Bogart, author of Hilo Girls, the Firefighting Pilot and Hilo Girls, the Law Enforcement Pilot.

Thank you, Cody, for appearing on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors podcast.

I'd just like to mention to the audience a bit why I'm excited about talking to Cody.

My grandfather was a firefighter, and although he was never a pilot, he.

He was a firefighter.

And it's neat because one of my favorite pictures of him is the city that he was a firefighter in.

They had bought the latest and greatest fire truck.

And one of his proudest moments, you can tell he's actually operating the fire truck, and they've got a picture of him, and he's so visible and has such a big smile about operating this new fire truck.

So that was cool.

So it's neat to have.

Have a connection and understand the firefighting profession.

Yeah, very much.

Cody, if we could just start by you giving us just a brief glimpse into your military background as a Black Hawk helicopter aviator.

Absolutely.

I started in the United States army in 1997, but I didn't actually become a pilot until 2004 when I went off to flight school.

My intended track was to be an Apache attack helicopter pilot, but the unit I was in was switching to Medevac, Blackhawks and Chinooks.

And so I was given a choice.

Which one would you like?

And I chose the air ambulance mission.

So that was my primary mission while I was in the military.

Part of that is we do a lot of long lines, so we did some schedco work.

I did do some buckets and utility work with that, but primarily just landing on seeing the pickup patients.

Wow, fantastic.

I think we can get a sense from the name of your company, Hilo Girls, and your books, we can tell what your inspiration was.

But tell us about how did it all get started?

Were you still in the military when you got the inspiration, or did it come after?

Yeah, it came after for sure, and a coupling of a few different things.

So I have my daughter who's now 14, but when she was young, I would try to find helicopter books because I wanted to share with her what I was doing.

And by this point, I was a civilian, but still in the aviation sector, still flying helicopters.

And I wanted to share the joy of helicopters with them.

She would always come to my work.

She saw the helicopter, she got to sit in them.

So I just really wanted to share more stories with her.

And I couldn't find a lot, so I found that just a little frustrating.

As time passes, I'm one of those who.

My mind just continually is on full throttle all the time.

When it does take time to lay down and go to sleep, it takes me about an hour and a half.

Once I finally decompress and get all the thoughts of the day and about what's going to happen the next day out of my head, I still just would lay there.

So I would tell myself some stories.

And that's where the Hilo girls started.

And I would just tell myself these stories about these missions all these cool chicks were doing, and it would help me fall asleep.

Fast forward a little bit.

My son, who is now seven.

But when he was born, once again, I would try to find helicopter books.

And there were a lot more books.

However, I just didn't find them all to be accurate to what we do in the mission.

And they weren't safety forward and often didn't feature a female aviator.

So I just went conversation with my husband.

I just have this visceral pull and this passion and kind of talking with him about it.

And he's.

And he's a numbers guy, so he's like, all right, let's sit down, let's talk about the numbers.

And we made a go decision.

And I just reached out to a publisher and honestly, the first publisher that I reached out to that I went with, and by whatever grace, they're perfect for me.

I was very blessed.

I did research before I reached out to anyone.

So it wasn't like I just went completely blind, but.

And it.

So that's how the whole fruition just my frustrations about finding books for my own children again, wanting books that were accurate to what we do on helicopter missions.

And as an aviation safety expert, I wanted them to be safety forward.

And I really like the collaborative team effort that's behind the book series.

And they're interactive for the kids as they read through them.

Tell us a bit about you were in the medical field with your aviation.

And so I'm very curious on how did you get to firefighting while in the military?

I did do some bucket work with a unit I was in, and we did sling loads, bucket work, things like that.

When I was in the civilian world, flying law enforcement, we would help the.

The firefighters we would call fires.

We never did any bucket work.

But I think for me, the choice to start with a firefighting book was because I knew I wouldn't nitpick it too much.

And I've come to the second book and now the third book, which is Air Ambulance, that'll be out later this year early next year.

I'm nitpicking a lot and I knew I would do that as much with the firefighting book.

So it was really just a nice, more simplistic one for me to start out with.

Still accurate to the mission.

I still do.

I still was familiar with the with it.

I think that's why I started with that one.

It is interesting.

I don't know why I did, but it just resonated with me and it again, that visceral pull just started with the firefighting one.

Good for you.

Tell us a little bit because I we've introduced your second book.

You've also introduced your third book coming up.

But I love your branding.

So Hilo Girls, tell us about the inspiration behind that because your third book's still going to be a Heel Girls brand.

Yep.

So every book will be a Hilo Girls.

Okay.

And then there's the subtitle.

So the first one's the firefighting pilots.

The second is the law enforcement pilot.

The third is the air ambulance pilot.

So all those subtitles will change, but the whole branding, everyone will be Helo girls.

Okay.

And I really have a strong connection with you because a lot of the children's book authors that I talk to use their own personal name as their brand.

In our case, because my oldest granddaughter is the co author of our first book, actually, and the co author of our second book with our middle granddaughter.

We have a brand.

So our brand is Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear.

And our second book is called hi Jinks at the Big Head Folk Music Festival.

But it's under the brand of Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear.

That's our intention is to do very similar to what you're doing.

Fantastic.

Good for you.

I noticed on and I want to talk a little bit about your book business plan because I noticed on your website you have a catchphrase empowering young minds one book at a time.

I just love that one of the first things they say in branding is you need a catchphrase.

So tell us about your catchphrase and how that came about and it ties into Hilo Girls.

Yeah, I'm in the industry.

I've been in this industry for 20 years.

I go to numerous events based off of my consulting business that I do.

And there's always been a shortage of pilots and a shortage of maintainers and things like that.

And all these industry organizations reach out to kids in colleges and high schools.

And that's absolutely wonderful.

And I'm so glad that they do.

But if you really want.

I look at my son who is all in on aviation.

He knows he wants to be a pilot.

He just absolutely loves it.

