Thank you to all my readers to attended and participated in my Virtual Book Launch Event on Facebook Live on June 5th. It was fun reading the story with you, answering your questions, and giving out fun prizes! I am so grateful for all your enthusiasm and support through the process. It is a true joy to share my stories with kids who enjoy them, and it was a joy being able to share that with all of you as well! If you missed the event, here is the link to the recording. You can also check out some of the highlights below!
Author Q&A – a sneak peek of a few of the questions and answers:
- What inspired you to write this book? (5:55 in the video)
- “The biggest inspiration for writing this book was my daughter. About a year ago we started having discussions on the importance of the language we use and why they matter, why kind words matter, why thinking of the words we use and what they mean matter. Through that discussion, like any small child, she kept asking the question ‘why?’ and I finally answered, ‘because words are magic’ and I gave the description of how our words can be magic. I explained how they can magically impact someone else when we say them or ourselves in our heads. That helped the lightbulb go off and helped her understand why they are so important and why they matter. I then sat down at my computer that night and the poem flowed, and started to think it could be a book!”
- What has been different from this publishing/writing process than with your first book? (9:20 in the video)
- “The process between this book and the first book has been very different. The first book came from a magical bedtime story I told my daughter one night. She went through a phase where she wanted to take a break from reading books and have us tell her stories. One night, I told her the story that I based Saving the Earth Stone and she loved it so much that she said ‘Mom, I really think you should make this into a book, that was a great story, I think other kids would like it’. So that night I wrote it down to the best of my ability and thought maybe someday I could write a book. Then she brought it up another night and said ‘Mom, are you going to write that story you told me?’. I thought, ok, I’ve written it down, but thought, I don’t know how to write a book or publish it. So, I called my mom, told her the story of how it came to be and she helped me self-publish. Once it was self-published, I showed it to a few friends who had connections and I had a couple interviews that that is how I met my publisher, Halo Publishing. That is how the first book process came to be, the second book was very different because I had a publisher, I understood the process, I knew how to reach out to illustrators, but with each process I had many learnings. That’s the magic of writing a book, you learn a lot about yourself, the process, and I have had others reach out to me and I like to share that with them so they can feel empowered that they can write a book too.”
- Check out more Q&A that is available on the Virtual Book Launch video!
Prizes – an overview of the giveaway prizes and winners:
- Coloring Contest Winner – Luke (age 8), MN
- Attendance Prize – Pam, ND
- Post Engagement – Donna, SC
