My First Collaborative Book Deal

It’s Official, I Signed the Publishing Contract

Candra Anaya
6 min readAug 16, 2023
Photograph by Candra Anaya right before meeting the international cast of authors and our publishing team

Once upon a time, I had a very merry occasion to celebrate. So I added a $4.97 bouquet to my weekly grocery delivery. Having done this before, I expected a tiny but mighty bundle of blooms. Unfortunately, what arrived was, shall we say, lackluster?

I placed the flowers in my vase, which engulfed them in their entirety. Having taken to heart the lesson of the Charlie Brown Xmas tree, I accepted my lil-bouquet-that-could, even as I chuckled at how this little bunch was simply an honest mirror for how spread thin I felt.

A couple of days later, a dear friend of mine came to visit and announced there was an offering of flowers at my front doorstep. Since I am living a bit like Rapunzel these days, I called down the stairs for her to please bring them up. To my great delight, in she walked with the largest, most lush bouquet of wildflowers I ever did see. Every local blossom I could identify- and even more I couldn’t- was represented in this massive display.

Later that evening I cleared off my writing desk with the one fell swoop of an impassioned lover making room for- well- passion. Knowing the great endeavor I am embarking upon, I re-created the altar on my writing desk, intentionally adding and subtracting the power items I’ve come to…

--

--

Candra Anaya

Advice columnist, DearQueer~ Gayly Giving Advice Straight from the Heart. Co-author of bestseller, The Life-Changing Power of Self-Love. https://CandraAnaya.com