He breathes it every day.

Like he's building aircraft carriers in our living room.

He's flying jets around.

It's almost every day.

If you plant that seed early with kids, chances are you're going to have a lover of the industry forever.

Right.

No matter what industry it is, I think if it has trains or cooking or whatever, plant that seed and then see what they latch onto so you can help nurture them.

Right.

I want to empower their minds with what they like.

So that's where the empowerment piece came specifically for me again.

Helicopters, aviation.

So that I want to empower that industry.

And yeah, going one book at a time, that's where that kind of culminated together.

That's fantastic.

Because you know what, it's interesting.

Myself and it was my oldest granddaughter, we did all these adventures in the Rocky Mountains.

We did tens and tens of these adventures.

And eventually it was her young mind that said, papa, we gotta stop taking just pictures.

We need to take these pictures and create a children's book.

That ended up starting our first book, which has led to 38 books that we've written.

That's awesome.

We don't have all in print yet.

Unless I become a multimillionaire, it's going to take a while.

But our whole idea is eventually to bring them all to life.

Right now I've got my other four grandchildren involved and we're actually doing the audiobooks before we actually are bringing the print book to market.

So it's fun.

They're engaged and they, like.

I've got a couple of microphones set up and they could come over and they read the books.

We put on a teleprompter and they.

And it's just.

It's fun.

It's a lot of fun.

Yeah.

But back empowerment piece.

You're teaching them a skill, right?

You're teaching them marketing, you're teaching them technology, you're teaching them one.

Not to be shy.

Put yourself out there.

These are valuable skills they'll take for their whole life.

For sure.

I couldn't agree with them or Cody.

And my middle granddaughter said, I use her voice as introducing the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors podcast.

When you listen to the intro music and then a voice comes on, that's her voice.

And now she's gotten accustomed to doing this.

And she said to me, can I interview you?

So she wants to interview Me like I'm interviewing other people.

Yeah.

So we're going to do that pretty soon.

So you can have her pop in and do cameos as well.

Like her face would pop in on us right now and she could be like, hey Cody, you gotta please.

The one thing I noticed too, and I just love it, Cody, because I'm get I getting a strong sense about you already.

And one thing I loved at the back of your book, you talk about the mission and so I thought that was cool how you bring it all.

I think it was right at the back of the book.

I mean I definitely talk about mission a few times.

Tell us a little bit about that too because I love that piece.

How you wrapped up the book and you went through a checklist and talked about the mission.

So again, being safety forward in aviation, before we go do a mission, we should do some sort of pre flights, right.

So they pre flight the aircraft and then they go do a crew brief.

Right.

And then I wanted to bring in.

Granted we don't always have air traffic control in the room, but it is something that we discuss.

I wanted the young readers to realize before we go on these big missions or even small missions, we should take a step back for a second and go through a checklist whether whatever it might be, the FAA has an acronym called pave.

So that's why I use that in the book.

The pilot aircraft environment and external pressures.

And I want the children to think about those things not just in aviation, but they can apply to their everything they do during the day.

Getting on my scooter let me think I'm the pilot.

Do I have my helmet?

Is it rainy outside?

Is there.

Are there rocks that I could.

Whatever it might be.

But I want kids to think about that because I challenge my own children in that manner.

And then as they go out in the they fly this mission, I want the reader who I refer to as the observer in the books to realize that they're part of that team.

And that's super important to me, especially as a pilot.

I am nothing without a fueler putting fuel in the aircraft, a maintainer who's keeping that aircraft up to industry standards to make sure I'm saving, able to get home air traffic control to help navigate me safely if I need assistance and stuff like that.

So it takes a lot for us to do our mission safely.

I'm not just out there by myself at all.

And then after we do these missions, we need to come back, right.

And we need to recalibrate and say, hey, did Everything go as we planned and if it didn't, fine, we adjust and we get better for the next one.

So that's why when they come back, they do a little checklist that they go through with.

Did everything go accordingly?

What did we see?

And I wanted that for correlation for children too, because I normally do that with my own children when I would read books with them.

Hey, what did we just read?

What was your favorite part?

Hey, what happened in that page?

Remember, they had some issue or whatever.

It was just for correlation.

So doing that here and then the very end of the book is, hey, thanks for being with us today and we look forward to the next mission together.

And that will lead them into the next book.

Good for you.

I noticed I was looking at your website.

I actually have it up on my iPad here.

But I noticed you are very active on your events page.

No, I've got to tell you, Cody, I have seen events pages and most of the time there might be one or two if there is any at all.

And I thought, wow, Cody is a busy lady.

And so tell us about why you're so active with events, including how you're using them to promote your book and are they a good source of revenue for your book?

If you want something, just ask for it and if they tell you no, then you're in the same place you are.

So I have no fear of reaching out to whomever I desire for whatever I'm thinking.

My crazy brain and a lot of stuff usually works out right now on my events page.

I'm grateful that my books are in Barnes and Noble and Barnes and Noble reached out to my publisher for some local author events here in central Florida.

So right now, like I think the top four major stuff is we're moving into summer, so camera reading program.

So a lot of my events right now are the top four Barnes and Noble, if I'm not mistaken.

I'm also blessed to be in an industry that continually has air shows.

Right.

So I being able to go to events like Oshkosh or helicopter specific industry events, women in aviation, other types of organizations.

There always seems to be something and I'm always, I reach out and I make myself available for those things.

I just want to point out to the listening audience that's an important thing to realize that generally your books have a theme and so you need to think outside the store box right outside the store, whether it's like a bookstore and think about where else could it make sense to sell and market my book.

So thank you for sharing that.

Because that's important for people to think.

About that and at least for me, because I'm also.

I work in this industry.

I think I'm a little bit more creative with that than some might be.

But I will say the work of making a book is actually quite easy.

It's everything that comes after that book is published that takes the real work.

And I'm glad you said that, Cody, because that's one thing.

