Ta-da! My new book has a name!

Naming a book is like naming a child – it’s a task fraught with emotion. The title for my new book was a mystery to me after I compiled favorites from more than three decades of writing. I read and re-read the essays and poems and realized they covered too many emotions to name. A theme emerged, but how could I express it?…something about finding happiness after a family tragedy.

I asked friends, family, and blog readers to help me select a title. They were generous with their ideas, but the votes came to a stalemate, with a tie between "The Dance of Life" and "Waking Up." Nothing felt right. The mystery sat and stared, stubborn.

 The solution arrived this past Saturday when my husband and I went to a 4-H lunch at the June Dairy Days celebration in little Markesan, Wisconsin. We each ordered a sandwich and a big slab of homemade pie with ice cream. I bit into my sandwich while I stared at my rhubarb pie a la mode. Mike, on the other hand, set his sandwich aside and snarfed his cherry pie.

I smiled. “Dessert first,” I said to him.

“Yup,” he agreed.

Life is short and often hard…but it’s full of desserts. Everyone’s desserts are different. My new book is filled with my desserts: family and friends, playing and nature, music and dancing, faith and folklore, remembering and writing.

Last Saturday evening, after our pie glut, Mike and I canoed around the entire Little Green Lake, where we have a house trailer. Our friend Kathy Hines Prochnow took a photo of us, printed above. I'm thinking this photo - or one like it - may be the image for the cover of the book. Canoeing at sunset pretty much expresses the whole idea of "dessert first" for me.

I hope to have the book out by Christmas. That's a long time to wait for dessert! Luckily, working on the book is a dessert in itself.

Gail Grenier is the author of Calling All Horses, Dog Woman, Don't Worry Baby, and Dessert First, all available from Amazon.com.