I’m Writing a Book

A warm welcome to our Home by the Beech Trees 🍃 I’m Anne of Baggebo, a Danish author, publisher & a stay-at-home-mom. I write stories from our 100 year old farmhouse in the Danish Countryside and personal essays on balancing authorship, motherhood, homemaking & gardening.

In truth, I’ve been conflicted about when to tell you about the fact that:

I’m writing a book.

And not only am I writing it, I actually just finished the very first draft of the entire book, all 12 chapters, so now there is only editing left, and lots of it. (Sidenote: Please message me if you are a freelance editor, I would love to find one amongst you to edit the book).

The reason I’ve been conflicted about telling you is because telling you means commitment, and for some reason my mind has a funny way of confusing commitment with pressure.

However, I felt like I had to give you an explanation for why I’ve not been writing to you for some weeks now, and why I probably won’t be back to my regular schedule of once-a-week-letter before this book is done.

And I want be honest, I have really no idea of when it will be finished. It could in the summer with a publishing in the late autumn, and I think it will, but writing could also very well go all the way into next year.

Now, some of you already have a good idea of what the book is about. In fact, some of you have already read some of the earlier drafts of it.

The book is the story of our very first year here at our Danish homestead. About the choice to move from the city center and into the most rural part of Denmark.

Really, it’s about finding home with all that makes a house into a home: community, environment and a fundamental feeling of belonging.

Some of you might think like me:

“Who would want to read such a trivial book? What purpose has a simple book about a privileged person moving back home in these days? Why should I read about the everyday life of a simple stay-at-home-mother when there are so much bigger things going on in the world?”

And I’ll tell you, I have thought of any and all of these valid critiques. But:

This book wants to be written.

I can’t tell you what it is, but no matter how many times I’ve tried shelving the idea, it just keeps coming back, with a sense of urgency too. I can’t explain it, but I feel very deeply that someone out there needs this exact book. Needs a story about simple conflicts. Like the one between an old masonry oven and the coldest winter in memory. Needs an honest story, and needs a hopeful story.

This feeling is another big factor of why I’ve decided to tell you about it now. It does not matter if I tell you now or later, this book wants to be out, wants to be read, so I thought, I might as well tell you about it!

Last autumn I wrote about my decision to self-publish, and earlier in the spring I self published a Danish collection of short stories.

I still have very much to learn about that whole process, and I have never published a complete novel before, and never in English. So you will have to bear with me as I figure it all out, including the time frames.

All that I can say, is that I hope to publish it in the late autumn of this year, around the 1st of November.

That is if it all goes smoothly. If I can’t find an editor, for example, I will probably have to postpone till sometime next year. (Again, do message me if you want to edit the book. Right now I’m looking for a structural edit, but I will need a copy editor later on.)

I want to honor this story and those who I think will enjoy it with doing my very best. And if that takes longer, then I’m willing to wait for it.

With all that said, I do hope you are all happy and well. I do miss writing you more often, and now, that I’ve completed the first draft, I might be able to get a bit more letter writing in, I hope!

Thank you for staying subscribed, and especially if you are a paid subscriber. I can’t even begin to tell you the comfort I feel of someone supporting me even when I’m not being as “productive” or “consistent” in my letters.

Thank you.

Much love, Anne of Baggebo.

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