I've interviewed so many children's book authors now, and one thing I realize is that once you have a finished book, it's just the beginning, not the end.

Because people end up wondering, what do I do for distribution?

What do I do for sales?

What do I do for marketing?

All drive itself.

Oh, and it's just amazing.

And so that's what I was asking you about, because I'm trying to give people insights into where to go to not only promote their book, but to actually generate sales to pay for their investment into their children's book business.

When you do these Barnes and Noble events or any children's book reading events, how do you go about selling books at those events?

Yeah, so when I'm at a specific event, and it really depends on the type of the event, sometimes I'll have the organizer of the event will purchase books beforehand and they'll distribute.

I'll sign and distribute them to their guests.

So that's.

That story is nice.

It's already organized ahead of time.

Usually if it's on site sales, I use square.

So I only take card and I just use that on my.

It's right on my cell phone.

It's super easy.

They just touch a card to the end of my cell phone, Transaction's done.

It can send them a receipt instantly.

Super easy.

I absolutely love that method.

And I don't think square takes too much.

It is what it is.

You write that off on your taxes at the end of the year, you're not having to worry about cash on hand.

And if people want to pay cash, just say, hey, it has.

It has to be exact.

I'm sorry, I don't.

The nice thing about it, I also have a square account and a couple of things happened.

And before we got on our show live here, we have a brand new account.

And of course they're taking us into three of their stores, but they have a central warehouse, so we had to set up a brand new account.

So we're setting that up on Square.

So square will automatically, once we produce the invoice, it'll go to them.

And then it'll keep track also of the day's before they have to pay the bill because we set them up on that 30 days, so that kind of thing.

But thank you for sharing that again.

That square, if you're going to a farmer's market or you're going to a Christmas market or whatever square is quite the neat thing to have because like you said, they just have to touch it with their credit card and automatically you generate a sale and they get their receipt and they walk away with their product.

And it does my sales reports for me, my sales tax, all that.

And I can change based off the state where I'm at, the county where I'm at least for, for tax purposes.

And then obviously the, when they're in the major stores, that's all handled through, through them.

I noticed on your website and if you want to expand on this, please feel free to do that.

So I noticed you have primarily two revenue sources on your website.

Selling your books and your online store with some pretty cool merchandise with your Halo Girl logo, which I love.

So it's such a catchy little thing.

Tell us a little bit about each of those revenue sources and what's your primary revenue source?

Yeah, so when I do things, I really try to stay local.

I'm a small business owner.

I'm a woman owned and veteran owned small business owner.

So I really try to work with organizations that are the same.

Interesting enough, my publisher is here in West Palm Beach, Florida, so it's just a couple hours south of me.

Now granted, not local, but there's no major publishers here.

My T shirts are a local small business.

My stickers are an online company but based in the US So I try to put those in considerations.

I work with some helmet companies on some things that are local, just a few minutes from my house.

So I really try to support local businesses, which I love.

That being said, I noticed your book is printed in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong.

Yeah, yeah.

And I, and I listen again, I think all of us, whether we're in Canada or the United States, it tends to be the cost of print tend to be higher and so you have to look at that aspect of it.

So I'm guessing you've printed in Hong Kong because of the pricing?

I have no idea.

And it's all handed through my publisher.

Okay.

So my publishers based here in Florida, they do all, they do everything.

So they, they do the printing, the binding, the distribution, they do all of that.

Okay.

I just send them a manuscript.

I work with the illustrators on their side to curate the page.

Okay.

So I'm very blessed in that regard.

Before we jump into publishing, then, I just want to come back to your revenue model again.

And the only reason being is I want children's book authors to understand that they're a small business, as you just alluded to.

And a lot of times I think what happens is when someone creates a product which is their children's book, they still don't think of themselves as a business.

But in essence, if you put a retail price on it or you sell it.

Yeah, you're a business.

Sometimes I'm wondering if they did their numbers to understand how many books they actually have to sell.

Actualized.

Yep.

And so that's what I'm curious about is about your revenue sources because you've gone, not only do you have your books, you also have other merchandise that you sell.

And I'm sure that's to help you supplement your book business.

Is that correct?

Yeah, absolutely.

And that's where the.

My T shirts really help.

Okay.

Yeah.

They're my biggest profit margin and I sell a lot of them.

It gets.

The T shirts are nice.

I actually sell a lot of the adult T shirts, which I think is great.

Yes.

Those in the industry like the T shirts, like the simplicity of the logo.

And then obviously when people are buying a book for a child and they see I have you shirts, they love that.

So they'll buy a T shirt and a book.

And again, the profit margins for me on the T shirts are great.

So.

And I'm sure that helps you with your book business.

Offset the.

Yep.

Offset the book.

Please buy some T shirts.

You know what, you've got such a great logo, such a great name.

I'm hoping we could help you get the word out even more because.

What a nice job.

Let's talk about your publishing approach.

Each one of us has a different publishing approach.

Some of us are indie publishers.

Some of us are self published.

Some of us use hybrid.

Some of us are traditionally published.

You've been talking about Blue Balloon books.

Tell us about that.

Are they a hybrid book publisher?

What type of publisher are they?

Yeah.

So again, I didn't.

I did reach out to only one publisher, but I did do research ahead of time.

I'd researched, just as you alluded to self publishing, what all was encompassed with that hybrid publishing, which I really had no idea about.

Then I started researching.

The more I found out when I looked at.

Looking at trying to get an agent so I can get with a full publisher, like Scholastic, for example, and what all that entailed.

And I really kept going back to hybrid publishing, self publishing, way more than I wanted to do.

I don't want to learn about printing, binding, distribution.

I run a consulting firm.

I'm a full time student.

I have three kids.

I'm.

I just didn't want to do all that for sure.

I didn't want to look at agent and I didn't want a company to take the majority of my proceeds of my creative work.

So I really liked the.

The hybrid piece.

It's my book and that's what I like.

