My name is Laura Strachan, and I am the author of Pickles the Mermaid and Pickles the Rainy's Journey.

Thanks, Laura, for appearing on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors podcast.

Laura has written a children's book series, Pickles the Mermaid, and we'll be spending much of our time discussing Laura's new book, Rainey's Journey, and I look forward to that journey.

August, being a special month for Laura and ourselves, is we just recently launched our second book, and Laura is about to launch her second book, which is Rainy's Journey.

Before we get into the details of your second book, and welcome, Laura, is Rainy's Journey and your children's book authorship?

I'm curious about what it means to you now that you're a seasoned children's book author.

What does it mean to you to be a children's book author?

Thank you for having me here, and it's really a pleasure and I feel honored.

Being a book author has always been a dream for the past 25 years.

And I had cancer 25 years ago.

I taught for 20 years, started the cancer, and didn't know if I was going to live.

It was uterine, went behind the hard lymph.

And so when my dad was turning 70, I was trying to publish a book and I had too much brain fog and I couldn't do it.

And so my husband and I moved to a new community in 2020 during COVID but now we live in a real rural area in Pennsborough.

I grew up in some Cincinnati, so it's a very different setting.

I'm on 10 acres and it's beautiful out here.

When my dad was turning 90, I thought, oh, the time's ticking.

And I finally was not working and decided I could do this.

Both my parents are still living.

They're 91.

Oh, good for you.

Wow.

So really, it's really meaningful to be an author because it's giving me a fulfillment, and it's like a purpose and a passion being fulfilled in my life.

And I feel like my purpose and passion are so aligned right now.

And since I've moved to this new community, it seems like everything you know is just aligning up in ways I never imagined.

So when I came to this new community, there was a student that I started tutoring.

He never learned to read.

He was homeschooled.

He was 14.

He had dyslexia.

As a special educator for 20 years, I knew how to help him learn to read.

And so he came up every day.

And then his family.

He had a sister that had just got married and she had a young 1 year old.

And then they all adopted 19 kids within the whole extended family.

A lot of the kids were behind and I would meet in the schools.

They wanted to hold him back.

They had four foster homes before they adopted them.

And I was reading so many books because I was teaching that 14 year old how to read.

And he came up for five years and he was so excited when he learned to read.

And my dad said, let's get them Mark Twain.

And so he liked the Adventures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.

He loved all the themes in that, which is so controversial nowadays.

But.

But it was just so fun just working with all these different kids that would come up.

And so I was reading so many books and then it just dawned on me.

Oh, I could do this.

I can write a story.

And I think it really helps if you are reading a lot of children's books to get inspiration to.

To start writing.

Absolutely.

Since I started this podcast show, I've read over 50 children's books.

I get a real appreciation of what everybody's going through.

And it's amazing, the emotional attachment of it all coming together as a children's book author.

And I can feel it from you.

It's coming right through the screen.

I can feel your passion and your desire to be a children's book author.

I want to go back to your original book with Pickles the Mermaid, because that'll give us some insight into your second book.

One of the store owners that we sell our books in said, rick, you should have a plushie.

Every time we bring a book in that has a supporting plushie, people just go nuts.

And so it took us a while.

It was actually someone from Oklahoma, one of the children's book authors.

She put me onto a site that allowed us to, to bring our plushie to life.

Site I'm interested in knowing.

Oh, great.

And you know what, Laura?

After I can send you some more information, but it's made in China and I, even though we all want to support.

I'm in Canada, you're in the United States.

We'd like to support our local economy when it comes to trying to do that.

Because I spent a whole year researching how to actually develop something in North America.

It just was cost prohibitive.

It just wasn't going to happen.

But congratulations.

Thank you.

We have a plushie to support our book and we're very excited about that.

Are you looking to develop your pickles into a plushie?

I. I would be People ask me that all the time.

So I have.

These are made from Budsies, and it's.

They're quite pricey.

They're like a couple hundred dollars.

So you have to have something a little less.

So I have Pickles and Rainy now.

And.

Good for you.

Good for you.

Yeah.

So I will definitely get you that information after.

And for anyone listening who has a character in their children's book, I just want to mention one more time.

It's called madeinchina.com I just can't believe that we're all that distance away.

And it went very smooth.

Tell us about the inspiration behind your first book, Pickles the Mermaid.

Yeah.

So I think it's really neat how you get these little nudges and they're like little soul whispers, and then they get louder.

And I found myself, when I came to this new community, just trying to get out of my comfort zone.

And Covid was really hard.

When I first got here, I didn't want to get out of bed.

I just.

It wasn't even myself.

I was just, like, so depressed from the election and everything happening in the world, and then being so isolated.

And I met this woman online.

It was not your average grandmother.

And the first step was inspired action.

And my.

That's how I got on my bike and met my neighbors and started tutoring and doing things that light me up.

I realized in this community that I had a lot more time on my hands because I'm in a very rural setting.

And I'm also a yoga teacher, and we have a yoga community that's just five miles away from here.

But my teacher in Cincinnati has been training teachers in West Virginia and Parkersburg, which is 45 minutes away.

So I have this huge support of yoga teachers here as well, in the community, at peace, knowing there were so many people I could connect to.

So I think it's so important when you're moving to new communities is to find connection with community and friends.

And so this book really came out of that connection.

I spend a lot of time with children, so when I quit teaching, I started nannying little children.

I just was doing a lot of time with, like, newborns, and I never tried to get work people.

It's word of mouth.

And so I probably raised about nine different kids over the time before I moved here.

And it was a lot of fun.

I started with my youngest sister's daughter, and we have a really close bond, so she's probably like 22 now.

And so it was just such a gift to be able to have that time.

And then my cousin was also a cancer survivor, and I got to spend time with him.

He had brain cancer, and he laughed.

He said, don't listen to their percentages because he has a 2% chance.

And he's still alive and has four healthy children.

A lot of my healing was with laughter.

And in my yoga, I incorporate laughter and fun.

And so I wanted laughter in my story.

And so my son was asking me.

I signed up for this in August.

And when I signed up, I had no clue what I was going to write about.

But in August, I had gone to Norfolk in Virginia, my niece.

Periodically I would go spend time.

She's at military.

Her husband's in the military.

He's a Navy seal.

And I've gone many times.

I've gone to Coronado and out in California and San Diego.

I've gone to Norfolk a couple of times.

