52 Weeks

During the week between Christmas and New Year's, one year ago, I wrote a little story. At the time I called it The Boy. It seemed like a nice little story, and I loved writing it. It was about Michael Jackson, the story of his life, written like a fairy tale.

In January, I thought it might be a book that I could send to his children. I enjoyed editing, and finding the perfect word or phrase, and cutting unnecessary parts out.

In February, I sent the story to Michael's mother, and his children.

In March, I saw a beautiful painting of Michael's Giving Tree on facebook, and asked the artist if she would be interested in illustrating a picture book. She said yes.

During April, we got to know each other by email and discussed possible pictures. The name of the story had changed to Ever After.

In May, Mimi sent me the first illustration, Baby Michael. I had chosen a printer, applied for an ISBN number, reserved a domain name and a few other administrative tasks. We decided to market and distribute the books ourselves, so that we could donate 20% of the selling price to charity in Michael's name.

In June, Mimi took a leave of absence from her job to work on the illustrations. We had given ourselves a deadline. We wanted to take the finished book to Neverland on Michael's birthday.

In July, Mimi did not go back to her job. She continued working full-time on the illustrations. The last picture was finished on July 30.

In August, we got the pictures and text layout to the printer. Chose colors for the the text pages, finalized the cover. Saw the proofs, and approved them. We launched our website by tagging one of the illustrations to 50 friends on facebook. The pre-orders started to come in.

The books were received on September 22, a bit late for Michael's birthday, but we were thrilled. I sent the first 4 books to Prince, Paris, Blanket and Katherine. We had pre-orders for about 200 books, so I was busy mailing them out.

October, November, December - orders continue to come in through our website, as people hear about the book. I have mailed them all myself, and emailed all the wonderful people who have ordered. As of today, December 29, we have sent out over 600 books to people all over the world, and have donated $1,320 to children's charities in Michael's name.

When I wrote the story in my little notebook one year ago, I never imagined the changes it would bring to my life, and hopefully, to the lives of many other people, in such a short time.

Thank you God, and thank you Michael

L.O.V.E. Brenda - December 29, 2010