I love with the hybrid publishing.

And of course that would be that way with self publishing because it's my book, hybrid publishing.

So for them, again, I just provide a manuscript.

They have.

I could bring my own illustrator.

I didn't have one on hand.

They have a whole bunch of illustrators and they sent me like a portfolio book and they're like, hey, which artwork do you like best?

Was meeting your vision.

I picked out four or five and I was like, please have them draw a female pilot in a helicopter.

And we just.

I whittled it down to Barbara who does my illustrations and she's amazing.

And then.

So when it comes to the book.

Doing your third book.

Yeah.

I hope she stays with me for life.

I love her.

That's how I feel about our illustrator.

Yeah.

I live my life through safety, standardization and structure.

And so changing something would really put me off kilter.

But.

Right.

So then I work with the publisher and I would say on this page, I want this and this is.

I want this on this page and this on this page.

And this should be like that.

And so we go back and forth sometimes on technical aspects.

We especially did on the law enforcement book because of the FLIR system and things like that.

Then Barbara puts her spin on it.

And if we need to adjust some things, we do just to make sure it's not accurate because she's not in the helicopter industry.

But other than that, it's been wonderful with hybrid publishing.

Fantastic.

Does Blue Balloon help you with the editing?

So they do have editors on hand.

I don't really need it.

Okay.

So you.

I.

And that's one thing great about hybrid publishing is you can say I need this and I need that.

Yeah, yeah.

If you want help with marketing, you can add that to your cart if you want this or that.

I would say they might offer a couple edited suggestions like, hey, we recommend this here or there, but they don't really have to full edit my books at least.

Okay.

Blue Balloon Helps you also on the sales and marketing side and distribution.

So they do.

Oh, yeah.

All the distribution.

So they all.

The only reason I ask that is that, of course, as.

As I've talked to more and more children's book authors, a lot of them are using hybrid services.

But a lot of the hybrid services so far that I've been introduced to through these children's book authors, they take you to finished product only once you have the book in hand and they get you set up on Amazon and ingramsparks.

The rest of it's up to you.

So you have to handle the sales and marketing and completely on your own.

Yeah.

Nope.

So they get it into Walmart, Target again, Barnes and Noble Books, a million.

It's already over there.

Depending on sales, the stores might not carry them in store until sales pick up.

Right.

That's just how it is.

On demand, on the need to have them in the store.

Okay.

But they sell them online, so they handle all that.

And then for marketing, again, if you want to pay for marketing pieces or not, I think I pay for five marketing pieces after.

But even Barnes and Noble came to the publisher about doing this piece, and they're like, did a whole introduction piece and got that rolling.

So it's.

I reached out to them all the time about crazy stuff.

My publisher probably gets frustrated with me, but I love them.

They're so good.

I.

I've been extremely happy.

And again, whomever is looking to get into this type of work, do your research ahead of time.

A lot of it.

Yes.

And so when you do reach out to someone, hopefully you have the same wonderful experience I have.

You have two, primarily two formats, if I'm not mistaken.

You've got like a Kindle version.

Right.

An ebook, and then you've also got the hardcover.

I noticed you don't have a soft cover.

Is that correct?

Y.

Correct.

And that's a choice that you made with Blue Balloon?

Yeah, that's my decision.

Yep.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Yep.

If I wanted a soft cover, they.

They would have.

I could have added that to the cart.

Okay.

Good to know.

And so why did you not go with the soft cover?

I like hard covers.

Kids make things tear things up and rip things up and paint just gets messed up.

And I just know my kids are more hardy and durable with hardcover, so I.

I just love the feel of them.

No.

And that.

No.

And that's why I ask.

Is so that people understand that every one of us makes a decision for different reasons.

It's nice to know why you did that.

Let's talk a bit about your website development because you've got a nice website.

Did you create your website before or after you brought your first book to market?

I have my business website that I created and I've had that for a number of years now.

And I believe, I mean it almost happened like almost together when the book came out.

You probably now like us.

I have to tell you.

Of course, if you go to our website, which is Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear.com, we have used a lot of the artwork from our first and part of our second book to help create an engaging website.

Obviously you used illustrations from your books to help you with your website.

I'm extremely strategic.

So before I start anything I will know the end, what I want in the end.

So I'm not going to go into my end goal right here with he little girls, but I know what my end goal is.

Okay.

And so let's just start with book one.

Right?

And that's what leads to that strategic end goal.

So having a website is part of that progression.

I use WIX for my website.

I knew I wanted the website to look different than my current business one.

So I chose to reach out to a company locally who does website development.

The gentleman who runs that company suggested I use a different platform than wix.

And I was like, hey, I really like wix.

It's inexpensive.

I can, it's user friendly to me because I'm familiar with it, right?

And he's like, all right.

He's giving me an opportunity.

Maybe they've done a lot of updates since I've been in their last and he hadn't been in there a lot since they've done a shop.

Right, the store.

Cause he was thinking about was it Shopify or GoDaddy or other stuff.

There's lots of them for sure.

Yeah.

And so he got into WIX and he's hey, they've done a lot of really good updates.

And he's like, all right.

He's we'll do wix because.

Cause this is what you want.

He was great to work with.

And I just, I was like, I want it, I want it modern and sleek.

I don't like clutter.

And so he just rolled with it and he did a great job.

It's nice because that's again for people to know that there's all kinds of different options available.

And to you and to your point, this software is so rapidly changing so that if you used a service in the past and you thought oh my God, it's clunky or I don't get it or whatever.

Don't be afraid to check.

Yeah.

And have another look because boy, I'll tell you every time you turn around.

Actually I don't know about you, but sometimes I think, do you have to make another update?

Like it's almost like Apple.

I don't know if you have Apple products, there's constantly an update coming at you and I'm still trying to learn the last update and another one comes at you.

So it's interesting.

Just seems to be the way technology is going now.

Yeah.

And it's neat with wix for me.

Working with a gentleman.