She's been there.

She's been in Tampa.

And I try to spend a week with her and her kids.

And then she was just ready to have her fourth child.

It was the end of August while I was there.

I'm always paying attention to what kids are doing.

And Margaret was three at the time.

She's got this real blonde, real curly hair.

And she was obsessed with mermaids.

And she didn't want me to touch one of these real special mermaids.

She had several.

And finally we were swimming and she had her special mermaid.

And I said, margaret, what's the name of your special mermaid?

And she.

She just sat and she thought for a minute, and she goes, pickles.

And then she said it three times.

Goals.

Pickling.

That's what's so great about writing.

Sometimes you don't know where your inspiration's going to come.

It was my son saying to me, mom, think about writing what makes you happy.

I signed up in a community of authors through Miriam Laundrie.

And this was my first step, was just learning.

There was 10 modules, and it wasn't like an.

I wanted more interaction to actually write.

And that.

My publisher, Miriam, had a event called Believe Live, and that was in September.

And so I had this tucked away in the back of my mind.

Pickles the mermaid.

But I hadn't written my story yet.

And so I was at this Believe conference and found out that they had a mastermind class where you could join that.

And they would literally hold your hand through every step of the way, and you would be holding your book at the end of that course.

And so I signed up October 1st.

And then I love it because they give You a roadmap.

And they pretty much break it down into three months.

So it's like a nine month process.

Right.

And the first three months you're just focused on writing the story and getting the edits done.

And the next three months are getting the illustrations done, which gives you time to start your business and get your websites going, get social media going.

And then the next part is.

So take us back a bit because we're going to get into talking about publishing in a moment.

But I want to, I want you to go back to Pickles and the story.

What happened was I was going to visit a friend.

She had a dream.

So I was telling you about these little heart whispers.

Absolutely.

She, on my birthday, called me.

She said, you and your husband, I just dreamed you came to see me.

And I hadn't seen her in 20 years.

So she lived in Seattle.

On my daughter's birthday, we planned it to celebrate in Cincinnati and fly out of Cincinnati.

It's like a four hour drive from here to Cincinnati.

I'm on the airplane and I'm thinking, oh no, my friend has illustrated a book.

I better write my story.

So my husband was busy, he was doing some work on his laptop.

I sat down on the airplane and wrote my story.

And it was funny.

I got inspiration from, I watched on the way to Seattle from Cincinnati, I watched the Little Mermaid.

And when I was writing my story, I literally cried because it just came to me and all these things just.

I don't know where they came from.

But I was just really excited about writing about Pickles the Mermaid because I didn't want to be empty handed.

When I got to see my friend, she looked at my story and she's, it's really cute, but she's, I can't illustrate it.

And I said, that's okay.

So I put it on the shelf and didn't know if I was going to even use that story.

And so I also, from being a cancer survivor, have a lot of stories of inspiration.

And I was writing a story called the Blue Butterfly.

That story may still get told.

So there was a lot of miracles around butterflies.

I was writing this story and I had some friends come over in October and I had to turn in my first draft.

And I said, this is getting hard because it's bringing up a lot of my emotions of how it was being sick in my body and that doesn't feel happy.

And my son said, write about something that makes you happy.

And it's like hard talking about these emotions.

My friend says, do you have Another story and handed her pickles and mermaid.

She goes, you wrote this?

I'm like, yeah.

She's like, just, you don't have to do anything.

Turn that in.

So I had my story.

Didn't even realize it.

Almost didn't even turn it into the editor.

And so that's what I'm saying.

Sometimes you don't realize, and you.

You think everything has to be perfect when you turn it in.

Laura, it's interesting you should say that, because I've talked to people who, like retired teachers who wrote a story 30 years ago and left it in a box, and then all of a sudden, they had time and it.

And that the story was as timeless.

And that's the nice thing about children's stories is they tend to be timeless.

And she brought it to life after 30 years.

And then I had a guest on a couple of weeks ago, and she said this same kind of thing that you did.

She wrote the story on a yellow pad, and then she tucked that pad away for, I think it was a year or so.

And then all of a sudden it came up and.

And she said it was like reading something that she hadn't written because it was fresh and she had forgotten she had even written it.

So it's pretty incredible.

I actually read it on my phone.

I literally wrote the story on my phone phone.

I had a gal out of Staten Island, Denise Caesar, and she told me that she had her phone beside her bed.

She woke up in the middle of the night, and she actually dictated into her phone and the whole children's book story.

And her husband woke up and said, what did you just do?

And she said, oh, I wrote a children's book.

It's incredible.

It's.

You can see.

And I hope we're inspiring some people to know that it can happen at any time.

There's inspiration that comes to you when you least expect it.

But you have to recognize that, like you did.

You called it.

What did you call it?

The heart whisper.

Heart whisper.

I love that.

And you have those heart whisper moments.

Don't let them be fleeting, because I know we all let things go and then we say, oh, darn, I wish I would have written that down.

Thank you for sharing that.

Hopefully, that inspires people who are having these whispers to actually take advantage of them.

I'm curious to.

What was the little girl's name with her?

Margaret.

Margaret.

So tell us a little bit about Margaret.

Were you in contact with her after you wrote the story?

Yeah, she was the first one to actually read the story.

And they came to Columbus, and I'm selling an hour and a half from here, and they have cousins there.

So my sister's son has four kids and they get together regular.

So last summer, before the book actually came out, we read the story, and I didn't even have my actual book.

I actually made a book of the story and.

But they didn't care, and they read it and it was just so animated.

And Margaret was so excited that she was.

Was like the person that inspired that story.

So it was really special to acknowledge her, and I dedicated the book to her as well.

Fantastic.

I've been talking to my guests more about this, and I know a lot of times that a children's book comes from passion, the passion that you have and how you've described it, circumstances in our life.

And then all of a sudden a children's book appears.

It's not magical.

I don't want anybody to think that it's magical, but does appear.

And the one thing I'm curious about now that you're about to launch your second book is do you have a children's business book plan?

Do you have a structured plan?

I didn't even think I was going to write a sequel, so I guess I don't have too much of a plan.

But what happened last year, I went to another event.

They had another Believe Live in September, and I signed up to do my second book.

So that started in January because the one that was starting in October was full.

I had to wait until January.

But I. Yeah.

So I think it's good when you, like, you're talking about having a business goal and things like that.

Okay.

