Foreign Denise Hi, Papa Rick.

My name is Denise Caesar.

The full name of my book is Moments in Motion with Love.

Thank you for joining us on the adventures in the heart of children's book authors.

I definitely love supporting other children's book authors.

Can you describe your book, the inspiration behind your book?

I'd like to delve a bit deeper into inspiration and how it all started.

It goes all the way back to 2020.

During COVID we were all on lockdown, especially in New York City.

All schools shut down.

I worked as a speech language pathologist for over 25 years in the school at that time.

I can't believe how much time has passed.

It's going to be 2025.

We're coming into.

During that time, we were thrown virtually online as a speech pathologist.

We were live.

We had to do speech therapy online.

Some of the children that I worked with are fragile and they're autistic and they are.

Besides all children, they themselves were really confused.

And as the days and weeks and months went on, I saw the disconnect in their eyes and their heart, and that really was heavy on me.

So I went to sleep one night and I prayed in May, late May, so March, April, May, by May, I saw them.

I was like, no, this is something.

I said, I need something to help these children, these beautiful children.

And believe it or not, I woke up with the book.

Now, what I'm going to say about that is I could have ignored it and went back to sleep.

I could have not done anything.

I learned not to have a pen by my bed.

I didn't.

But I spoke it with these phones that we have by our bed.

I spoke it into my phone and then I woke up my husband and said, oh my goodness, I wrote about this.

What do you mean?

So with that said, I read it to him and he went, read it again.

And he went, oh, that's something.

What I want to say to the listeners is that at that time I had met a publisher and I was in the process.

Life brings you through different journeys.

I was in her places when I met her in January 2020 of writing an adult prescriptive narrative of self help, of getting through things during dark times.

Who knew that this book would come.

I immediately texted her and said, wait, something just happened.

I woke up with the book and you need to hear me.

So she called me right away.

She's like, what are you talking about?

And I read and she went, oh, yes, we must publish this book right away.

And then the thing that solidified it all is, my son was in college and he must come home.

He was in lockdown.

And I FaceTimed him and I read him the book and he genuinely just cried.

I get emotional about that because then I knew it tapped into something.

And it's bigger than me, the book, because it came to me in my sleep.

In understanding the book, the thing I liked about it most.

And I've got a couple interesting stories, stories I'll share with you because of my grandchildren.

I think you'll appreciate it.

But you talk about starting conversations and helping heal children through the stress of the pandemic.

Explain that to me.

How many conversations did you have that kind of fertilized your mind to put everything to paper?

By May, I knew that I had to find something.

And when I was with them, talking with them, I told especially, like, communication is everything, especially in the world of children with disabilities, that they need to be like how we are right now with our podcast.

We're looking at each other.

Social communication is everything.

They were lacking that being in school, the importance of staying true to being in the moment.

Because this was moment by moment that was going on.

We didn't know what was next.

The moment, emotion with love.

I wanted them to first.

The book is about loving yourself, loving each other, and then loving the planet on a whole bigger scale.

Because if you don't love yourself, you can't love anything else.

That's where that came from.

So I touched that semester or that year of school.

I had over 35 students that I would be seeing now.

Were you still able to see them through the power of Zoom?

Yes.

So with the power of Google, meet all these things that they were coming up with.

Right.

It was a platform like Zoom where technology.

Did they know how to do that?

I couldn't agree with you more.

Did they know what to do?

They weren't trained, the parents.

The only flip side of this that was really great is that I got to do speech therapy with the parents there.

So not only did they get the benefit of learning what I do, they were able to carry it over.

So that was the plus of it.

Almost like some coaching going on that normally just wouldn't happen with the parents.

So much positivity, as much as there was a lot of heaviness, there was a lot of positivity that came out of some things.

I met them personally.

We became friends from.

It was different.

It was something.

There was something special about it.

Right.

There were days where we all wanted to throw ourselves on the floor.

It's interesting, you Just say that.

Because with five grandchildren and there was restrictive rules, but at the end of the day, you know what?

It's your family and what I've been doing with my grandchildren.

We've written over 38 stories.

We've only published one book, and we're about to publish a second book.

What we did is I said, you know what?

I've got their young children's voices.

Let's turn it into audiobooks.

And so that's what we've been doing.

But what's interesting is one of my granddaughters, my youngest granddaughters, the pandemic didn't sit well with her at.

Like it did for more.

How old is she?

She would have been eight.

Oh, that was.

Those were the children I was working with.

Perfect.

So you're going to love this story.

I decided, you know what?

We.

We're doing these audio books.