He created the website, it was a one time deal and I do all the maintenance on my website now.

So there's a change on the page, I do it, I add my events, they come off on schedule.

It's easy.

So Cody, you're the distributor of your shop.

When people place an order, you're the one putting the order together and mailing it out.

Yeah.

So if they purchase books from my website.

Yes, I have books on hand.

I try to encourage people to come through me personally as opposed to anywhere else only because one my helps my profit margins.

But I can actually sign the books and make them out to whomever you'd like them to.

It can be more personalized for sure.

But yes, I do all my books, my T shirts, everything.

When I was looking at your website, I was wondering, I didn't see a bundle pricing.

Have you ever thought about doing a bundle?

I have.

Oh, okay.

So I.

And I'm not interested in a bundle at this point.

Okay.

Potentially when book three comes out, I'll look at a bundle.

The only reason I'm asking is I thought, you know, what with such a cool logo, with such a cool name, you could almost print a bundle box fairly inexpensively but still look cool.

And put a, a bundle of products together so that somebody says, okay, they come in, they push one button and for 39.95 or whatever, they got this magic bundle coming in.

Yep.

Okay.

Yeah, I'm thinking it's in the works.

I just, I'm not ready to do that just yet.

I always think about motivation with the children's book author.

I know that with your background and Hilo girls, but was there a specific person or event that you said, oh my goodness, I can be a children's book author or I want to be a children's book author.

Who was that?

Or what was that event that kind of motivated you to take charge and jump In.

Yeah, I don't know if I have that type of specific event.

I just love helicopters so much that I want to share them.

Okay.

And I want to share the joy.

Maybe I just think back to my own children.

I have pictures of my daughter in front of helicopters, tons of helicopters on a flight line, and just wanting to share that joy with her.

And when my son looks up and points at a helicopter and would say something, I want him to know where that helicopter is going, what it's doing, and who it's helping.

The recent fires in California, I want kids to know if they have to flee their home, that there are people working to save their homes and their communities.

And so I don't have a particular event.

I have this visceral in my heart and in my gut pull that is just.

It pulls at me.

I spend a lot of time on.

On this.

It's not.

It's not off the cuff.

It is very strategic, is very thoughtful.

Because you know what?

I have a cousin.

I've been up to his place a couple of times in northern Saskatchewan, northern Canada.

They have actually.

You may not get the news down in the States, but right now in Western Canada, there is fires in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba.

We're talking huge areas of forests and cities that are being threatened from forest fires.

And they're constantly posting.

They've got the helicopters going with the buckets into the water.

It's a serious thing.

And, yeah, these kids see this stuff on the news or they hear their parents talking and it's scary to them.

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you for sharing that because I'm sure all of us have a story of someone losing their home or having to leave their homes.

If you look at California, if you look at Hawaii, if you look at all the forest fires in Canada, it's just.

It's unbelievable.

It's really important to take some of the.

I don't want to say mystique, so people have a better understanding.

Talk to us about.

Now that you've got two books about to have a third one, and each book has a different main character.

Talk to us about character development.

So take us from your first book to your second book.

And I'm assuming your third book will have a different main character.

Yep.

Yeah.

I want young.

The young kids to see themselves.

And so it's hard to do that with just one.

One character.

I do often get asked because if you look at Abby has a little bit of blonde strawberry hair, everyone always asks, like, oh, is this you?

I'm like, no, it's not me.

I definitely did not want the character to be me, and some people find that surprising.

But the book's not about me.

Might be about my love for helicopters, but it's not about me.

But I will say my daughter, she's blonde hair, blue eyed, and she took a selfie and she had some sort of Disney filter on it, and it changed her hair so it looked more blonde on the top.

And did that fade to red and it changed her eyes to green.

And I just thought it was a cute picture.

And so I sent that to the illustrator and I was like, I want that first character to look something like this, not Disney.

I didn't want the Disney look, though.

I wanted to get away from the Disney look.

And so that's where she came up with Abby.

And why the name Abby?

I have literally no idea.

I just.

I just liked it.

I like the name Abigail.

I like that you can shorten it.

So kids could say Abigail, but it could be shortened for an easier name.

When my first granddaughter was going to be born, my daughter was trying to pick a name and she shared the name and it was going to be Abby, but it actually ended up being Kira.

But what was interesting is if you look at the at our book, it's Caboose, where the K stands for Kira.

Okay, so this adventurer's book is actually Kira.

And inside the book, there's.

She goes on these adventures with her papa, which happens to be me.

And I end up being a bear, but I'm not called Papa Rick in the story.

What we did is we actually had visualized our character, but it took a trip to San Francisco and we went to one of those plushie stores or build a bear stores.

And that's where we said, oh, my goodness, that's it.

And we had the plushie made, brought it back home, I took a picture and I sent that picture to the illustrator and said, this is the main character.

We need to build our story around your bear this.

And so that in essence, similar to what you did, the picture of your daughter said, can you do this with Abby?

That's what we did with Caboose.

Yeah.

And I'm also strategic.

And it only happened by chance on Abby.

But I've learned my lesson.

I'm also now strategic on naming conventions moving forward.

So Abby I found means look to the sky.

So that actually is a cool name for Hilo girls.

The second book is the Law Enforcement Pilot.

And this is Selma.

So what I like about Selma is it means peace and safety.

So being a law Enforcement pilot.

Having the name Peace and safety is super important.

And I also wanted what I like about the name Selma.

When you think about different cultures, you can have a name that could only apply to the upper echelon of a certain culture or a lower echelon.

So I really wanted to pick a name that could resonate across the spectrum in certain groups.

But I also wanted it to.

Selma resonates with the Hispanic culture, a Brazilian culture, Colombian, so Spanish.

I just really wanted something that was really broad and could reach more children.

That's how Selma came along.

And then for book three is Zuri, which is an eastern African name from Kenya, and it means beautiful.

And I'm very excited about her.