I tell you kids, for my inspiration and family.

So my cousin called me from California.

We grew up together, and she's my age, but she's been out in California most of her life.

And when my grandmother was alive, we spent some really valuable times together.

And my grandmother died of cancer when I was 12.

But she's had a profound influence on my life as to be a teacher.

And she taught us how to sew, how to hook, how to save money.

We used to save quarters and we would.

When we had $5, we'd go to Coney Island.

It was just.

She just gave us so many valuable lessons.

And she taught us just to enjoy like, the Sound of Music.

And we would sit and listen to radio and.

Or the records back then and for hours and just.

So she was really cultivating us to have that free time and creativity time.

And she used to, when we would write our Letter she say, make them smile.

She just had a profound influence on me as well.

So I know she's smiling that I'm writing these stories because she was a big influence.

She influenced my life tremendously.

My mom's mom was similar to how you're describing now.

She was an outdoorsy person and she was into sports way before women were supposed to be involved in sports.

And she introduced my brother and I to so much outdoor activity.

Camping, fishing, curling.

The list goes on and on.

It's incredible how my grandmother's been gone for a long time, but I can still feel her every once in a while when I do certain activities.

Pretty amazing.

I know.

I definitely feel like they're with us all the time.

Yeah, I get signs.

Absolutely.

I want to come back to your because it's exciting when I hear you're developing a third book.

And one of my first guests, Darcy Guyant, the retired search and rescue helicopter pilot, and he's written a book.

And when I talked to him, he said when he wrote his first story, he thought it was a one and done.

So and that's what I thought.

I wasn't planning it.

So I will tell you that these books sometimes write themselves.

They you can't force it.

And so this first story is really such a beautiful story.

So if you want us to focus on more about the actual story, we could.

I downloaded your second book.

Look at how beautiful it shows up on my iPad.

The colors are so vivid.

Yeah.

My illustrator is from Canada and her name is Michelle Simpson and she is amazing.

She really beautiful job, great use of color.

And that's, you know, what a lot of kids get engaged in is the color and the illustrations.

Of course, her inspiration on developing Pickles was Luca, that movie.

And he's blue and then he comes out of the water.

And so I told her I wanted diversity in my characters and so I said let's make them rainbow colors.

So all the mermaids are different rainbow colors.

Oh, cool.

Yeah.

So I've got that and Pickles, the little doll that my 3 year old niece had red hair.

I said I want her to look like this mermaid.

So she had.

That's all she had to go on.

She made her with red hair.

Yeah.

But I just love.

She portrays the mermaid so differently than I've seen in stories before.

You went from your first book.

We're going to talk about your second book and then we're going to talk about your third book.

But I'm curious, you visualize this already, your book series.

And it's Interesting too, because with my grandchildren, we've written 38 books in our book series.

That's wonderful.

They all are not in print because Laura Ash, it's quite expensive to bring a children's book to life.

Yeah.

So I haven't named all my characters in the story.

So what I tell children is to put their names in the story and if they like, what color do you.

I love that idea.

Yeah.

So the kids like read their names into the story and I didn't name the shark.

So the boys have so much fun coming up with names for the shark as they're reading it.

They'll use the name that they chose for the shark.

I like them putting themselves into the story.

So that's.

So just back us up for a moment.

I just.

Because I'm trying to understand or not me personally, but I'm trying to share this with other aspiring children's book authors is that it sounds like you have a plan for a third book.

But tell us, how are you supporting bringing another book to life because it's not inexpensive.

I find most children's book authors, including ourselves, we bring our first book to life because we have this passion and this desire to get it done.

Nothing's going to stand in our way ultimately, including the cost of doing it.

And then all of a sudden we're inspired because people get excited.

Now you're a children's book author and then the second one kind of happens and maybe economically the first one didn't even pay for itself yet.

And you're on to your second one and then you're onto your third one.

Have you developed a plan at all to think about?

Okay.

At some point.

That's a good question because I actually was talking to my daughter.

Both of my kids are entrepreneurs.

She has a business called Handsey H A N D Z Y.

And she's on the website and on Instagram and all that.

And she has a really cute shop in mainstream Kentucky and she lives in Hummington.

And then my son manages Airbnbs.

But they all have people that help them run their business.

So I hired somebody and at first my husband was gonna help me do my taxes and he realized he couldn't do em.

And you do sometimes need an accountant.

And so it'll be interesting cause I actually just finally turned in my taxes.

I had till October to get em done.

And this week I was supposed to meet with him today and I said I'm coming Wednesday just because I'm done.

You can have it all.

But yeah, so he's wow, He's.

You've really invested a lot of your own money into this.

So for me, it just brings joy to do it.

But you're right.

At some point I'm going to have to figure that out because it is very costly.

And so maybe I have an author friend who's actually asking for help and somebody's actually paid for her expenses to.

To do the second or her third book.

She just got her third book.

She's starting.

And it's.

People don't realize the investment that you put out to do.

Right.

And that's why I asked the question, because I just want people to understand that generally children's books in general sell between indie or self published, sell between 100 and 500 copies over the lifetime of the book.

If you figured out what it cost you to make that book, and even if you said, okay, I sold 500 copies, you divide that into your overall costs and you probably think, oh, what have I done?

Yeah, so that's really true.

And I'm still.

I'm actually working with somebody new this year just to learn more of the marketing, because marketing is a big factor to this.

The only reason I bring this up is I'm a children's book author and I'm going through the same thing as everybody else, wondering, how do I monetize this?

What's the best way to monetize it?

And luckily for me, I've been interviewing children's book authors who have come up with other ideas to support their children's book authorship because it just isn't from the book sales.

You certainly need to do something beyond the pages.

And that's why in our case, I'm glad that one of our accounts said, rick, you have to have a plushie.

There's more margin in the plushie than there is in the books.

And hopefully the plushie helps support our children's book authorship.

I talked to an author about a month ago, and she actually has a very cool logo called Hilo Girls.

And she's a former Black Hawk pilot.

Oh, I saw that at the time.

And she told me her biggest revenue because people love her logo.

So she turned it into T shirts.

And she's finding that adults really like the logo too, so it's helped her.

Again, that's a great idea.

You're right.

There are other avenues I haven't really explored too many.

That's why I like to share with people listening is that I think you have to think beyond the page.

You may not have a formal business plan yet.

But hopefully, listening to shows like this just inspire you a bit to think about.