But she was more interested in being interviewed.

Believe it or not, we used the pandemic and the circumstances around the pandemic and her not being able to go to school.

She.

This is how she went to school on Zoom.

I tried to delve into what she liked and what she disliked about the whole process.

She certainly didn't like being in this type of environment.

She likes the live stuff.

So that was really tough.

But then on top of that, which was.

I don't know if this is insightful, but she said to me, she said, a lot of these kids are using this as an excuse to slack off.

She's smarter than our years.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I was like.

That caught me totally off guard because she realized that some of the kids were just handling it the same as her.

They were pretty normal.

They were resilient.

But they were.

Some of them were using their resilience to smoke.

The teacher.

Oh, that's so funny.

It's.

I gotta laugh with you because a lot of things, they're inventive.

They would figure out.

They would trick their parents, too.

So interesting, though.

She's smarter than her years.

But it is true.

And I don't know, you know, about.

Were they slagging or were they.

The wellness of mental health and the social emotional components of that.

Some of them really couldn't wrap their head.

I just.

It was her perception, but she was correct, too.

But there was some who were like, God, that knew I could get away with.

I could get away with something here because I'm on the moon.

Oh, it's interesting because you know that you've probably heard the term short Covid, long Covid, all that and you wonder, and maybe you can talk to this.

I'm quite interested in this, is that here we are four years later and I'm curious on what you're seeing.

Is there some children, like once they were out of lockdown, everything went back to normal.

And then how did you see it impacting the children?

So did everything go back to normal?

That's the first question.

So there was a particular group of children that lost the most.

I believe the younger kindergartners, first grade, second grade.

Right.

They were that funnel that was at the formative years of learning that they lost a lot.

So I would say that is.

That is crucial to them.

They're behind, they're always trying to catch up.

Unless you were really.

Like I said, my students were challenged.

Some of them, some of them were autistic, not all of them.

Some had language processing.

What is your modality of learning?

Some people excelled with this.

They love this being zooming or whatever we were doing virtually, they loved it.

It was something that meant they felt comfortable, more comfortable than being in a classroom.

But for sure it was just so above them that they didn't even know how to deal with it.

But what I will say about students, that one group is really, that's where that's formative.

And those kindergarten, first and second grade, pre K to 2, second grade was the most children that were affected by it and will still be affected by it unless they're working towards filling that gap.

Were there some surprising results through your book?

Like you talk about, there's more exercises, how you bonded with some of the parents.

Tell us about that.

There's a lot of interesting things with my book, like things that people would say that like when I would like, like when we were coming out of the pandemic.

So maybe 2021, when my book came out, then we were able to be out there a little bit more.

In the beginning of when my book came out, I couldn't do a book launch because it was still too new.

But like September 2021, it was a whole different ball game.

When we did go back to school because I was virtually home, but then everybody was home.

But then there was some people hybrid in school, out of school.

Then when I went back, we still had to wear the mask.

So wearing the mask was a nature's joke because people can't see your face, can't see someone smiling, can't pick up these nuances of what's real, a real interaction with each other.

This is one story.

It's going to make me Cry.

I'm going to try not to cry.

So you know, you don't know how you help someone sometimes you could touch someone's life and you never know.

That's first.

But I had this one student.

I'll leave it nameless, but I took her every.

No, she wasn't my student.

I used to take students from her class every day, but none of us reached out.

Therapist, that's my very dear friend, used to take her every day.

I'd walk in and out of that classroom or I'd be standing in the hallway when they'd come in, we'd greet them or remember.

These masks were on.

I'd say, good morning.

And I look at you and look to look right through me.

That's the social.

She just look over me.

She was very much taller than me.

Getting to the cons of it.

Every day I would do that.

Then there was a point where we were able to take the masks off.

So I'm going to gather her, I'm going to smile, she's going to say something.

I'm going to just get her every morning, good morning.

Look right over me, past me.

Then I reinvented myself because there's a lot of things going on.

March of 2022, I finally said goodbye to my career.

For over 25 years I was preparing all these students because after going to Covid, then they have me and now I'm leaving.

I had to prepare them.

I was telling all my students, but she did not know because she was not my student.

So I walked in the last day to hand out the book moms, which we'll talk about that I have and talk to them and say, I love you very much.

I'm not leaving you.

I'm just leaving because it's time.

I work 25 years, but you're going to be good and just keep doing the great things that you're doing.

She stood up.

This is where I get emotional.

She stood up and she said to me, this is Cesar.

I love you.

Thank you for smiling at me every morning.