In fact, I even talked about her in the very back of this book, which was.

Been in the works.

It's been printed for a while, but so I'm really thoughtful.

Even in book four, I already have the name picked out and what she's going to look like again for her culture and what her name will mean for her job.

So very strategic on what they do in their book.

What culture are they?

And does the name match what they do?

And can it resonate with the broad spectrum of their culture?

And it's interesting you should say that because we've been strategic, too.

Not as strategic as you have.

What I say by that is that caboose.

We pick caboose for a specific reason.

And it all comes down to the caboose has disappeared from the end of a train.

We've got a full generation of children that have no idea what a caboose is.

They've never seen one.

And so that was part of our idea, was to bring the word caboose back and have some fun with it.

And for us also, because we're in the Rocky Mountains, it's all about adventure, outdoors and the wildlife.

In our books, we have characters, people and wildlife and indigenous people all living together in a community.

So in a way, strategic like you've done, and I'm glad you're sharing this because it gets other aspiring children's book authors to think about, oh, I can be strategic in the way I think about how I'm going to write my book.

So thank you.

Yeah, I think it's almost a necessity if you just do something off the cuff, and it depends what you want to do with it.

If I want a branding series, I'm.

I'm not just looking for one book and then a different type of book here and a different type of book here.

I'm looking for A collection.

And so I think strategy is necessary for that.

If it is just one book and they're individualized, maybe strategy isn't just as necessary when it comes to that type of stuff.

Now it will be for distribution and your selling points, but other than that.

So I think it all depends also, what is your long term goal with it?

For sure.

Why are you doing it?

I love you sharing your character development because it's very important that people understand that you can be strategic in the way you think of your characters.

Talk to us a little bit with each book and how you shared it.

Talk to us about the themes for each book.

Tell us about how you came up with the idea for each theme.

Yeah.

So helicopters are so dynamic.

Right.

They can be used for any type of mission, really.

Just a couple of different pieces of equipment here and there.

But I want kids to understand how diverse helicopters are.

So I thought let's break it down.

And that's where each book is a separate mission.

The first one, firefighting, law enforcement, air ambulance.

I have about 20 titles planned on specific things that each that a helicopter can do.

And again, it's only 24 pages, so it's not a lot of time and space to really immerse yourself in it.

So it's just a quick snapshot.

Hey, look at this.

Helicopter is doing this thing and they're doing it safely and they're doing it as a team.

Let's go to the next mission.

Was there anything in your life or as you described, how are you coming up with these ideas for themes?

You said you have about 20 of them now.

How did you choose firefighting first and then law enforcement, then air ambulance.

What's triggering all of this with these themes?

Yeah.

So the first four books are your main missions in helicopters.

And so as we progress through the line, a lot more of this stuff will be more of the fun stuff.

Let's say heli based jumping.

Right.

Most people won't know that you could do that with a helicopter, but a lot of people do.

So there'll be those potentially down the line.

Main four facets.

One of the main things in in the Rocky Mountains besides heli skiing and stuff like that is actually taking tourists out.

And one of my first experiences in a helicopter was actually I rode up front in a helicopter that had a bubble floor, so a clear floor.

And they flew us right into the face of the mountains.

And I just thought, oh my goodness.

And then you have a totally different feel and you're able to see glaciers and it was pretty Incredible.

And I see especially in the Rocky Mountains, helicopter tourism is a big thing taking people up.

It is, Yep.

It's phenomenal.

So there you go.

I hope.

Hopefully that's one of your 20.

You're in the 20s.

Yep.

Okay.

Yeah.

I like the public service side.

I flew law enforcement, air ambulance, so this had to be up in the forefront.

And I noticed central teaching.

I want to talk to you a bit about that because I noticed you had a couple of acronyms like you said.

You had pave, but you also had pilot and you also had steam.

Talk to us about why it's important to you with that Central teaching or lessons through your books.

I like the correlation.

When I read with my children, I want to make sure they can understand what they're reading.

The books are for ages 4 to 8, but I'll tell you, it's for kids who are older too.

There's some.

There are good technical terms in there.

There's technical concepts I think kids should always be learning.

So I really like that.

And then I work with an award winning STEM teacher on curriculum development.

For each book, I don't know if you saw on the website, people can download it for free.

If for book one, the firefighting pilots, there's a curriculum that kids can learn to read.

A compass, tell cardinal direction where the wind is coming from, and they actually build a wind sock.

Yeah, it's really neat.

I've tested it at schools in Pennsylvania, Kansas, California, and here in Florida.

I'm hoping at the next school year here in the county in which I live, it'll be in all the public schools.

So it's.

That's a lot of work as well.

In the background that I'm doing, Megan and I are starting work on the law enforcement curriculum.

So the students will build night vision goggles, which I'm really excited about.

Wow.

Each lesson plan will have a history section.

So if you download the first one, you'll see that there's just a little brief history section on like women in aviation is helicopter specific.

Things like that.

Again, if you plant that seed early, kids will love the industry.

And I don't mean they have to be a pilot.

Maybe they love that.

Maybe they love the ground law enforcement officer that's in the book.

They're like, oh, man, I do want to be a police officer because I could work with airplane guys.

I don't want to fly a helicopter or I want to be a ground firefighter.

I'm not interested in flying the helicopter, but I didn't realize I could Work with them.

It's just a great way to.

To show the whole team collaborative and throw some education at it.

Absolutely.

And again, I love that part.

On our website, we try and teach the art of creating a children's book.

Create your own story, do your own illustrations.

And recently I did a school visit and my audience was a little older than I normally talk to.

And so the teacher had me talk about the art of storytelling because they were 12 year olds, so they wanted to know how did we put the book together, how did we write it, what was the process?

And then alarm them.

They love drawing so they didn't realize that there's a whole industry where they can be illustrators and illustrate all their lives as a career.

Yeah, it's interesting to me that you talk about something like that because I never thought about myself as a writer and I really think having children for me helped because that.