Okay, I better start thinking about this because if you want to continue on writing more books or publishing more children's books, especially like yourself, Laura, and ourselves, who have a book series, and we've got 38 stories that we would love to bring to print at some point, but it's going to take some revenue to do that.

So thank you for sharing that.

I always tell people there's really three forms of publishing.

There's the traditional publishing, where you get a literary agent and you try and find a publisher.

There is self publishing is where you actually hire someone like Miriam Laundry's publishing to publish your book.

But you get to keep all the rights and you get to control much of what goes on.

And then there's indie publishing, where you, the children's book author, are the publisher.

In our case, we have a company called Caboose, the Rocky Mountain Bear Publishing Den Inc. We have a company that we're the publisher.

And so there's different ways to go about it.

So tell us a bit about Miriam Laundrie Publishing and why you went that way.

So I feel like when the student is ready, the teacher appears.

Okay.

Basically, another friend of mine at the time, in August, she had some kidney failure.

She was an alcoholic, and she just couldn't stop.

She just turned 60 and she said to me, promise me you'll write your book.

And she died August 1st and August 2nd.

I looked on the screen and saw Miriam Laundrie pop up.

And I listened to her thing and then signed up to be in her group.

And I felt like it was my friend.

It's another one of those heart whispers, nudging you to move forward to what you want to do.

Absolutely.

And her legacy was kindness.

And so I wanted to incorporate kindness somehow into the stories.

Because she was an inspiration in her community and did a lot of wonderful things to improve.

Where she lived in Cincinnati and just was a beautiful dancer.

And she was single.

She never married.

When I was sick, she came over, she talked to the kids.

And we had so much help when I was sick.

And she.

She brought a Montgomery in, which is a really special treat for my kids.

Cause most people were bringing casseroles or other things.

And.

But it was just like she just went that extra mile.

And she always had a most beautiful smile.

So it was really to honor this true friend I've had.

And we've.

I met my husband in the mountaineering club.

We've been together for 40 years and married 38 years and we have two kids.

I have a son that's 33 and my daughter's 35 and a granddaughter that's three.

I mentioned them in my book as my dedication.

They're my biggest teachers.

So my son inspired this first story because he was bullied.

He had severe ADHD and was very hyperactive.

But he was targeted because he needed special needs classes.

He didn't know how to read right away.

And there was just so many things that kids just made fun of him for.

Bullied all the way through school.

And I had to constantly be his advocate and stand up for him.

And I felt like I didn't have the resources I wanted.

That's really why I wrote this book is I wanted to bring awareness to bullying.

And it is becoming a more severe issue.

There's so many people I meet, they say, I wish I would have had your book.

My niece or nephew just committed suicide.

Or it's very severe right now.

Difficult.

And you hear all these stories of why we need to bring awareness into this.

Yeah.

And it's nice that you're bringing the message through a children's book when maybe you have a chance to help develop one's mind about how they think.

Yeah.

So that was my why for this one was that my son was bullied.

And I really wanted to bring awareness to that.

And so this.

The bully that I chose, I.

The name I chose was Rainy because she's an outcast and she's like a storm.

And she makes fun of Pickles and she lurks around like a dark cloud and she finds Pickles.

Ha.

Rees nears.

You look like a pickle and smell stinky like one too.

Pickles cries every time.

And then one day she swims and swim until she's far away.

And so this interaction sets Pickles on a journey to self discovery.

It's all written with growth mindset.

It's a hero's journey.

I, like in life, find that you need mentors in your life.

And the scene with the octopus came from my son's favorite book, Rainbow Fish.

And the octopus was the mentor in that fish.

So there are different reasons I put things in the story.

And I wanted music in the story.

And I have a singing conch shell in there.

And the reason I wanted that is it's tied to the emotion of love.

And the song the kids recognize is a lullaby their mom sang.

And they remember how loved they are.

Because sometimes we just forget how special we are.

We go through life and we just don't remember who we are.

And this is her reminder that you're loved just the way you are.

So it's embracing uniqueness.

It's all about being brave, being kind, friendships, community.

There's all these special things into the story.

And she's just on this journey and she's looking for this singing conch shell.

And as I did research into the story and the setting, I wanted to use a kelp forest.

And I saw that there are a lot of otters in the kelp forest.

So I have Ollie that can help her part way.

But.

And when I'm reading it to the kids, I'll say, do you see Ollie?

And she can only go part way.

So I build some tension into the story by making it where there's unknown.

And then sometimes I'll have the kids pretty predict because I have all my characters.

And I'll say, who do you think comes next?

And so the next scene, this is really because of a personal experience too.

When the stars align, you're on the right track.

So I was talking about these heart whispers.

But since I've come in this community, I feel like I'm stepping out of my comfort zone more and just believing in things I could never do before.

And I've had so many opportunities since I've been in this new community.

I've been.

I was tutoring children.

I always wanted to go on a sled dog trip.

And I have severe nerve damage.

And I didn't let that stop me from doing this sled dog trip.

I raised sled dogs since 2014.

My daughter worked for Outward down.

And so a lot of these are personal things.

So I would love to write stories about my sled dogs.

I've been writing them and it's interesting you should say that because actually my oldest granddaughter and I did write a story about sled dogging.

We were in the Rocky Mountains and did that together.

And she had this plushie bear with her.

So that inspired us.

It's so powerful.

I was eight days in that environment where it's so cold and I had the best time and I fell a lot because my legs will get tired and.

But that's what I love when I fall again sometimes.

And it's just because I.

You grow from trying these new things.

Absolutely.

That's the incredible thing, Laura, is that people, a lot of times, it's their personal experiences.

And that's what I'm trying to convey to the listeners is it's your personal experiences.

Listen to Laura or listen to myself or listen to the other children's Book authors.

It's your personal experiences that I don't want to say creep, but they make their way into your story.

Yeah.

So that's all.

This is all about my life.

And just so when the stars align, you're on the right path.

And these opportunities that weren't there before appear like Miriam appeared in my life.

And then I told you about the.

Not your average grandmother.

I went on a retreat with her and helped her in Sedona and then had all these opportunities.

We went to Thailand on the yoga retreat together.

I went to Jamaica on a yoga retreat that I had always wanted to go on.

And then just recently got back from Costa Rica with another friend that did a trip.

But I'm like creating all these opportunities and I don't make that much money.