Now this is big for someone who is on an autistic spectrum to get the courage and the strength.

But look at.

I didn't even know you would not say what I'm hearing every day.

But we don't know what we.

What we touch or what life we touch.

It doesn't even have to be a student.

It could be a.

An adult.

But in the street, in a store.

You probably find that with some of your friends too, where you've made an impact.

On their Life.

And maybe five or 10 years later, they tell you something that you did or said to them that made an impact, and you go, oh, I didn't realize that you wrote your book.

You launched it in 2021, Valentine's Day, 2021.

I'm curious.

Here we are, four years later.

What surprising about the results of your book beyond its original purpose?

What do you have in mind for the book?

And what.

And now, four years later, you go.

Wow, Believe it or not, waking up with this book in my sleep, it was meant to be in the world.

I do believe that.

But it has taken on a life of its own.

So many things have happened.

I've been at schools where I met with high schoolers.

Now people think this is a children's book.

Yes, it is.

But we all have an inner child, and that's what it does.

Tap into your inner child.

Healing of the inner child.

I went into high school, and I'm going to make you laugh because I went and met with the cheerleaders.

All these people were going, who?

This lady?

Who is she?

What does she think?

She's going to tell us dinner?

Because headphones on, heads down, walking in.

All right, we have a little fear.

We will just go to sleep, right?

You ain't sleeping on my watch.

But by the time they left, Rick, heads up, smiles, they were coming up to me.

That one girl came.

So these are, like the ripple effects that will really touch my heart.

She came up to you.

She said, I love this so much because I have a little brother, and he really needs this now.

Can I buy it?

I said, honey, I'm going to give it to you for your brother.

You do not need to buy this book.

And I am so honored to give it to you because if you think he needs it.

I created all workshops.

I have mindful moments that we do some mindful moment affirmations.

I created a program called Yoga Motions with Love.

And I also have musical moments.

So a whole thing came out of it.

Fantastic.

You're not going to believe what someone said to me.

So the cheerleaders were the hardest group because they're like, they didn't want to be there, the chewing the gum.

They're rolling their eyes at me.

So I said, young ladies, in this world, we have to be kind to each other.

Kindest moments matter.

We must even.

We cannot be friends with everyone, because that's unnatural that everyone can be your friend, but you can be a good, kind person.

You don't have to talk about her.

If someone else Is so let's get that straight right away.

This is my talk of the day.

But when I read the book to them, I said, listen in and tell me what page in the book sits with you or comes at you.

You know what?

This was like, amazing to me because one girl raised her hand.

I finally got them to talk because you got to pull their.

You gotta pull it out of their mouth.

That one page sunshine moment.

I have to tell you, when I looked at that page, you know, the sunshine makes me feel so beautiful.

I love that beige because it made me feel beautiful.

So even a simple thing like that.

When I said sunshine moments, feel the sun beam, sunlight beaming on your face, shining bright.

She was like, I felt that and it makes me feel beautiful.

Everybody interprets your words and the pictures differently, which just again, shows we're all individuals.

I have to show you that page.

You want me to show you that page?

That would be fantastic.

There's many pages, but I wanted to show you this one.

It says the sunlight twinkling in your eyes, sunshine moments.

But if you look at it, you see how it's like touching him.

She just like, she just felt it.

I don't know.

Just.

I feel beautiful when the sun touches me, either if I'm at the beach or sunshine moments.

You should mention that because I show you my book.

Sunrise over the mountaintops.

Rick, we're meant to be together today.

Wait.

Just stick with me.

I.

I stick.

I'm with you.

Mountain standing tall moments.

Being brave even when we feel so small.

Put your mountains in the sun.

And here we are, the mountains.

Unbelievable.

So this heart on the COVID how this came to be was.

This is a kaleidoscope of every page that's in the book.

Each page that's in the book is in the.

Now, this book takes you on a nature journey.

That's why when I say it's about love of yourself, each other and the planet, because it starts out with the butterfly moments.

Each page in the book, like I told you about the yoga movements, each page in the book became emotion.

Talk to me about your activities in the book.

And the reason I'm interested is with my oldest granddaughter, who's the co author of our book, she helped me develop activity pages because we wrote the story together.

But what we did is we had a formula in how we came about it.

What we did is I had thousands of pictures of our adventures on my phone and we went to a coffee shop.

We bring up the pictures and from there we bought a journal and we started writing the Story.

We both aren't artists, but we started drawing how we visualize the book.

We call them activity pages.

And we put those activity pages at the back of our book.