It's really just how I would talk or teach to my own children.

For example, when I wrote the original script for the Firefighting Pilots, it was.

I made changes.

I would read it to my son, I'm like, oh, I just realized I changed a whole sentence so he could understand it better.

Or I changed my tone and my inflection to make it more exciting for him or to get his involvement more.

So I would go back and make.

Changes to my manuscript I was telling you about.

I have my grandchildren reading the audiobooks of our stories and every time they read a new story, we end up changing the words because that's not what a 4 to 10 year old would say.

And so it's nice that you're able to share with your children or for me, I get to share with my grandchildren and make sure that the book speaks to your target audience.

Tell us a little bit more about your writing process because you sound like you're a busy lady.

So I'm thinking give us some insights into your development and writing process for your children's book.

Yeah, you're probably going to laugh at this and not think it's true, but I.

It takes me a day to write the book.

Again, I mentioned I don't fall asleep easily.

So I've been telling myself this story for years.

So when it came to put pen and paper, the hardest part was putting pen to paper.

But I did, I sat down in a chair over here and I just started writing.

And once I did that, I was like, I had a good flow and I went to the computer and started typing it up and I did it in a day and I Turned it into the publisher.

And you know what?

I don't laugh at all, because I've heard a story.

I interviewed a lady from Staten island, and she actually woke up in the middle of the night and she had her iPhone and she dictated her whole book from a dream.

It just popped into her and she.

And her.

And then her husband woke up and said, what do you.

What did you just do?

And she said, I just wrote a.

Children just.

Yeah, So I think what.

Whatever works for you.

It's just nice.

Thank you for sharing that.

So that people who might be aspiring authors realize you don't have to spend 14 months or something writing a children's book.

Sometimes it just flows as easy as you're talking about.

However, it seems to me that you did have.

It was simmering in your brain for a little while.

Yeah.

And I'm definitely blessed that I'm writing about a topic that I've lived.

I have practical application in this.

And I'm not off the cuff writing some sort of dramatic or theatric or I'm not writing about dragons that I've never seen or dinosaurs.

I've been.

I'm writing about something I have practical application with.

So that definitely helps the process.

So you have the helicopter background and the aviation background, but have you been in law enforcement?

Yeah, no, I flew law enforcement.

And the medical side of it.

Yeah, I flew air ambulance.

Okay.

And then what?

I.

Sorry, what was the theme of the fourth book?

Agricultural.

Oh, okay.

So have you.

So I've never been an ag pilot, but one of my first.

My first clients is an ag pilot, and I did a lot of work with them.

Okay.

So I'm familiar with all the missions.

And then it's nice that you're drawing from this extensive background and turning it into children's books.

Because if I said, oh, I know a firefighting pilot, or I know a law enforcement helicopter pilot, I don't think the first thing someone would say to me, oh, Art, children's book author.

Right.

That would be the first thing that pops into someone's head as I'm trying to describe you now, because we know you, we can say that, but it's interesting.

It's definitely a fun side.

Research.

Now, I know you said you had the background, but it seems to me you've done some research also in putting your books together.

Tell us a little bit about.

Yeah, I think research for me is basically, again, the process of writing a book.

Not necessarily writing the book, but we already talk about who to use for publishing and things like that research.

And then for me, when it comes.

To the characters only have five to a thousand words.

So you got to make sure every word counts.

Every word does count.

Yeah.

But I don't research my words.

I research the characters names because I want them to be culturally appropriate.

Okay.

I want them to look culturally appropriate.

But I don't do a lot of research on that.

I do on their names because I want that to.

To be it.

But other than that, I don't do a whole lot of research.

And part of that is though, that the acronyms are using are real acronyms.

You didn't make them up, correct?

Yeah.

I just want people to understand that you can draw from your own background and still have a lot of fun with it.

And the word Pave, the word pilot, the word steam, all are fun words.

Yeah.

And then so I write a newsletter and I try to do it once a month.

I probably need to start doing it more, but I even wrote a whole article in my newsletter about pave, where it came from.

I do a link to the FAA's website if your kid wants to learn more about it.

So that's.

Yeah, let's use what's actually out there and they could use it in real life.

I want to talk, Cody, a bit about success measurement.

So we previously discussed your book business, but I'd like to actually delve a little bit deeper into your original goals and tell us a little bit about what you had in mind when you brought your first book to the world.

What was your goal?

So I think obviously you want to sell books, right?

When you see books selling, that is.

That's a euphoric feel.

What the thing that, where I feel I could say I'm successful and I might on a grand scale, I'm probably not right, of course, but I feel successful when I'm at events and I hear a little girl yell to her mommy, she looks like me, and points at my book.

Or little a family who one day at an event that was a week long, one day they came with their two kids and they bought one of the books and they came back the next day and they're like, oh my gosh, we bought your book.

We couldn't stop reading it all night.

We want to buy the other book and we loved it.

And the girls couldn't get talking about it.

I love that.

I have friends who send me videos of their kids reading the book.

I love to hear the kids say, hilo, girls.

I love to hear that.

Hey, my, my son, this is his favorite Book.

He reads it every single night.

He.

This is the only book he asks for.

That's success.

Right.

That means that's my intended goal.

That seed has been planted.

I do find it very interesting.

Yes.

The name is Hilo Girls.

I will see certain people, just.

If they have a boy, they will walk right past me.

But it's not it.

Yes, it's called Hilo Girls.

Yes, it's Female Pilots.

But the books are about the mission.

Just happens to be awesome female pilots.

So my son loves the books.

Boys love the books.

Oh, absolutely.

I love that you're saying that because I have three granddaughters and two grandsons, and we all do the same things.

I don't treat my grandsons any differently than I treat my granddaughters.

They're all pretty adventurous.

We like to ski.

We like to bike together.

I'm a girl, and I read the Hardy Boys growing up.

Exactly, exactly.

