It all started with a dirty old baseball. Dawn Meehan, author of Because I Said So!, put a baseball up for sale on eBay and her writing career was born. Here’s her story:
Tell me the infamous story about the baseball.
I had my six children home with me for Spring Break. They were making me crazy, and it was just a bad day. They broke a light fixture with this baseball, and that was the start of the chaos. I said to them, “I’m going to sell all of you on eBay!” They don’t let you sell children, on eBay, though, so at night, I decided to sell the baseball on eBay that started it all.
Was it just a plain baseball?
It was a plain old baseball that they found in a field. I wrote a funny description to go with it, describing the day I had just had. I thought if anything, it could drive traffic to my blog. The response was incredible, and the baseball wound up selling for over $1,100! Agents and publishers contacted me and said, “You should really write a book.” I thought, “I could do that.” And I did.
How long did it take to write the book?
A couple of months. Fortunately, my kids are great with providing me with fresh new material every day!
Do they mind that you wrote about them in your book and also on your blog?
They think it’s pretty cool. The two teenagers don’t like me writing about them on the blog, so I check with them first. The little ones, sorry, they don’t get a say!
Are you planning on writing a second book?
Yes, in fact it will be out a year from now. The working title is: “You’ll Lose the Baby Weight and Other Lies about Pregnancy and Childbirth”. It’s a really fun, light-hearted look at pregnancy and childbirth. They’re stories from my family. If there’s any medical advice, it’s completely inadvertent.
I liked in the book how you are very open about being a non-perfect parent. There is so much pressure on women today to do everything perfectly, and in my opinion, it is just not possible.
I’ve had many days where I’ve dropped the ball. It happens. Most of the things that we stress over are not going to matter later on. It’s important to enjoy the time with your kids, because it does fly by fast.
With six kids, how do you find time to work, be with your hubby….breathe?
I don’t. I don’t find a balance. I don’t worry about getting everything accomplished every day because it’s not going to happen. I try to be easy on myself and enjoy all this, because it’s great. I never could have imagined three years ago that I would get paid to do something that I love — which is to write — and be able to be home with my kids.