I live on a disability because I have nerve damage in my legs and.

But I save everything.

And you don't let money stop you.

You have these.

You.

You just are constantly.

But that business plan I'm working on now, for sure.

For sure.

And it's interesting you say that because that's exactly for myself and my grandchildren today.

You know, there's all these things being thrown at children, as we all know.

And part of it is technology is taking over a lot of the time that children are spending in their leisurely time.

And I keep thinking that's how this was inspired for me is that our book is all about outdoor recreation and community.

And so it takes technology out of the equation.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't have technology introduce your grandchildren or children to technology, but it helps take that out of the equation where it's not the primary focus.

I know my granddaughter didn't have any screens for two years and they limit.

And it's helped.

She's just an avid reader.

She's always at the library doing.

They do more experiential things.

Share from the publishing approach, because you've talked about Miriam Laundry, but talk to us about.

Because Miriam is doing your second book.

Yeah, I just want.

I want to understand the business side better if I'm going to keep doing this.

And you know what?

It's interesting you should say that, Laura, because a lot of times I think as people get more comfortable and that's what I'm hearing, as people get into their second and third book, they realize, oh, I can take on more of a general manager's role and put my resources into where they need to be, which is really the sales and marketing aspect of it, because we can all find.

We can all be Indie book publishers or self published book authors through services like Miriam Laundrie.

But they get you to the point where you even have the distribution of your book.

But what you don't have is the really the sustainability piece, which is the sales and marketing part of it.

So I'm glad to see that you're putting, going to put more resources, shift your resources into those two very important areas of sustainability.

Because otherwise at some point you're going to say, exactly, exactly.

Thank you for sharing that.

You mentioned Michelle Simpson.

Yes, that's my illustrator.

She's from Advocate Art and I hire her as part of Miriam Laundrie.

You have to find your own illustrators and they actually hook you up with someone that works with you directly.

And it's nice to have that piece.

And so you look at all the Advocate artists and when I saw Michelle, I just knew she was the one and she was actually illustrating.

I saw that you had interviewed Chelsea Jong Kim and on the.

Yeah.

And so she also has the same illustrator as I do.

And I just love how she does her characters and the emotions and all the.

She's so creative.

The colors, it helps you get your heart whispers or your dreams to life.

Right.

Because it's the illustrations that bring your words to life.

It really does.

She works so well.

So I always make a mock book and then I put all the words all the way through the story on how I want it to read.

And then that helps my illustrator.

And then I always say, we can move them as you're illustrating, but it gives her a general guidance as to what I have in mind.

And she wants to always know my vision for the story.

And she loved that I wanted inclusion and all the colors of the rainbow.

And so she'll work with.

And so you can see yourself working with Michelle for a long time.

Yes.

Perfect.

I want to delve a bit because I noticed I pulled up your website, you got a great website and I noticed that and this is what I talked to.

I have your website in front of you, but what I love about it is that what I'm trying to talk to aspiring children's book authors about is that you have this asset.

It's not only your words, it's also your illustrations.

And it can, you can use those assets to build out your website.

Tell us a bit about how that all came to be for you and how you use the illustrations.

So when I first did my website, I hired someone named Sarah Jones and she has playfulplots.com and she's very talented at coming up and she does all these movie trailers.

I actually am not happy with the way that this looks right now.

I want it to be enhanced a little more.

Okay.

Have a new trailer for the new book but I just wanted it up and running because the everything's working and none of the reviews are up for the second story yet.

A logo for the series and not's not in here yet.

Someone is working with me on my keeping my website going on and it's paper rights.

I met this person but I didn't realize he was going to.

I had him work on my website.

I didn't realize he took it away from me.

But he have to go through him to make all the changes.

So that's been a little frustrating because.

But he's willing to make all the changes.

Probably doesn't hurt to.

Even though someone is controlling your website at this point, it probably doesn't hurt to have that support because.

No, it is helpful.

Yeah.

To let other people help you.

I also hired a social media person for help.

She lives in the Philippines and she does a few phenomenal jobs and sometimes it's just nice to let other people help you do these things to keep your social media going.

Like building your own little dream team.

Yes.

Yeah.

So it's really.

She's 12 hours difference but we communicate really well.

And then when I realized when I was gone in March I was in Costa Rica and I realized someone took over my Facebook and so I had a start a new Facebook because I couldn't get back into my old son of a guy.

Yeah, it took me six weeks to get my old one back.

So it's created a problem because it was connected to my business.

Lars Strachan AUTHOR and I finally got it back but the person was horrible and it wasn't me.

And I couldn't like tell people and luckily they were and I'd say don't do it.

So were you able to use your Instagram account?

And so tell us about that experience with your followers.

How did.

And so I just take us on this journey of with your first book and that using Instagram and then your second book and how has that evolved over the time?

Yeah.

What I love about Miriam Laundrie is we have a community of like minded authors and I think it's really important that you have like in.

In your authorship that you have something more than just your why of why you're writing the book.

And for me it's also helping non profits.

So my first book I did the launch with Kid Power International they help people understand about bullying and different things and they have a lot of resources.

So point people to that.

My second story.

So before you move on from that, because that, that sounds extremely interesting.

So tell us about that relationship.

Did they promote your book and did you donate part of the proceeds to their organization?

I basically took my lunch and I took whatever I made on my first check and I gave them half of what I made.

So is that the net proceeds or is that the sales?

The net.

I didn't look at it.

I.

So you don't make that.

I think my first check from Amazon was 400 and I gave them half of it.

I gave them 200.

Okay, okay.

I didn't do it just from the laundry.

I just wanted to give them something for.

And how did that, were you happy with how that worked out?

Very happy.

Because the parents really liked having the resources and it was a really good program.

So Kid Power International and they always have bullying awareness in October.

So it's also a good avenue to get into schools and do school visits and have those resources.

It sounds like one month though, like you said, in October they focus on bullying so that in November they would focus on a different area, different things throughout the year.

Okay, that's terrific.

Yeah.

Just so people are listening, are learning something about what?

Thinking outside the box like you did or outside the book.

I like to say my followers keep building and I think it's because I keep supporting authors in my community and as they, as I support them, they support me.

And so each step of the way, like I, I didn't know how to do school visits and then I would put a thing on the website and people give you the best ideas.

So I feel like I have this whole community behind me.

So.

And my next thing I really wanted to go to Ghana and my husband said, I have a better idea.