I was thinking you had my mind going.

Because one of the best compliments we ever got was someone said to me, her son read the book.

He loved the name Caboose so much, he was running around the house for half a day yelling out caboose.

And I thought, oh, that's pretty cool.

So something that simple.

And I guess that's what I want aspiring authors to know, that it can be just as simple as.

As the feeling that Cody's describing or the feeling that I'm describing can be a big measurement of your success.

Yeah.

And that you have to think about what your success.

In all honesty, it's probably not going to be monetary success.

In all honesty.

What is your.

What's your goal with your book?

My goal is to plant the seed of aviation, specifically helicopters.

Good for you.

Let's dig into that a little deeper.

So the role of writing sounds like you're a very busy person.

So tell us about the role of being a children's book author in the grand scheme of things in your professional life.

Talk to us a bit about that.

Like how much time it takes.

No, no.

What I mean is that how you see the.

See yourself as a children's book author in the grand scheme of your life.

Seems to me it's going to go on for a long time.

Yeah, I definitely.

This is my final plan.

I think.

Who knows where the good Lord's going to take me?

But I think I've been.

I think I've been molded and prepped my whole life to do this.

I think I've been brought into the aviation industry, specifically helicopters, specifically air ambulance, to save lives, to see the change that this industry can make to be in aviation safety and to see the importance of that and to bring that thought process to young kids.

I think everything I've done in my entire life has culminated in this, and that's why I say it really feels so visceral to me.

I love helicopters.

I'm not planning on stopping any of that stuff, but I feel very pulled to continue the growth of sharing that passion and that joy with kids, to plant that seed.

And, well, you brought it to younger children and not complicated.

And that's what I love about it, to actually put it into a children's book format.

It's our responsibility, I believe my own opinion, that as we age, it's our responsibility to reach back and help pull the next generation up.

And I want to pull them up into my industry because I love it.

If they want to go somewhere else, I'll do my best to help pull them in that direction, too.

But you know what?

I'm just trying to do my reach back and uplift the next generation.

Good for you.

Besides aspiring children, what advice have you got for aspiring children's book authors?

Yeah, you can't get anywhere without taking one step forward or backwards or left or right.

You can't get anywhere without taking one step.

So do it right.

You.

You can never do anything by standing still.

So indecision in itself is a decision, right?

I don't know if you've heard that before.

If you have an interest in writing, just do some research, see where it leads you.

See what their rabbit hole looks like for you.

You'll never know until you do that.

And really, in all honesty, you hear people say it all the time.

Put pen to paper, just sit down, get your thoughts out, or grab your cell phone and start recording a conversation with yourself on your thought process and see the evolution that will come out of you, especially when it's something that really is in your heart, in your passion.

I appreciate that because that's the whole idea behind this podcast show, is having children's book authors come on the show and share their story.

And everyone thinks, well, Rick's, your questions are similar with every guest.

And I think my questions may be similar, but the answers are never the same.

And how people approach it is totally different.

And you talking about Blue Balloon Books, it's the first time I've actually talked to someone who's actually used a hybrid service.

That's gone even deeper because, like I said to you, most of the hybrid book services that I've been talking to other Book authors about.

They stop at the distribution point.

They get your book to market on Amazon through ingramsparks.

That's it.

They've now given up all their obligation.

But like you and I were talking about right at the beginning of the show, you're just beginning your journey, right?

Yeah.

Again, I just.

So much kudos for Blue Balloon.

And as I continue my journey with them, they see my long term commitment with them as well and they reward that.

So they're working on another project for me that they're doing on for free.

Good for you.

So they're rewarding our relationship as well.

So I love them.

So, encouragement for readers.

Because I always say this towards the end of the podcast show, but encouragement for readers.

Why should readers go out and purchase your books?

I think they're different.

Right.

It's a different topic than I bet most children have in their repertoire.

It's interactive.

That's one of my most favorite things about the book.

Is your child, your reader or you the reader are part of the team, right?

You are, you're part of.

You're part of that crew.

You're part of that mission.

And your involvement in it is what makes it a success as you go through the book.

It's one of my most favorite things about it.

And of course I love as a parent, we've talked about it already.

But the correlation piece, I like that at the end that your child goes through asking a question, was the mission a success?

And coming through that fruition at the end.

And the beautiful thing about your books, the that I'm seeing more and more is that you're touching on everyday, real things about people in their jobs, in their careers that are making a difference in other people's lives.

Yep.

Public service.

Yep.

Absolutely.

And like my dad was in the military.

And again, that being in the military is such a.

I can't speak to that because I was never in the military.

I was army brat for 25 years.

Being in the military and providing that service is an incredible thing.

So thank you for doing that.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So, final thoughts.

Is there anything you were saying?

Boy, I wish Rick would have asked me that.

One question.

Is there something that you'd like to share?

I don't know the type of person.

I'll think about it after we turn everything off.

Right?

Of course.

No, I can't think of it.

I just want people to be creative and realize that they have it in them.

Art isn't just for creative people.

Right.

Everybody has that creative side.

I'm often asked, like how did I make a pivot from pilot to author?

I'm doing the same thing.

I'm talking helicopters, I'm talking pre brief, I'm talking safety, and I'm trying to make it easy for everybody to understand, even a child, right?

Adult or child.

So doing the same thing.

Cody, I want to thank you so much for being a guest on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors Podcast.

Your generosity of time and the insights will significantly benefit aspiring authors and readers, and we promise to provide our audience with links to Cody's website, the social media links and if you enjoyed this episode, please hit the subscribe button to listen to our future episodes.

Feel free to share this episode with anyone who is inspired by or enjoys hearing about Cody and her books.

Hilo Girls, the Firefighter Pilot and the Law Enforcement Pilot.

And if you want to mention the other two books coming up, yes, it'll.

Be the Air Ambulance Pilot.

Should be out at the end of this year, early next year.

Terrific.

Thanks, Cody.