We encourage parents and grandparents and children to sit down and do the same thing that we did.

Tell us about your activity page.

I'm an educator, so there's going to be activities at the end of this book.

The one activity that I do want to tell you about.

Because throughout the book, I affirm the reader of how wonderful and beautiful I think they are, Right?

But if you don't believe it, which I wrote a belief poem, which we're going to do together, you and I.

So the first thing that comes up is the belief poem.

So we're going to say it together.

Say it with me.

Believe.

Believe.

Am loved.

I am loved.

I am liked.

I am like.

I am courage.

I am courage.

I am bright.

I am bright.

I am brave.

I am brave.

I am so important in this moment.

I am so important in this moment.

And you are in the book, I tell you, but you need to tell yourself.

So the believe poem is on my bookmark.

You should say that to yourself every day.

When I said I was with the high schoolers, I made them read that and then read that out loud.

And then the next time I went back, you know what they did to me?

They said to me, no, you are so born in this moment.

So that's where that the book did a full circle.

They.

I gave it to them.

They took it in, and then they gave it back to me.

Wow, that is incredible.

That is so big.

You talk going back.

So explain to me.

Does that happen often for you, that you go back once you've been there?

Let's rewind the activities because I didn't finish telling you about them in the book.

I did the poem.

The poem is important because that's something I tell them to start each day with that.

And those that are older, I said, if you don't want to walk around with a bookmark, take a picture of the poem and have it in your phone.

And when you feel like you're stressed out or down, this is what you have to do.

Besides the poem, the activities that are in the book are this mosaic card, which is on the front.

I tell them to fill in your feelings.

However the page made you feel, fill them into that mosaic card.

It looks like it's red.

Why red?

It's red because I love red.

We believe that the heart is red.

I have made copies that don't have the red.

So they have more space to write.

But it was just the watercolor red that I thought was beautiful on the page.

On the front here was that kind of red.

And it's in here like this.

Just where aesthetics of looking beautiful.

But I did make photos of it to give out that don't have the red.

So they have more space to write into.

I have a little things that they could jot down.

Little notes from the book, of course, something that's very important.

So my book could be a gift to someone as a keepsake.

They could write from my heart to yours.

They could write a little message to the person they give it to, as well as read something to themselves that you yourself.

The last thing that's very important, a little coloring to soothe you.

Coloring is always good.

But the most important component is the glossary where I explain each word from the book.

What does believe mean?

What does courage mean?

What do all these words mean?

Because without the meaning, you can't hold on.

I love that.

I've never seen a glossary before.

It's interesting when you in a children's book.

It's interesting because every time I that have the distinct privilege of talking to a children's book author, all these ideas come flying at you because everybody has their own distinct way of doing things.

I'm a speech language pathologist, so language is key to me.

For me, all of my students all along brought me on this journey because I knew that you have to know what the word believe means if you're going to say, what does it really mean?

What does it mean to believe?

Even in the beginning, I dedicated to all the beautiful children, hoping this story will let you know how precious you are in this world.

See, at that time, I think people are losing sight of who they were, what's important.

And that's why every moment during the day, you had to take a minute just to be you.

I know this is hindsight's 20 20, but do you think you would have actually woke up and said, I wrote this book to your husband, if we wouldn't have went through the pandemic?

I went to sleep praying for the book.

I said, I need something to help these students.

And something just happened between you and I because of the audio.

Imagine doing speech therapy.

The words I said.

I said, brave.

You didn't hear the B.

Or I said, imagine that.

Think about that.

And it's not you.

It's just the audio of saying stuff you were listening.

But it wasn't that.

It was the audio.

Light, courage.

Like I Would have to.

It was the first.

Funny what I had to do with them.

I digress.

But it was interesting.

I went to sleep and I.

Because of the pandemic, hoping for something, having some hope, and I woke up with it.

I don't know if I would have been praying for that.

It's interesting because you know what?

Somebody told me the other day that there was way more books written during the pandemic than at any other time.

I've never seen a study on that.

Somebody just told me that.

But I can see that because you wrote a book up as a result of the pandemic.

I actually wrote a book, but not a children's book.

I actually wrote two books, but they were about investment, real estate.

I digress.

Yeah, very different.

But it gave me the tools.

And that's what.

That's leading me up to my next question.

So you talked about having the great fortune of getting a publisher or meeting a publisher.

So explain to.

To us are working with a traditional publisher or are you self published?

Tell us your publishing story.

We could rewind that because as a.

As an educator, not all teachers want to write books.

But when my son was born, I always wanted to write a book.