Why don't you just support the people in Ghana?

Because one of my author friends, she's published two books and she's a humanitarian.

Her name is Sylvia Morrison and she developed a non profit links across borders and she's established eight libraries.

She originally went over to Ghana.

Amazing African American and she's a beautiful woman.

She now lives in Ghana.

And her second book, they have an I can kid group that the kids co wrote the second book and they had to come up with a solution and some of the kids, when they were going through schooling, they don't have enough money and so they, the kids come up with a way to help so that the kids could still get an education.

Like things that we take for granted.

Amazing.

Yeah.

So I'm supporting them in my second book launch, and I actually have been supporting them beyond that because my husband thinks that's a great cause.

Because you have this neat tool.

You have a complimentary coloring book because you're with your focus on the.

Like, the rainbow, the spectrum of colors, and kids with their crayons can virtually create anything.

So I think that's.

It's just amazing what you've done.

I noticed that on your website, though, you actually give it away without taking an email address.

I'm trying to understand why you would do that.

Because all of us need to build our own customer base.

Right.

It didn't used to be that.

It was this other person took over my website.

So I'm trying to work on getting that fixed.

Okay.

Okay.

So I just want everybody to understand, but Laura is doing a special.

But you want to be able to capture the email.

Oh, I know.

I'm not happy with my website right now, so.

Okay.

It's important that we share that with people so they understand that it's important.

To have those emails, especially if someone hacks your Facebook like it happened to me.

You don't always have control of your social media, but you do have control of your emails.

Thank you for sharing that.

I'm also curious about motivation, because we talked about Margaret, we talked about your dad and your mom and your son.

Is there anything else that motivated you to.

And I know we talked about your cancer, so is there anything else beyond the motivated you do?

My kids always do.

So my daughter, she's a graphic designer.

She actually picked the font, and she did all the typesetting.

Oh, she was the one that did all the colors for the.

And decided to come up with some things.

But on the second story, she didn't want to be a part of it, and I didn't need her.

But it was.

But I didn't have an idea for the second story.

I had thought about using Raini and developing her character just to get in the mind of a bully.

But my daughter.

I had a personal experience of the ripple effect of kindness, and I would have never known.

So in the eighth grade, my daughter was voted for making the most impact in the eighth grade.

And I was like, susie, why didn't you tell me this?

Because, like, they build up.

The teachers were telling this story about this student, and she said, mom, I didn't even know that was me they were talking about.

She was being nice.

And so all she did was one small act of Kindness, not knowing she saw a student sitting alone, ate with her in the cafeteria, not knowing the background.

This student was leaving that week, going to be pulled out to go to a different school.

And her parents were at their wit's end.

They couldn't help her.

They were in despair.

And the teacher didn't know how to help either.

And after that interaction with my daughter, she not only stayed in the school, but she became an integral part of that community.

Wow.

It was so profound that they said it was like a ripple effect of kindness that they gave her this big award in eighth grade.

Just so I understand.

So for the listeners, is that.

Because that was the next thing I wanted to move on to was character development.

This story that your daughter told you about that recognition in grade eight, like how many years later did that happen?

This, she got the award in the eighth grade.

Okay.

But she's now 35 years old.

She had a three year old daughter.

But I'm just saying she inspired the.

Second story because stuck in your mind and you just kept it there as a nugget thinking at some point you wanted to.

I didn't even think it.

It was just like what happened was I was rereading the back of my book.

When I get to the end of the story, you see she's coming back after she leaves and there's a shark and he's mean.

And if you don't face your fears, you find something bigger happens.

That's why she encounters the shark and he has no friends.

And she grows in her character development and she learns to mentor the shark like she was mentored from the octopus.

So the octopus was talking about his feelings and how does it feel?

Does it hurt?

And so she's doing the same thing for him.

Cause when you are getting bullied, it hurts on the inside talking to him about that.

And he doesn't want to give her the conch shell, but when she blows it, I mean, he just looks magical and he cries.

Cause he remembers how loved he is.

He promises he'll never be mean again.

So when she goes back, you only see her friends that greet her.

And Raini's not there.

And so when she encounters Rainy, she's not afraid anymore.

She's confident.

She's got her shell in her hand and she's hello Rainy.

Able to talk to her in a confident voice, Rainy takes a deep breath.

Hello, Pickles.

I missed your giggles and tickles.

And she starts to away.

This is what I was looking at.

And then I see how Pickles says, wait, Pickles Calls to her, would you like to blow the conch shell?

Raini smiles and takes the shout again.

The music is nickel.

So that's one small act of kindness from Pickles to include her into playing this magical show and a pickle party with all her friends.

And I was like, that's it.

That's a ripple effect of kindness.

It triggered that memory of my daughter, what she did in the eighth grade.

Cause I was like relooking at how am I gonna.

I hadn't even planned how to do the second story.

And then when that aha moment came, the story pretty much wrote itself.

And I had my characters because there was characters from the first story that didn't make it in.

I wanted to have a dolphin because I told you how laughter helps me.

I wanted laughter and playfulness.

And playfulness also.

It brings joy and connectiveness and into others like.

And if you fill up your cup, you can and help others too.

So talk to us about.

Because the nice thing about it is you had a plan.

Character.

I'm curious on transitioning from the theme at the end of the book to with Pickles having more confidence to the theme of the second book.

So talk to us about that transition.

Basically, Pickles inspires children.

And I get messages all over of people just saying, my daughter, she was having trouble with people bullying her in her neighborhood.

And Pickles is such a good role model.

And she's like helping me.

And I'm getting like all these people sending me pictures of their kids and how this book is helping them.

It's helping them in so many different ways.

And I just think it's so important to have these role models in our life.

Talk to us about theme in the second book, how you've transitioned into.

Okay, so I transitioned as second one to really just.

It's more of a reflection and getting into the mind of the bully.

The theme is she has this warm and happy feeling, but she doesn't know what it is.

So it's really that self discovery of what is this warm and happy feeling?

And so she, she has a different manner.

She has a turtle.

And it's Shelby.

And I also parallel because she's named Rainy, I parallel the storm to her life.

And I was asking my sister's kids at Christmas, why would she be so mean?

They're like, oh, she's an orphan.

So I made her an orphan.

I love that.

Give you the best idea.

Absolutely.

There's no doubt about it.

The turtle in this story tells her she doesn't have to be Perfect.

