Sorted: China Baby Love

A bygone post dated 20 March 2017

I have written 'book deadline' in my calendar so many times, it might appear as if I write a lot of books. But writing a book is just hard. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

I truly thought I had submitted the 90,000 word door-stop in December 2016. Then the publisher asked for a prologue. Then I thought I might as well do a bit of finessing. Then I did another round of refining after the finessing. I managed to get a full-tweak done over a long weekend. When fellow journalist Tim Elliott (author of the wonderful, Farewell to the Father) told me he had done at least twenty drafts, I initially thought, "You are kidding!" But yep, I'm sure I've done at least twenty drafts too.

I told people I had finished the book and had come to the 'final' deadline at least four times since December. So now it feels a little odd to be waiting while the book is at the printers in Adelaide.

Writing a book is a like baking a cake. I started with ingredients.

My ingredients were a woman named Linda McCarthy Shum, an orphanage in China and people in Linda’s network with incredible stories. This screenshot from April 2013 was our very first meeting when I interviewed her for The World an ABC-TV news show.

After reaching out and asking if I could write a book about her, I decided, naturally, that I should go and check out her work and the orphanage in China, just to ensure they were the correct ingredients for a book.

I visited Linda and the orphanage in Jiaozuo city for the first time in October 2013. I loved everything about that trip!

'Yes' I thought. I have the right ingredients.

But did I have the right recipe?

I spent far too long dismissing my recipe, doubting its eventual success. Instead, I should have gone full steam ahead and followed up with a taste test.

Here's one of my cakes for someone who recently turned six.

As a life-long self-doubter I should have had more faith in the worthiness of my chosen ingredients and my ability to make them come together.

China Baby Love may not be the perfect cake. But it came out just the way I wanted it. I think it’s unique. Now I want to share it with you.