But that never happened.

He just turned 25.

It would.

So it didn't happen during his young years because you're busy in doing things.

I have an indie publisher who's a hybrid which is in between traditional publishing and in between self publishing.

There's this other area that you could go to that people.

Some people don't know about that.

But what I wanted to tell you more.

I met her through different people.

I wanted to publish.

Like you just said, you were publishing a different adult, like investment, totally different.

I was publishing like Moments in Motion with love for adults.

That's what I was doing.

So that was because of.

You don't know my story, why I was doing that.

There's a story to why I was writing that book.

Because being a speech language pathologist, you don't know.

In 2006, my son was 6 years old.

I was in a car accident and I lost my voice and I did not have a voice at all for five years.

And I still don't have a voice because I have a condition called spasmodic dysphonia and I go for injections every four months.

The thing that I want to say about that though, the reason I'm bringing that up is because I was a speech language pathologist.

I diagnosed myself after a while.

I'm like people you don't know what's going on here.

But my point of saying that I've lost my voice is I guess this was the whole journey all along.

Is that coming here and who knew?

Moments, emotional love.

Did I know back then that I was going to lose my voice?

No.

What did I do with it?

I made sure I always saw one glimmer of light.

Because even in the darkness, you have to look for the light.

I'm telling you about the publishing journey.

I found her to write this book based on what I just told you about.

And I also am a co author in another book called Magnificently Mate where I put that story into it about the losing of my voice and how music killed me.

The publisher was instrumental because she was able to pivot.

A big company won't be pivoting with you.

We talked about earlier how someone brings their book to life.

As a first time aspiring author, there's so many different ways of doing it.

Explain to us.

When you say hybrid, tell us a little bit about what did you do and what did your publisher do so that people have a better understanding of how the book came to life.

Like I said, I started in January thinking I was writing a different type of book.

And there was a whole process.

You get a package, they go through the journey of how they're going to help you through the beginning of it, writing it, editing it, doing all of that.

When this book came to be, it was just not.

Nothing was really changed.

It came out the way it came out.

She told me she has never in her life published a book without any real edits.

Did not need really anything except for what we did do.

And I think this is interesting because it wasn't a character book where there were characters that you needed an illustrator.

I thought that it needed to be soothing.

So we licensed Watercolor Art prints the book.

But the job that I had as the author and the publisher to go through it with me was selecting these images but making it cohesive to look like a book.

That was the job that was hard because I wanted to look like it all belongs together.

But picking and pulling from different places was a test.

When you reached out to the watercolor illustrators, were they surprised when you told them what you the purpose of what you were going to do with their illustrations?

So it's funny that you said that you could license just prints, you could just license them and you don't even talk to anybody, you just license them and you find them and then you meant to use them for whatever amount of copies that you have.

In the universe.

Fascinating.

Very fascinating.

Because I didn't know that.

But then my publisher said, let's go look into that.

But if you look now, I picked that.

But then when I had that feeling, I had to say, how are we going to look similar?

But if you go page by page, you will not believe that.

It does look like someone drew them for me because of all the work I did to try to.

It's amazing.

But I did select from the same artist.

I didn't go somewhere.

All the illustrations are from the same artist.

Yeah, but he.

Thousands and thousands into.

I hate.

Right.

You know, but to make it look cohesive for the.

For an aspiring author.

Explain to us how would someone even go about doing that?

Like, how did that happen?

So if I thought, oh man, I want to just be like Denise, but how do I do it?

So tell us the process.

Having a publisher was the hybrid.

There are many hybrid publishers.

I think one thing I'm going to say about this, I am fortunate to have a publisher that has so much love and integrity.

That's important if you feel.

You have to feel good with the person you're working with because there is money involved.

People have to understand that even self publishing is money involved.

You have to be able to afford.

I'm going to say something else.

When I went to meet with other students, I would tell them, you know about.

You are an author already.

If you put pens and paper, you are an author.

Yes.

They're a published author.

When the book becomes solidified.

Right.

Don't you write things?

Keep writing because you are an author.

When you publish them, you get there.

So that is that tip.

I want to say to everyone here today, if you put pen to paper, you are an author.

So don't lose sight of that.

Becoming a published author is the next level.

But I would say I'm not against self publishing, but that costs money too.

But you have to be very diligent.

And you.

I don't know.

In my earlier episodes, I talk about traditional versus self publishing and I also talk about the costs and I also talk about the return because compensation is totally different.

Also when you do it with a hybrid, that would be have a different compensation model altogether.