And the change takes time.

And so she's thinking about the turtle says, I'll read it.

It says, see how the ocean smooths away the sharp edges on a rock.

And I'm a rock with sharp edges.

Shelby nodded.

You don't have to be perfect all at once.

Change takes time.

So it's just a lot about self.

Love is another.

And it's interesting because I want to talk about the central teaching because with your background in education and what I'm listening to.

So talk to us about how your teaching profession really has influenced your whole writing style with character development, with the theme.

Talk to us about how your educational background has helped you with that.

It helped tremendously because I worked with the most difficult children.

I've worked with severe behavioral kids.

And my principal came in and was just wanted to know what was I doing different in the early 90s because none of my kids were going to the office and I was just spending time teaching them yoga and breath work and journaling and doing all these like visualizations.

And he said we need to do this for everybody.

And so my, I've had a mentor since I was 25 and my husband and I both were going to yoga together.

And Lilia Spolin, she is world renowned and she always says the joy is in the journey.

She's had a profound influence in my life because she's just an incredible, humble person.

She actually used to teach at the Feather pipe ranch for 27 years in a row.

Wow.

And it's.

And that's influenced your central teaching through the books?

Yeah, it has because I had a healing by going, I went 12 years in a row to her yoga retreats out in the Feather Pipe and had profound miracles happen while I was there and just, just constantly.

And as I became trained in 2007, I got my 200 hour and then 2013 and 14 took a year to get a 500 hour teacher training.

One of my friends, I've been helping her lead yoga retreats all over the place.

And so I'm always supporting others and this is the first time I'm like putting it out there to do something for myself.

Good for you.

I want to delve into your writing process because now like I listened how you're developing, which is nice.

And I'm curious because now we're going first book, second book, emotions.

So share insights into your development and your writing process for people to understand that.

So basically my development of even feeling isolated from cancer, some people didn't even want me to see me.

My neighbors When I moved to a new community, because when I was sick, my.

My parents moved me across their neighborhood so they could help me more.

And literally, neighbors would say, I'm sorry, but I can't deal with cancer.

It's like a disease or like, they'll catch it or something.

But I lost a lot of friends because I was sick.

And it changed.

Takes a long time to get over.

It's almost like going through a divorce or something.

And so I understand a lot of.

And just.

And some people get mad.

Why are you still on disability?

Because I have permanent nerve damage.

And.

And so it's.

It's that.

And then.

But I'm not really disabled.

They'll say, but I don't make those decisions.

I have a doctor that deals with.

With all these answers for that.

So I know personally how isolated I felt in dealing with getting better.

And then I've grown so much in this new community.

Tell us about that.

It's a development from that negative mindset.

Okay.

If you can shift your mindset.

So being around that helps you with your writing process.

Yeah.

Being around these people that believe in you, that you can do this, you can write your stories, then you don't even.

It takes the pressure away.

Like, you don't even have to even know what you're going to write about.

So basically, I signed up in September, and I failed writing for three months in a row.

But in January, I knew I was starting this new program, and I literally.

I don't know why, but started paying attention.

And there was, like, these miracles happening around me.

And I had three miracles on the 4th of January, and I'm like, oh, my goodness.

I think I'm supposed to write my book today.

And it was.

So that's my miracle story because it just was downloaded.

So you have to.

Sometimes you can't, like, write it if you're in a state of fear or if you're in judgment.

And as I'm listening to you and you're talking about your personal experience, did you do additional research as you started thinking, I'm going to go from one and done.

Did you do any additional research as you transitioned from one book to the other?

I write with my heart a lot of times.

Like when I did Pickles and Mermaid, I hadn't even looked at other.

How people wrote.

Do you read a lot of stories?

And I was stuck on the first story, how to do dialogue.

And so I get ideas from other stories.

There is a book, I'm stuck, and it's a turtle.

He's Upside down.

And that's where that development.

Does it hurt?

There's a.

It's just a cute story how like the duck tries to help them and they won't, but there's an opossum that sits with them and it rains and they're laughing so hard that he.

It's.

See, I tell you how laughter helps.

And so he turns over unstuck.

So if you're getting stuck, find ways to ask for help.

And in second book, it just came more naturally and it went fast.

So I wrote the story on January 4, submitted it and had it completed by a month later.

So I want to share with people.

So we've gone.

You went from your first book to your second book.

But I will always like to share people's view of success.

When you wrote your first book, you thought maybe it was a one and done.

But talk to us, what did you visualize success for your first book?

And how has that changed to what success looks to you now that you've written your second book?

So talk to us about the transition of success.

Because for me, success was just finally getting this book in my hands to give.

And even if I can just change one child at a time.

And so really it's also about my personal experiences.

So from the cancer, I gained a lot of weight.

I was up to £200 at one point.

From all the meds, I could barely walk.

Today I weigh 120.

And it's just by doing small things.

So since I've been in this community, I don't try to do big things, little things a day.

So if I'm writing, even if I just write 10 minutes a day, I just, it's a practice.

It's just like you're playing tennis or you're doing anything.

Because I play a lot of tennis and I like to be out in nature.

I walk a lot, I hike, I love photography, these things.

As I'm out and about, I'm getting ideas.

So talk to us about again.

I want to just draw you back a bit.

So talk to us about.

Was it just having that copy of your first published book in your hand?

Was that the ultimate success was huge?

Because then I became a well known part of the community.

So I started doing Oktobertifast and the library really supported me.

We had a huge following of people.

We had a.

We had.

They hired a mermaid.

We had two book signings in the library here.

The librarian here is amazing, right?

They helped get me in the newspaper.

And so it's just.

So that was A result of that.

You didn't visualize that happened to you.

So your success was for the first book was, I'm a children's book author.

Then all of the positive things that happened to you as a result.

I didn't even know.

Like, I wasn't ready.

I had so many friends, I didn't order enough books.

And so I was running out of books.

I was selling out everywhere I went.

So I had a friend, had a little cocktail party, and we sold 50 books, one sitting.

And I didn't even have books to give them.

We had to order them in.

So tell us the success that you see for your second book.

What's going to be the difference?

So the difference is now I've walked the journey.

I've seen what works and what doesn't work.

And so that's why I'm getting more help with marketing, and now I'm running it more like a business.

Like, I've got my.

I've got the real.

Yeah.

Everything's in writing, all the numbers.

