting Journey.” Each chapter is a blog post from that year and includes a song, as well as other information about life at that time, both personally and in the news.
Although much of the content was already written when I decided to turn it into a book, it took quite a while to put together, as it was done primarily during evenings and weekends. I’ll share the steps I took, in case you’re considering turning blog posts into a book.
First, I needed to download all the blog posts into a main document and edit the year’s worth of the blog posts and add the lyrics to each of the songs in the collection. Then I used the book formatting app Atticus to format the book and when that was ready, I sent it to a friend for copyediting - a former colleague from my days at a community newspaper, Sal Caputo - thank you, Sal!
Then I made all the edits and it was ready for publication. I chose to self-publish on Amazon KDP (Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing). Amazon KDP publishes and prints for free and then takes a percentage of the sales. To set that up, I needed to take care of all the business aspects, such as setting up a bank account. Fortunately I already had an LLC set up from when I started a freelance writing business so I used that as my publishing company, which saved some time.
The book also includes access to the song recordings so I also set up a website page that includes links to all 52 songs so readers can listen to the actual song if they want to. One bonus is that the copyright for the book will include all the lyrics.
It’s funny that all of this can all be summed in a few sentences, but it took more than a year to do all this, because I opted to do all of these elements myself - even designing the book cover. It’s really incredible that there are so many options available to put your work out there. It definitely takes more time to do this yourself as there’s a learning curve for all the different products and all the mistakes you make along the way take up more time. I can’t say enough about Atticus - the book formatting app - their customer support was incredible.
While it would definitely have been more convenient to hire someone to handle all these steps, that wasn’t in my budget. It still took some financial investment - for the website, the ISBN code and barcode, the Atticus app, the copyright fee, but it was spread out over the year depending on where I was in the process. Plus this way, I learned how to do all the steps in case I want to publish future books.
“52 Weeks in 2021: A Songwriting Journey” will be available on Amazon on May 14 if you would like to check it out! I’ll also have it available on the website asongwritingjourney.com.
And now, back to this week’s song, “Enjoy the Ride.” This is from 2019 and is guitar and vocals, probably recorded with a digital tape recorder, as that’s how I was recording songs back then. Listen here.
WIshing all you moms out there a very happy Mother’s Day!
Enjoy the Ride
I’m embracing my minivan days
Before they pack up and drive away
They may be messy, they may be wild
Someday I’m gonna look back at today and smileDays are long, but the years fly by
You can’t flash forward and you can’t rewind
The world keeps spinning, I’m holding on tight
Gonna fasten my seatbelt and enjoy the rideI’ve been chasing storybook dreams
With expectations hanging over me
I may be restless and running behind
They say one day I’ll reminisce about this timeDays are long, but the years fly by
You can’t flash forward and you can’t rewind
The world keeps spinning, I’m holding on tight
Gonna fasten my seatbelt and enjoy the rideFrom the stroller to the trike,
Training wheels come off the bike
Soon they’ll drive awayDays are long, but the years fly by
You can’t flash forward and you can’t rewind
The world keeps spinning, I’m holding on tight
Gonna fasten my seatbelt and enjoy the ride.© Leisah Woldoff
Enjoy the Ride: Mother's Day and a new book!