Talking about publishing, I noticed right now, and maybe I'm wrong, but you can correct me.

I noticed you only have the paperback available.

You don't have a hard copy or an audiobook or a digital book.

So can you talk to that a little bit why you chose not to do that?

I like this book.

It's hard to Cover.

It's.

It's about what the book is.

I think people have to think about that.

What is this book or what are we using it for now?

Hardcovers could be more cumbersome and heavy.

I've thought about that.

If you feel my book, it feels the soothing effect.

No, I had student sensory issues as you could feel this.

So I knew that I wanted it to be smooth and soft so there was something to it.

You could carry it small enough to carry it with you.

There is cost in making hardcover books as well.

But that wasn't my whole thing.

I just think it's like a workbook.

It's a work in progress.

It's to be hard covered.

There are books that do need to be hardcovered.

You're saying that down the road.

It doesn't mean that you wouldn't do.

No.

I might have another book that comes out that's hardcover.

Absolutely.

I want to talk a little bit about your website because I've been with the children's book authors that I've been interviewing so far.

Some have the brand as themselves, the author.

And then some people are developing a book series.

So they have the book series, the main character or the theme as their website.

Talk to me about why you chose to go as an author.

Website.

I do have another business.

That's why I wanted to just be about it.

Being author driven, but author driven because of the message that I am delivering.

I think that's what that has to do with is my message filter through with other books that I create.

It's the branding of me because I'm the one with the message, this message.

Whichever book comes out will have my message.

But also as an educator, there's those other programs to be based on.

I noticed in your bio you describe yourself as an author first, then you, I think then you talk about being a public speaker and then talk about emotional learning specialist.

Talk to us why you went author, then you went keynote speaker and then the social emotional learning specialist.

I put it in that order because without the book one, without becoming a published author, these other things wouldn't be able to flow.

Can you be a keynote speaker?

Okay, but what are you basing your speaking on?

Right, so I'm.

I'm basing my keynote speaking or.

Or my social emotional learning tools based on the book, based on my knowledge.

I am.

I have been in education for over 25 years.

Two master's degrees.

The author came first because that's what everything that I am doing is based on.

And that's important.

I Just want to make sure that aspiring authors know why Denise calls herself an author first and everything else comes second.

Second, because that's the thing that's going to drive everything else that I've been publishing.

You talked about waking up and having that eureka moment with your book.

When you think back, was there a specific person or event that motivated you to write this children's book?

I had that dark moment.

But what's really interesting, and I don't want to go too deep about this, but in 2006, when I totally.

I didn't have.

I worked with Louder Voice for five years.

I have a disability.

I became more connected with my students than ever.

But I also became more creative where I created a design for a swimwear company that I have because of that.

Like my.

Because of not being able to speak.

I think the creativity came out in different ways.

What was really interesting is that I had the tagline that I would.

That I do write still to customers.

I wrote Moments in Motion with Love because I want to be Swimming is about movement and what have you, but also is about loving your own body because I created something to make you feel good about yourself no matter what size you are.

And the only reason I asked that is because even though you lost Your voice in 2006, gained it back in 2011, you didn't write your book, took over again.

You know what?

I'm going to tell you because I'm writing another book.

But my son, I'm going to say my son is my driving force for everything that I have done.

Because even though he doesn't live here anymore and takes care of himself very well, he was by driving force and doing things to make him know that you should never give up.

Never ever give up.

Don't give up on your dreams and keep believing in yourself.

So he was.

My driving was to present that you.

Had these children that were your students.

I'm just curious on how much of each student is in your book.

Every one of them is in my book.

Every life that I have met or have come across, and that's a lot of students over 25 years that I have been involved with, especially being a speech pathologist.

You have over 35 to 45 students per year, times 25.

I told you the story about the young lady or when I didn't have my voice and worked.

The students and I bonded differently because now I was them.

I had a disability and we connected on a whole other level.

So every student that I have ever met and still meet and any other student Child, person, they are part of this book.

I, like you said, you have the composite of the heart on the front cover.

It's really very unique.

I just love it.

And now I think everybody can understand how it came to be.

Some people might not believe that either, because a lot of people say things, but really, I went to sleep.

Please help me.

And I woke up and like I said, I typed it into my phone because I didn't have a pen.

So note to all the authors out there.

Have a pen by your bed, because when you wake up with an idea, you must write it down.

I couldn't agree with you more.

I am also trying to have people understand because a lot of times when you write a book, you have a central theme.

Or even when you talk to children, even though they're children.

Every child, like we talked about earlier, is different.

You had specific students that were different.