And so I'm.

If I'm going to make this work, I have to look at sustainability like we talked about.

I think it's interesting.

Like, I've been setting seeds of where I want to go, but I just.

Yeah.

And so I just have to figure out.

My daughter owns a shop, and I sold a lot of books at her Covenant Covington Craft Fair.

And we have another one the end of September, so I'll be doing that.

The beauty of this is you can put in as much as you want or even take time off as much as you want, but the three months I made the most money were October, November, and December.

So I'm trying to do as much as I can.

And is that gifts for a lot.

Of holidays are buying.

Yeah.

For Christmas.

And I found a lot of people are using my book at birthday parties.

Yeah.

Nice.

Yeah.

They'll buy a whole bunch of books.

To give and they do a themed mermaid party.

Oh, yeah.

Good for you.

That's a brilliant thing.

Now just happen or did you come up with that idea?

Oh, my niece, she's into marketing, and she did that, and then it became catchy.

And this is the first time I've heard that children's book author actually say, you know what?

Our book turned into a theme for a birthday party.

So it just allows other people to think outside the book.

And that's been very successful.

So there's other.

And then just getting in the schools, I went.

And it's just so fun.

I always make a Pre order form so that the kids will get their books when I come to the school.

I sold quite a bit at this one school and I haven't done a lot of school settings, but at that school event there was another teacher that said, hey, I'm working with people that are becoming teachers.

So I went and he bought them all books and then I presented my story and gave them all kinds of resources of crafts and things to use with my book and showed them how they could.

Terrific.

Terrific.

Yeah.

So they.

They were all just becoming teachers and so then they all want me to come to their.

Where they're teaching this year.

Things are just picking up more because I'm getting out there and then people want to have me back again because.

It sounds to me like I want to pick up on this theme is that the role of writing is becoming bigger in your life and in the grand scheme of your life.

Now take yourself pre children's book author to now a full fledged children's book author.

Talk to us about your life like as a children's book author in the grand scheme of your whole life.

Talk to us about that.

Yeah, I'm 65, so my husband's 70 and he wanted to retire when he turned 70.

He just turned 70 August 3rd.

But his company, he's so happy here and he's really a big part of the community here.

He's signed on to go a couple more years.

So.

Yeah, so I. I think it's giving me purpose while he's still working.

He's really busy.

And.

Yeah, I don't know where it's going to take me, but it's given me so much passion to do this.

I can tell by how much you smile when you talk about it.

You're not going to abandon it.

Tomorrow you're going.

It sounds to me like you're going to be a lifelong children's.

You are.

You're a lifelong children's book author.

I have a lot of stories.

Like, I haven't written the Blue Butterfly and I haven't written the Sled Dogs and.

But I still have these characters that are coming to life in my mermaid stories.

Talk to aspiring authors to someone wants to be a children's book author.

What advice would you give someone who's trying to get started?

I would say just do it, but I would say, get help.

I really am happy.

I went with Marianne Laundrie and that investment was worth it to me because they really walked me every step.

And she mostly helps authors on their first two books and usually after that you're pretty good on your own.

So that's why I stayed with them for two years.

But so I'm just saying it's important to not feel like it has to be perfect.

Just get an editor that can do it and submit it.

And then once you do that, I had Sharon Jennings, and she's phenomenal.

And what she does is she really opens your eyes to your blind spots.

Sometimes you're so attached to the story that you think outside the box.

Yeah.

And you get too attached to your words also.

Yeah.

Because usually a children's book's between 500 and 1,000 words.

Right.

And you have to be very careful about that.

It's a challenge to write and keep the kids engaged.

And the number one thing when you write a children's book is entertainment.

You want to keep the kids entertained and you want to hide the messages in there.

They're full of amazing messages, but the kids have to discover.

So in the second one, she's tapping her heart.

I'm glad we got pushed to do our plushie.

And I'm glad you've got.

Yeah.

Pickles and ratings.

She realized his kindness is what that feeling is.

And so it's so important for people to have that.

Aha.

Let's pick up on that because I don't want to miss the reader in this entire interview.

But at the end of the day, if we don't have our readers, nobody's buying our book.

So what encouragement do you have for readers?

Why should they get engaged with Pickles?

And knowing that Pickles is going to have.

And like you said, it's fun saying Pickles because I actually had someone who purchased our book, and she told me that her son ran around for almost the whole day going caboose because he just loved the word caboose.

So it's like Pickles.

It brings a smile to your face.

So talk to us about why should someone read your books?

It's enchanting.

Their magical stories.

I bring magic into it.

But the magic isn't the singing conch shell.

It's the magic to uncover your uniqueness and self love and to recognize your own uniqueness and that your love for just who you are in the world and that we all have a special purpose.

And it's really helping kids to identify with that and to get community, to get mentors, to get help to realize that they don't have to do things alone.

It's okay to ask for help.

And so there's so many great messages of and having empathy for others like someone who and compassion.

And there's just so many things woven into the story.

Let's pick up on that because I always ask this, I call it final thoughts.

And I always think, boy, was there something that I should have asked Laura that she wanted to share?

So talk to us.

Final thoughts.

Is there something that you said?

I wish Rick would have asked me that.

Yeah.

I just want to share my gratitude for today and I just enjoy talking with you thoroughly and I wish you a lot of success on your second book.

And also the plushie that's just so exciting because it's getting me ideas about maybe developing that character plushie for my own books.

It's a journey and I do love my teacher Lilia saying the joy is in the journey.

So it's in that presence of being in the present moment that we find joy.

And so to not worry if you have some ups and downs that's going to happen when you're writing, but just find joy and when you're writing.

I write every day just because I think of things and it just gives me joy.

So make it absolutely.

I couldn't agree with you more.

I want to thank you for being a guest on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Books Authors Podcast.

Your generosity of time and your insights will definitely benefit aspiring authors and I hope inspire readers to come to your enchanting book series.

Your passion is incredible.

We promise to provide our audience with links to Laura's social media accounts and her website and also links to other social media that was mentioned by Laura.

If you've enjoyed this episode, please hit the subscribe button to listen to our future episodes.

Feel free to share this episode with anyone inspired by or who enjoys hearing about Laura and her children's book series Pickles the Mermaid and her new release, Rainey's Journey.

Thank you, Laura.

You can buy that on Amazon on August 21st and that would really help if you bought it on that day.

Thank you so much.