Colleen and I are thrilled to announce that our second book, SEE IT, DREAM IT, DO IT: How 25 people just like you found their dream jobs is now available!

This companion book to If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It introduces you to 25 more individuals with very cool jobs. You’ll learn a bit about what it takes to become a forensic sketch artist, private investigator, cave microbiologist, pilot, or midwife, as well as many, many more professions. We’ll give you examples of things kids can try to see if that sort of job would be a fit for them and spin off jobs related to that profession. You’ll also meet some young people starting down the paths of their dreams, and find out about the jobs of the team involved in publishing our book.

We hope this book will help kids see what kind of jobs are out there, and inspire them to think about what they love to do and how they could turn it into a career.

We had our official book launch at McNally Robinson on November 2nd at 7:00 PM. I had been to many launches at the store before and even hosted a couple, but it was a real thrill to be one of the featured authors that night.

The staff at McNally made us feel so welcome. It was wonderful to see family and friends in the audience and to know we also had people from out of town able to join us online.

I now have a framed poster of the event on my wall to remember the night and feel inspired while working on future writing projects.

October 25th was a day to remember! Social media was full of congratulations posts, and I was very touched to see the outpouring of support for this book. I had planned to wait and celebrate until the launch but I couldn’t let this day go by without some sort of acknowledgment. My husband and I celebrated the evening by ordering takeout supper from Feast Cafe Bistro (we featured the restaurant owner and chef, Christa Bruneau-Guenther, in the book) and picking up cupcakes from Jenna Rae Cakes (Jenna and Ashley were also in the book).

Colleen and I went to McNally Robinson the day before the release to sign some copies, so there is stock for anyone who wants to purchase it from our favorite local independent bookstore.

It was incredible to see people starting to share pictures of their copies. I have my first school visit scheduled for November, and I’m arranging one with the kids at the school where I graduated which is very special. We’re also planning an author night at the library where I work so I’m very excited to see my young patrons that night and introduce them to a real author!

So many milestone moments are happening right now, but I’m also busy working on another writing project that I hope to be able to tell you about in the not-too-distant future!

I spoke at a conference on Friday and planned to go to McNally Robinson for some book shopping as a treat when it was done. While at the conference, I got a text from a friend that she had purchased the book at McNally and they had it on display!

I can’t tell you what an incredible experience it was to see it sitting there. I’ve taken so many pictures on those display shelves and it was finally my turn to see a book I co-wrote there. I took a few minutes to stand there and appreciate how far I’d come to get to this moment.

Only a few more days until release day, but it’s out in the wild and hopefully on its way to reaching young readers.

The day my fifteen author copies arrived from Pajama Press was SO exciting. It was the first time I’d seen the bookmarks they designed, which I love because they have a checklist for the list of jobs included in the book on the back.

One of the first things I did was donate a copy to the library where I work, process it, and check it out to myself. This was one of the best moments of this publishing journey, to do a photo shoot and display with a book that I helped write!

I also wanted to send each of the individuals I interviewed for the book a free copy of the book as a thank you for taking part. I wish I could be a fly on the wall to hear their reactions when they receive them!

I used one book for a Twitter giveaway and I’m giving away another copy at the MTS PD Day conference at which I’m speaking next week. That leaves only a couple of copies left for family and friends, so I ordered a second shipment of books to have on hand.

I also created bookplates on Canva using Jarrett’s artwork, and bought an archival pen for signing books. I’m so thankful for the authors on Twitter who share the tidbits of information I don’t know (I hadn’t considered my book signing signature should be different from my legal signature!) I wish there was a debut author manual, but I’m learning as I go.

Two weeks until the book is available in stores. I’m most excited to start hearing from young readers and hope they find the information useful and helpful when thinking about their future careers.

I am so excited that Colleen and I are going to launch If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It on November 2nd at 7PM at the McNally Robinson Grant Park location.

This will be a hybrid launch, so there will be a live Youtube stream for those unable to attend in person.

You can set an event reminder or learn more about the launch here.