But when I listened to you talk and we look at the composite of your book and how it was put together, you're speaking to most children.

Talk a little bit about that central theme and how talking with one voice, almost to the children, it's true.

Because for all the beautiful children of the world, because they really have to know how they are our future.

In the book, say you are the future.

Yes, I do say that the book is for every woman, even our inner child.

But really, it's talking to the children of today, growing up in this world, appreciating, like I said, the love of yourself and being kind to each other, the love of each other.

And really taking it the step further of loving our planet.

You have to have appreciation.

The book gives you an appreciation of nature.

You can go, did you ever have a butterfly?

So I have the butterfly moments.

There's a butterfly on your shoulder.

Feel it.

Did you ever really feel.

I never felt a butterfly on my shoulder, but I could imagine that.

And if you are lucky enough to have a butterfly man on your shoulder, wow.

It's interesting you should say butterfly because our next book, which actually was co authored with my youngest granddaughter, who I talked to you about earlier, one of the lines in there is.

It's the story is about her getting so interested in wildlife, and she follows butterflies to pastures and she gets butterfly kisses.

Oh, my goodness.

I'm gonna love that.

I'm gonna need that book.

That's one of the lines in the book is talking about butterfly kisses.

It was for my son from when he was younger.

He made me this butterfly.

But you remember that a butterfly transforms.

That's really where all that Comes in from me, in my heart is that I was transformed.

Whatever was going on, I transformed myself.

People know that.

It's so many connections.

But I knew that when I saw your heart.

Because if you notice, you see what that is.

That's a piece of wood, correct?

That's correct.

That's okay.

So I'm going to tell you something.

That's a tree stump.

But there's a page of my book that goes like this.

It says, the trees of wisdom.

Jesus.

I wrote, they have been here a very long time.

So many moments they have seen.

I believe the synergy is incredible because it was just meant to be.

I know you meet with other people, but sometimes it's just such extra.

I want to show you something that we did with the heart.

One of the things that as a children's book author, I'm always looking at ways.

Now we're self published.

I keep saying to my audience, there's no right or wrong way to do it.

You have to find a way that works for you.

I'm always looking at making improvements to our book.

We have more books in the pipeline.

But one of the things someone had said to me was, oh, I put a book plate in my book.

And I thought, a book plate, what's that?

And they said, you know what?

Most people give children's books as gifts.

Yes.

And then they'll write in there or they'll say, this book belongs to.

But they always want to send a little message, whether it's like you said, as an author writing a message to someone who purchased it, or a parent or a grandparent giving it as a gift.

Somebody mentioned a bookplate.

Look what we did with our heart.

At the front of our book, we created an area shaped like our heart that says, this book belongs to.

We're on the same page of a new book in the Worms, too.

Too.

It was the book that I had wanted to write when my son was little, when he was born.

So it is happening.

I have a foundation for it.

But I'll tell you as soon as it's ready.

Fantastic.

When I think of your heart, and I think, Denise, you could do a book plate with the outline of your.

And put that right at the front of your books.

Yeah, that would.

That would look beautiful.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Tell me a little bit about your writing process.

I'm going to tell everyone.

Not everyone has to write it because some people don't really like to write.

Believe it or not, some people rather type it into their computer.

Then authors used to type on their typewriter.

Right.

Or you could talk it into your phone.

I have nuggets of wisdom coming in and out of my brain every minute that if I don't either say it or write it, it goes away.

I would say my writing process.

I have a different style of writing.

I believe everyone has a style style.

I think people I'm more poetry, emotion, rhythmic kind of a writer.

I don't think I knew my style until I really started feeling it and writing down.

People journal every day.

I can't say I journal every day, but I do take time out of my.

At least once or twice a week.

Things that come into my mind, I write them down or everyone's process will be different.

Thank you for sharing that.

I want to talk to you a little bit about because we talked about this before the publishing.

But how do you measure for you.

What's your measurement of success?

How do you see success through your book?

Success isn't always monetary.

But yes, we want to make money.

Right.

Because we put money in and we want to see a return.

But my, my heart is in this book.

And when I hear someone say this saves my son or someone tells me this touched my heart so much, you don't even know.

One woman said to me, this is an anti anxiety drug without the pill.

For an adult to say that's huge.

Those are the points of return that matter to me most.

So I think because it came out when it did, my real focus was the journey of helping others.

That's exciting because you know what?

Most of the authors that children's book authors I've been talking to so far have just published their first book or their first book came out maybe a year ago.

You've had some longevity in your first book.

And it seems to me we're learning a lot about what the.

