I Want To Write a Book

Ok, so I want to write a book. I have been wanting to write one for some time now. For the past several weeks our family has been planning a pioneer vacation. It will be several more weeks before we go, and I am super excited about it. I began a Kickstarter project to help me get rolling for the production of my book about our pioneer experience.

Not familiar with Kickstarter? I wasn't either until my husband introduced me to it. Kickstarter is a website that helps people achieve their goal of completing a dream project. A person sets a monetary goal they want to reach to help them fund their project. Then the person gets backers to help them reach their goal, and the backers receive rewards from the person.

I started a Kickstarter project and just launched it yesterday. I was initially going to only share it with friends and family, but I've decided to extend it to my Facebook page and homeschool blog as well.  My rewards to my backers are copies of my book as well as some other fun things such as postcards and thank you cards sent from us with a picture of us wearing our pioneer clothing while on vacation. Click on the link below and you can see the details of my rewards.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1208329925/a-book-about-a-family-of-ten-pioneering-across-ame

The kicker to a Kickstarter project is that I have to be 100% funded to receive the funds. If I don't reach my 100% goal, it doesn't happen and I get a big fat sad trombone wah wah wah wahhhhh sound. But let's think positive thoughts!

So, basically our family is going to drive the pioneer trail and see many of the sites and landmarks of the pioneers of the 19th century. However, my plan did not begin like this. It has evolved. Let me tell you a little story of how it came about. First of all, we really wanted to drive across the country. We did it three years ago to visit my family in California. We were going to do it again last year, but I had a baby in June and it got bumped to this year.

Road trips are one of our family's favorite things to do. It's tricky planning a route from one coast to another when there are SO many sites you want to see. I tried squeezing Alaska onto the itinerary, but decided to save that state for another year. Thank goodness for Google Maps for helping out with distance and time estimation! :)

My original plan was to see some sites including Mt. Rushmore, because I thought that would be fun. So, when looking for hotels I realized that everything was very expensive on the dates I was looking to be there. I even considered camping, so while calling around to find a campsite I spoke with a man to see what he had available. He told me he had nothing and then proceeded to warn me not to come to the Black Hills at all that week because of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Apparently this rally is a huge deal. The spirit of my vacation planning was crushed at that moment. I cried because my dates were not all that flexible and my dream of seeing Mt. Rushmore would have to be postponed for another trip, unless I was willing to put up with a lot of leather, noise, and sleeping in our van in a Walmart parking lot. Sniff. 

Through my frustration with blurry vision from teary eyes, I continued to use Google Maps and find other interesting things to see along the way. That's when the inspiration hit me to drive the pioneer trail. The inspiration hit me so hard that my tears of sadness transformed into tears of joy. I suddenly became overwhelmed with excitement and knew without a doubt that it would a good decision.

Shortly after I broke the news to my children that Mt. Rushmore was taken off the itinerary, I began daydreaming about our trip, I knew camping was going to be necessary to make it a really good pioneer experience. So I broke the news to the kids that we would be camping. My oldest daughter didn't seem too thrilled at the thought of it. She always looks forward to the excitement of a hotel room. To be honest, I'm not much of a camper either, but I also liked the thought of saving some money a few nights along the way. 

While in the garden one day, an idea sparked in my head. I said to her, "If we go camping on our vacation, how about we wear pioneer clothing while traveling, and be like the pioneers?" Her eyes lit up and she immediately said, "Yes!" 

I didn't think it would be that easy to get a consensus, but it miraculously was, and now I have the whole family on board with our pioneer experience.

We've been doing a lot of sewing and she loves it!

So that's my story. Here is the link to my Kickstarter project. I invite you check it out. Watch the video. Ready my story on there and become a backer by pledging and receiving a reward.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1208329925/a-book-about-a-family-of-ten-pioneering-across-ame

:)