More it's out there.

Yeah.

And so how do you think you're sustaining its staying power?

You have to pivot to.

You can't just hope that it's going to sell on Amazon because Amazon is just a funnel.

And it's wonderful.

If you don't know me and you heard about the book, you can find it or it just pops up somehow.

Amazon is key to be on there or to be on Barnes and Noble or some other dot com.

But the most important thing is the author's website because that is where you can go.

And I sign copies.

So anyone that buys it from there, I think that's important to be connected to the author.

I also believe that you have to do both when the beginning I was doing vet fairs, vendor fairs, I was throwing myself everywhere, I was everywhere and going to schools.

But I think what you give comes back to you.

And I sold thousands of books.

It was not like I didn't sell one, not because of Amazon.

At the end of the day, you've got to be out there promoting your book.

That's what I want aspiring authors to know.

I was doing a little research.

I heard that the average children's book sells around a self published, sells around a hundred copies.

So you can imagine even though if you made five bucks a book or.

Whatever, you're not getting any cost back.

At all, you're not, you're not paying for the publishing of the book for sure.

And then I've also heard that it, if you just get it published by a traditional publisher, unfortunately by the time you get your little piece of the action, you gotta sell thousands and thousands of books just to make the same kind of money you would if you sold a hundred as a self published author.

So again, I always say to people it has to be about the passion and what's in your heart first.

It's not a path to fame and fortune.

It's a lonely road.

People don't think that just because.

Okay, so writing the book is about what you want to put into the world and what you want for the world to get from it.

Right.

But you have to get it to the world.

Absolutely.

I want to pick up on that because that leads me to my next question is what advice would you give aspiring children's book authors?

My first thing, if you really, if you have a book in you and you're writing it down, you should work towards getting it published because it needs to be in the world.

Whomever gets it, it's their books are evergreen.

Like you just said, you can't buy every children's book.

But whoever gets it, it gets into a hand and it just could be passed down or be somewhere else.

Don't give up on your dream because it is a dream.

If it's in you, it needs to be out there.

Like I said, you're an author.

If you pen and paper it, if you publish it, pick the road that works for you at the moment.

Doesn't mean you can't then go to a publisher after that you can take a self published book to a publisher and we do.

If you then you feel like you made enough money, you can do that.

For me, my reasoning was I'm very smart, I'm very creative, but I don't Know all these money things, they don't work in my brain and that's okay.

Then I need someone else.

You have to have the right team, maybe around you which avenue can make your book work the best.

I'm against traditional.

You really.

They really look for most people that, well, celebrities go traditional route because they're already known.

So that's where that happens.

If you're known and you go traditional, they'll take a chance on you, but they still do take a lot of cost.

And what if they give you money?

They're making it back.

So it's almost like a business.

We've all heard as authors that sometimes once you've written like you were talking about self publishing or Harry Bread, once you get known there's a possibility by your third or fourth book, some somebody's coming after you as a publishing house and saying, wow, you're a hot commodity.

That's something to aspire to.

If you, you're doing, you're working your path, you're working your book and it becomes successful.

You don't know the next step of what book you write, what have you.

So, yes, you should not, definitely not give up on that dream.

Definitely go whichever path can serve you from the beginning and then just keep working it.

It leads me to my next question, which is, as we talked about in the very beginning of the show, I have three main reasons that I'm doing this show and two of them are speaking to the readers.

What kind of an encouragement for readers would you like to share?

Why should they engage with you as an author?

Why should they purchase your book as a reader?

I myself read my book, so I think that's something important.

When an author creates a book, are you going to read it?

So I want my readers to know that this book has my heart in it and it could heal your heart.

And I think that's what really this book is about.

Heart healing and bringing you to a place of wellness and being secure in the moment.

Because us together right now is the only moment that's really going on.

And that is all we have.

If anyone wants take a moment to just be, just be, just be.

So that's what this book does for you.

And if I could take you on that journey with me, if you're reading my book, then I did my job.

Awesome.

Final thoughts?

Are there final thoughts you'd like to share?

My one final thought is I'm so grateful and I feel blessed to be here today with you to share all this information and love because it's all about the moment's emotion with love and heart.

Finally, to all the authors out there, keep dreaming, but keep working.

Keep dreaming.

But you gotta put the work.

It doesn't just happen in a silo.

It happens in the work.

The work and the hard work and dedication.

So that's my framework.

Keep pushing it.

Keep finding your dream while you're published.

You got to keep working it to get it into the world.

Thank you very much, Denise, for joining us on Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors.