Hello, everyone.

My name is Carmela Alexander, and I am the proud author of the Fearless the Amazing Boy with Special Abilities series.

I've written where Fearless goes to Brazil, and I have two other series that'll be out soon where he goes to Japan and Ghana.

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

As Carmela has mentioned, she's written a children's book series, Fearless, the Amazing Boy with Special Abilities.

I look forward to our conversation.

Carmela, before we get into the detail of your book series, can you tell us what being a children's book author means to you?

Being a children's book author really means a lot to me because of what I base my stories off of.

Based my stories off of my son Amir, who gives me all the motivation and inspiration that I need.

I say that to say that Amir was born with a very rare epilepsy disorder, that a lot of children don't survive past the age of 12 years old, and some children pass away sooner than that.

So instead of being grieving him and worrying about the unknown, I said, let me take that to motivate me to do something special to make sure that his life is a light for other children that may have lived with something similar to him.

So I say, let me make a series about him being a superhero, because I am such a nerd, Rick.

I love superhero things.

My favorite character is Batman.

So I said, let me make him hear the Batman of my story.

He really inspired me to do that because, Rick, not a lot of money, movies and books and stuff that we read or see have characters with special abilities.

So I wanted to make that known, and I wanted to make that a thing so children can have something to look up to.

So that was why Fearless was born.

That's terrific.

And just so the listening audience knows, I've read Carmela's first book, Fearless the Amazing Boy.

It was a fun read.

I loved how you introduced other characters, too.

I know we'll get into that.

You talked about being a children's book author and your son being the inspiration.

I noticed you wrote your first book in 2022.

Correct.

So tell us about the inspiration behind that first book.

You did a very positive thing.

You took your energy and you released it into the world in a very neat manner.

Why a children's book?

Like I said, I was noticing that we didn't have a lot of children's book that represented kids with disability as superheroes.

I felt like that was a need to market something like that.

So I said, I went to bed, Rick, I kid you not, went to bed.

I woke up, I said, I want to write a children's story.

My husband said, what?

I said, give me a title.

Give me a title.

Looking at me like, I lost my mind, Rick, and said, oh, I'm sorry.

I said, I'm serious.

I'm serious.

Because, Rick, when I was eight years old, I used to write poetry, okay?

Until I got 10.

I loved poem and I love Edgar Allen Poe.

He was like one of my inspirations too.

But I've always wrote short little stories poem.

But it died out as I got an adult and I got into the medical field.

I used to be a pharm tech, so I pushed that writing to the side.

But after, like I said, after I had a mirror, I said, there's a need.

There is definitely a need for stories to depict children like him as superheroes to me.

So I said, you know what?

I went to bed, went and got up, talked to my husband.

I asked him, I said, give me a title.

And he said, I don't have one, Mel.

I'm like, you just wanted to tell me.

Okay, Rick.

So I went to bed that night.

I woke up, I kid you not, said carol, is the amazing flow with special building.

There it is.

And I'm telling you, once that pen got the writing on that paper, I was gone like Speedy Gonzalez.

It is amazing when you get the title.

And that's what happened with my granddaughter.

We co authored our first book, which is called the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear.

And it was the same thing.

We came up with the character and the name of the character.

It ignited the writing just as it did for you.

And I love your name, Fearless.

It's fantastic.

Thank you.

Thank you.

One thing I always look at, and I'm curious with your son and can you explain to us a bit more about is, do you read the stories to him and how does that all work?

Oh, yes.

In addition to.

Not only that, I have the storybooks.

I have a storybook doll that I created.

Amir, like Amir, has cortical vision impairment, so we don't.

The doctors don't know how much he can see, but they do know that certain colors stick out to him.

So with the books, I also thought about that, had that in mind to make the first book yellow, because those are one of the colors that Amir can really see pretty good.

When I go through and read it to him, I have to have the book close to him.

So I'm like, okay, Amir, you ready?

For us to read the story.

And Amir, even though he's non verbal, he communicate a lot with his eyes.

If he blinks, that means yes.

So we'll sit there, we'll read it together.

But when I came out with his story doll.

So my story dolls, they're able to be adapted for children with limited mobility, like a mir.

So Amir uses devices like it's called assistive technology.

So we can plug it up or switch device.

We can plug it up to the doll and I give him a command.

Okay, Amir, if you would like to hear your story, you have to press the button.

So he'll wait for a little while and he'll press his button and it activates the dog.

We'll sit there listening to it together.

When he stops touching it, it cuts off.

And he realized I'm like, oh, Amir, the story is cut off.

If you would like to play, you have to push your button.

So he'll push it.

And this dog, it goes.

It leaves off.

So it continues on and continues on.

He loves it.

He blinks so crazy when he plays his foot.

And I said, amir, you know that you're fearless, right?

And he'll just blink.

Three of them have their time together and is enjoying.

And he hold on to his dog.

I saw many pictures of him holding his doll, but he really enjoys it.

That is terrific.

And I went on to your website.

I saw the video of you explaining the doll.

So I thought that was pretty neat.

The video, I believe the doll has two stories recorded in it.

And that's such a neat thing.

Carmel always talk to people about their children's book business.

But when I went to your website, I thought, wow, this is incredible what you've done and what you've built out.

And it's interesting because one of the first things we did was when we started selling our first book, which is called Adventures of caboose, the Rocky Mountain bear.

One of the stores that sells our book said to us, you should have a plushie to go with the book.

So it took a while, but we made a plushie.

Oh, thank you.

What's interesting is I thought that was pretty ambitious for us to develop a plushie.

But when I looked at what you did, I thought, you've just taken it to the next level.

Like, it is unbelievable.

I want to talk to you about a couple of things because I always talk to children's book authors about their book business.

Like how are they building out their book business business?

Because now when you have a children's book, you have a Product to sell.

So how do you go about distributing it, selling it, marketing it.

But I noticed you've taken this to another level.

You have a beautiful website, and you had mentioned the dolls.

Let's start there first, because your dolls are so incredible and what you've done.

Take us on that journey of how you developed.

I noticed you one you said speaks to you or tells the story, which is cool.

And then you also have one that doesn't have a voice.

It's a plushie.

So, yeah, that's.

If you can just explain the process of how did you come up with the idea and how did you go about bringing them both to market?

No problem.

I actually got a friend of mine, you, a young lady that has her own business.

That's what she does.

She does prototype for you.

So I came to her with the idea, and I said, I would like to get this plushie made, but I don't want just an ordinary plushie.

And she said, what you mean?

I said, I would like my plushies not only to have the function to tell my story, but also have the function to be adapted for children like my son that can't physically hold toys.

At first, I thought it was gonna be challenging for her.

Cause she's.

I just do plushies.

But when me and her talked and stuff, she said, okay, this is something I want to help you to do.

She actually worked in the business for a long 20 years.

I think she worked for, like, Disney and Nickelodeon, helping them with their plush.

So she said, let's do this.

We did the prototype, and she drew me up something, and it was so nice, and she sewed it together.

And she said, carmela, how do you like this?

So I made a couple of little adjustments, and she outsourced it for me.

She found a manufacturing company that could produce my plush.

And I actually looked for a company that actually could do the sound part, because I had to get sound modules to be put in the doll.

So it roughly took a couple of months to get done.

But when everything was put together, I was, like, in tears.

And then when I told her I would like for it to be adapted, we reached out to someone else that does adapting for us.

And I told them what I wanted to do.

And I said, I don't want to just have the storybooks for story dolls for children that can hold things.

I want the doll to be for children like my son.

So he said, fine, let me get the doll.

Let me see if I can adapt it.

And I was so happy, Rick, to know that he can adapt them.

So they was able to adapt the dolls and we tested them out and make sure they work.

And when the kids activate, use their switch device and plug it into the doll.

Made sure they were able to be.

When a child presses, it turns off.

That works.

I was so excited.

I didn't invoke that.

It was a long process.

Like I said, shipping and taxes and blah, blah, blah.

It was not a wrecking, Rick.

At first I was like, woo, this is a lot of work.

But my dream was executed.

So I was able to finally get my dolls.

And we tested it out and I donated some dolls to Amir school.

We use it as a book.

When a child goes in, they want to check a book out.

They could check the doll out like they was checking a book out.

So a lot of children have enjoyed that they can use their switch devices because Amir goes to a school like children like him.

And a lot of them, they do use switch device or assistive technology to operate in toys and stuff.

So when I did that for the school, it was so elated.

And the children can't stop talking about Fearless.

They always want to go and check out Fearless doll.

You should be very proud.

And just so the listening audience knows, we're going to put the links to Carmela's website and you have to go.

And I really, really suggest that you watch the video that Carmela does about explaining the doll and how it operates.

A great little video.

It's not long, but it's very informative.

It's just terrific.

Thank you for explaining that.

I can think back this is probably 20 years ago when my parents were alive and they actually bought book.

It was a children's book and they recorded the story.

And so it was a bedtime storybook and they actually read the story.

And as the child flipped the pages and it was my parents voices and I thought, my parents are no longer with us, but my oldest granddaughter still has that book.

And it's just incredible to know that their voice is still being carried through a children's book.

And did you.

Are you the voice behind the two stories for the doll?

No.

I found this lady Fiverr and I reached out to her because she voiced some Disney characters.

And I told her, I said, it would be such an honor if you could read my storybook.

And she said, oh, I'm over here cheering up.

This is so awesome.

And he voiced both of my storybooks.

I forgot to mention, Rick, that the doll has a function where you can record personal messages up to a minute.

Every time Amir Goes to the hospital.

I'll get his doll and I'll record mommy loves you and I'll have the nurses record it and play it for him.

That is terrific.

And that feature, by the way, folks, Carmela explains in her video also, neat little feature.

Just amazing.

Congratulations.

I'm curious.

When I went to your website and it's about building your children's book business, and I also noticed you had quite a few products.

Like you're wearing a very colorful, neat T shirt.

And I believe that.

And I.

When I looked on your store, I believe that one is on in your store.

Correct?

Yeah.

Do you use a service like Shopify or Printful or how are you going?

Because you're shop.

You have quite a few items on your shop.

Tell us about that.

Oh, yeah.

So some of my T shirts, honestly, like I've done myself, so my husband invested in me.

I'm forever doing something, but my husband bought them in a cricket for me and I said, oh, I want to make some shirts.

So remember my mom, they always shake their head at me like, oh, man, Mel are doing something else.

So I actually just make the prints.

I make them up online.

I can't remember the surgery that I used, but they send out the.

You can iron them onto the shirt.

Okay, so I'll design them.

I put my fearless characters on them and I do it myself, Rick.

And as far as like, my cups or mugs, I use Amazon.

I'll design it on Amazon and.

And have them shipped out to me.

And what else?

Let's see, my mugs, my cups, and.

In my notice, you have shopping bags and stuff like that.

Yep, I do that myself, Rick.

Like the things offline and I'll iron them on and make sure it's really nice.

And hey, there you go.

Your pricing, does it include shipping or shipping?

On top of that, some of my.

Things I did offer around Black Friday, free shipping, but usually, yeah, you have to pay for shipping.

Okay.

Wow, you're very ambitious, I'll tell you that's for sure.

Folks, if you want to see an ambitious person, go to Carmela's website.

Let's jump into your books.

Tell us a little bit about your book formats.

I believe most of your books are offered on Amazon.

And do you use ingramsparks to reach to the other online retailers?

I do.

I noticed you don't offer ebook in all versions.

I have your the one book, fearless, the amazing boy with special abilities.

That was an ebook.

But I noticed your second book didn't have an ebook.

Is there a reason for that.

My Rick, honestly, I just haven't gotten around to it.

That's something I probably need to do, especially with my two other series that I'll be having out next year.

I intend to have them ebook versions.

Now that you've published two books.

And I want to jump into the whole publishing end of it because I noticed I always talk on the show about there's primarily three ways to publish.

Traditional, where you find a publisher to publish a book.

Hybrid publishing, which is self publishing, where you hire a third party and they do your book and then there's independent publishing.

And that's what we did.

We're an independent publisher.

We did all the work and we published our own books.

You have your own publishing company, you're publishing all your own books.

Yes.

When it came to publishing especially, I know you have to think back a little bit now because we're going back to 2022.

When you first did your first book, when it came to publishing your children's book.

What was your biggest challenge or frustration when you first started out?

Being a self publisher is hard work.

Okay, so it's like you are one man in band.

Okay, Exactly.

You have to take care of everything.

And honestly, my first book is published through a little small, little publishing company I'm working on to get all of my books published underneath me.

That takes money.

So you have to purchase your own.

Those barcode numbers, the ISDN numbers, you have to purchase those.

They have to have my company name attached to it.

So I'm working on that.

And then I just didn't know like the ins and out.

Like it's more than just writing a story.

Oh, man.

You have to find somebody to do illustrations.

You have to find someone that can format your book.

You got to find somebody to make sure the grammar, the punctuation, all these people you have to pay to do it.

Going through a traditional publisher where they do everything for you.

But it costs a fortune, Rick.

So if you're a little frugal like me and like to research like me, I said I'm determined.

I'm a research.

How do you do this?

And I did just that.

But Rick, it was pricey.

Like you have to pay people individually to do things for it.

Like I don't have to pay for one to publish it.

Put it on Amazon for me.

Put it on Barnes and Noble.

That stuff costs money, Rick.

And that stuff adds up.

There's some pros and cons to that.

Yes, it's nice that you can be able to self publish your Own, you know, X, Y and Z.

But with a traditional, it's really everything for you.

So those things I had to learn to do and I had to budget for it, Rick, because it costs a lot.

Beginning doing your first book, for sure.

You just don't know the cost and you don't know all of the ins and outs.

So bring us forward now because you're about to launch two more books and obviously you've done a lot of learning to the point where you're now created your own publishing company and you're an independent publisher.

Talk to us about what's changed for you and what's your process to be able to do that versus when you first started out.

Oh, yeah.

So like I said, I've done a lot of research and a lot of learning, a lot of tears, a lot of money.

I decided, I said, you know what, let's just, instead of paying this doing is that, let me just launch my home.

And my brother is an attorney and I was talking to him about it and that's what he said.

He said, why don't you Mel, just do your own publishing company?

That way you can publish your own books under you.

You don't have to worry about paying this person, doing that, doing this, blah, blah.

You may still.

Because I can't draw.

I can't even draw stick figure.

And that's.

I. I'm just like you.

Those services, I know I would still need, I still need an illustrator and stuff.

But as far as coming to the publishing side on it, I can do that myself.

If I can cut the middleman, I'll do that.

So that's when I decided, yeah, let me just go ahead and do it myself.

I don't have to worry about X, Y and Z.

You know, I know where all of my money that I make from my books, I know it just comes straight to me.

I can worry about paying no traditional publisher or anything.

It all comes to me.

I want to jump to your illustrator for a moment because for us, being an independent children's book author like yourself is that our biggest single expense is the illustrations.

And I say to people, you know what, if you look at what it costs to get your book edited or even formatted, it's a relatively inexpensive cost compared to the biggest thing, which is the illustrations.

When you got your first illustrator and it was through a publishing company, did you keep that illustrator for the rest of your books or tell us your illustration Story with my books was published.

The first book was published to a small company, but they didn't offer illustration.

So I had to outsource and find my own illustrator.

And I found the illustrator off of Fiverr.

I looked at his reviews and some of his.

So I said, I gave him my idea and I said, I want the character to resemble my son.

Yes.

And I said, can you do it?

And he said, yes, of course.

So he made me some sketches and I fell in love.

I said, me, once I find somebody, I stick to him.

He has essentially illustrated all of my books because I refuse to go well, and I know how much he charged and I know the type of quality of work that I'm going to get, and I'm just sticking just right there.

But you are correct with children's book author, especially when you want a lot of pictures and you want a lot of detail.

It's going to cost a lot.

It's nice now because you're working with the same illustrator, you're about to launch two new books, and you know what the cost is.

Now it's probably a lot simpler as you start to put things together as now you know exactly what it costs to print your third and fourth book versus your first book.

Yeah, this is like going in there blind.

Rick, is.

I've never done this before.

I never, like.

Like I said as a child, I just write little here and there, poetry this and that, but never got really curious until now.

And I'm like, oh, my God, how much is this going to cost?

And, oh, my goodness, it's more than just writing, Carmela.

You got to figure out this and that.

Yeah, the unknown was scary.

But now that I do know and I'm using just the same people, Rick, I'm not veering off from nobody because I know, you know, what they call, and I know the quality of work that I'm going to get.

Are you using primarily Amazon for print on demand?

Tell us your printing story.

How are you bringing your soft cover or paper back and your hardcover?

What type of printing services are you using?

So as of right now, Amazon for me, Princeton Amanda is a little bit.

It's cheaper.

Yeah, because at first I was going to use Barnes and Nobles and they had started going up in price.

And I said, especially if you want hard copy.

Oh, man, it's very expensive.

It's gotten kind of pricey on Amazon as well.

So I scale back and just offer in paperback because it's a little bit more cost efficient and it's cheaper when it comes to print on demand.

And you know me, Rick, I'm frugal.

So I'm profitable.

I talked to Charlotte Glaze, episode 23 from Oklahoma, and she actually used a service called madeinchina.com and she had all of her hard copies printed using that company.

And then she told me the nice thing about it is there was quite a few printing companies, but she found a couple that had really good reviews.

She ordered a sample of a hard copy book from both those services.

When they arrived, she looked at the quality.

Now she had to pay for the sample, but she said once she decided on the printing company, she decided to use that printing company.

And she said the cost to print a hardcover book, even with the shipping from China, was so much cheaper than she could have done in North America.

Wow.

So it's called madeinchina.com and the reason I mentioned that, Carmela, is that because of Charlotte, that's how we did our plushie caboose, the Rocky Mountain Bear.

I used that service and they were phenomenal.

I loved it.

And there's no way we could have done that bear and got the pricing that we did if it wasn't for using that service.

An idea for you.

Another idea I'd love to share with you and our listeners because I had author Brittany Pettish, Episode 66 on she's written a book series like you.

Amazon does not print a hardcover book unless it's 72 pages to 500 pages.

But what she did is she was at a book fair and she was sitting beside a guy, he was selling his books and she was telling him about her issues.

And he said, you've got four books.

Why don't you put it into a compilation?

And she said, what do you mean?

He says, put all four books into one book and sell it as a special hard copy book.

It's over 72 pages and you can get it printed through Amazon and their pricing is pretty darn good that doing it that way.

Wow.

So I just throw that idea out at you and maybe down the road that's something you do your research on and say, wow, this do a compilation.

And yeah, she says she's doing quite well with that compilation.

And she only does a hardcover of the compilation.

It makes it.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's really.

Yeah, I like that.

You would have told me to have some pen and paper with me.

You can listen to the episode and you'll be fine.

I also want to talk to you about your website because you've got a great website.

Your E commerce part of the of your website is cool.

I like how you've done some interactive videos.

I Like how you've come on and explained the doll.

It's not you hiring a professional.

It's actually you as a.

As the mother telling the story behind the plushie, which I love.

How did you develop your website?

Was it primarily for the books first, or did it just unfold as all these ideas came together?

All the ideas come together because I knew I wanted more.

Just the books.

Like I said, I wanted merchandise.

I wanted this.

I wanted that.

The young lady helped me with my website because at first, Rick, I thought I could be able to do it.

And I said, oh, there's too many ins and outs, so.

Well, I did pray for that to be done.

And she said, you want.

Would you like anything else to be part?

I said, oh, yeah, sure.

I'm going.

Shirts, Tumblr.

She said, oh, my goodness.

Why do you want a lot?

So she said, okay, I'll put it on there.

And she did.

She designed it.

She chose Shopify.

So she designed my website, and she asked me my input, and she did the colors for me.

And you're beautiful.

Cause I said I wanted my website to be nice and vibrant.

I always think about Amir when I do things.

I think about him.

What could Amir possibly see?

This.

You can't see dull and dark colors.

I want my website to stick out.

I want to be bright, colorful.

So she went along with my vision with that, and she helped me put it together.

And here we are.

Oh, good for you.

Like, once a month, or do you go back to her with a.

Like, a little bit of a list and say, okay, I'd like to update this, or how does that work?

Got into some research, so I do it myself.

If I have a new product, I can.

I know how to upload it, and I know how to do it myself and keep the maintenance.

Now, if something goes wrong and I don't know how to do it, I'll bug her and she'll help me.

But, yeah, essentially I manage and do that myself.

And I noticed social media.

You have Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

And do you use all three of those social media platforms to promote your books?

Yes, I do.

Yes, I do.

Primarily TikTok.

I actually won a TikTok.

I don't know.

I don't know if they call it a grant, but I did this year for $2,500 in ad credit, and I used that.

Oh, yeah.

And I used that and promoted some of my items and my dolls.

Shoot, Rick.

One of the videos hit about 4 million views worldwide.

Wow.

Good for you.

Thank you.

And TikTok was really cool and I noticed TikTok the lighting of Yoga cloud.

So I was like this would be cool to get that out there as well too.

So they could see, oh, it's a lady out here that's writing books about disabled children.

So I got a lot of positive comments about that.

Some people around the world was like, oh my God, I've never seen nothing like this.

So it was really cool to do.

And I really used my grant winning very wisely because it got me out there to broader audience than what I was doing on Facebook and Instagram and then my Instagram.

I do pretty well with that as far as I use a lot of paid ad services.

I'll do a video and I'll pay for it to be shown a couple of times.

And I've been doing pretty good with that lately.

I've been getting a lot of inbox from parents.

Oh my God.

This is the first time we've run across something like this.

May I have the information or all are Rick like all my series always talk about.

Not only that, my series are not.

They're just adventurous.

They teach children different childhood diseases that afflict children around the world.

Every time Fearless goes to a different country in his dream, I teach the children that language.

It was very heartwarming to have some parents.

Even when I do pop up shops and one of my second book is based in Brazil to see a family that spoke Portuguese.

To see that book, my Brazil book and it had Portuguese in it.

Like the mom smiled so hard.

Oh my God, I've never seen anything like this.

So it's very heartwarming to know that I'm getting out there.

Little by little I'm getting out there and my face is being shown.

Not only my face, but my son's face is being shown out there.

Oh my God.

I'm getting there's children like him.

And look what his mom is doing for him.

She's making sure he's a beacon delight.

He's something positive that kids all around the world can mimic and see.

So it's been really a blessing to have that.

Social media is really good for that to get us out there and make people aware of what who I am and what I'm doing.

That's terrific.

And I'm curious, was there a reason that you picked Brazil and Japan and Ghana, that's South America, Asia and Africa.

Were you thinking about continents or what was your strategy?

It was really cool because my best friend speaks Portuguese.

So I told her, I said, I Want to write where Amir goes on adventures into different countries.

And I asked her, I said, what country you think I should go next?

She said, Brazil.

Brazil.

She convinced me to do Brazil next.

But.

And Rick, I always do my research.

I always research about, okay, what rare divisions do they have in these different countries?

And that's how I decide on, okay, let's go to this country next.

And I get my kids input too.

My niece and my son, my baby boy.

Okay, what country you want me to.

Mommy, go to Japan because they love animals.

Mommy, go to Japan.

Go to Japan.

I'm like, okay.

Then Amir, old nurse that used to work with them, he was 2 years old, she's from Ghana.

And I said, what do you think about us going to Ghana, going do this, do that?

So I'm actually working on my fifth book, Rick, where Fearlessly be going to the uk.

My editor, she's from United Kingdom, so she is so excited that I'm going up to the uk.

I can't wait to edit that.

Well, that is terrific.

You're truly making the whole book series global, which is fantastic.

Good for you.

That is amazing.

Just amazing.

I'm curious too.

Now, I know we talked about the inspiration behind Fearless and your book series being your son, but was there a specific person or event that finally pushed you over the top and motivated you to take action?

Because you know what, a lot of people have ideas to write a children's book, but to actually take action, was there an event or a person that kind of pushed you over the top?

Besides Amir, I would say my husband, because we are comic book nerds and we love comics and we love discussing them and stuff like that.

So besides, I would say my husband too.

He was a good motivation, a good push behind it as well.

He always, that's my hype man.

He always, if I have an idea, he's always there.

Him and my mom, I would say they always inspire me to do more and push me.

Like Mel, I think that'll be good.

And I get all excited and fuzzy and on the inside rig I'm like.

It'S fantastic when your family can gives you the motivation to.

To do it and support it.

That's a big part of it.

I'm fortunate.

I've got five grandchildren and they've all helped me.

Co author.

We've written 38 stories.

Now.

We haven't published 38 books yet, but in our series the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear, we've actually written 38 stories and we launched our second book which is called Hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival.

And my middle granddaughter is.

Caboose is my oldest granddaughter, and her name's Kira, but Caboose starts with a K. And then Bailey is my middle granddaughter, and they both co authored this book.

And, yeah, it's fun when you have your family supporting you in your endeavor.

So that's fantastic.

Yeah.

So character development, because you've got this cool character called Fearless, and.

And he's also got.

It's like the.

It's like the Marvel superheroes, like you said.

So he's got these other superheroes with him.

So I think it's Violet, Vinnie, and Cruz, talk to us about.

Because you could have just written the children's story with just Fearless, but you chose to add in more superheroes to be friends and to support Fearless.

So tell us about that idea, how you incorporated more than just one character as the main character.

Like I said, my husband was.

He gave me that idea because at first it was just gonna be Fearless and how he swooped in and saved the day.

And my husband was like, what do you think about having other characters?

And I thought about it.

I said, oh, you're right.

He said, because we're trying to teach children about teamwork, too.

Teamwork and kindness and how to work together when there's problems.

I said, okay.

So then I said, all right.

I started thinking about it, and I came up with some of the names of the other characters and my other book series, believe it or not, they are actually named after some children that I know.

Like, I know a child in my first series, Sweetheart, is my mom's grandson.

He has autism.

His name was Cruz.

Okay.

I use Cruin and Violet I actually made up.

But my other book, like, in Brazil and stuff, I use children that I knew, and I used their name, or I may have used the beginner of their names.

I just used, like, the letter to their names or whatever.

Okay.

My UK story, I actually.

I'm using my good friend's children's names, and they are so excited.

Auntie Coretta.

That's mine.

I got the airplane.

Oh, my God.

It is amazing.

And that's why I say to children's book authors.

I've talked to so many children's book authors.

I talked to author Noel Foy, episode 70 on Tuesday, and she used her son's names, and she also used her granddaughter's name.

And believe it or not, there was a dog in the story called Snuffy and her husband's nickname.

Can you believe it?

Is Snuffy.

The dog is Snuffy.

It's just crazy if you just let your imagination go wild.

And it's not that hard.

Look, Rick, I said, oh, I don't have to pick out no name.

Let me use this child name, that child name.

Oh, man.

Make sure you give your husband a pat on the back, because I love that you do have this.

Like you said, you've got this group of superheroes in your story that help Fearless in his pursuits of helping others.

Were you thinking.

Because I like to talk about theme and central teaching.

Were you thinking about this whole team working together when you started writing the book?

After having that conversation with my husband, I said, yeah, let me.

He's right.

I do need to make something where we can show children about teamwork.

And when we started doing that, I said, okay, let me start developing the characters.

Let's see.

This character could do this and that.

And essentially, their special ability is their superpower.

Like my character, Cruise, my brother is autistic, but my brother is so smart.

I'm telling you, Rick, he know music.

Oh, my God.

All the way down to Dean Martin.

I'm like, martin, Martin.

I love how Cruise, like you said, is artistic, but he has this special ability, and he has this robot named Max.

How you incorporated that into the story, too.

He using his autism, even though he's autistic, he's brilliant.

And I've come to find out a lot of artistic children are brilliant or neurodivergent, I might say, but they're brilliant.

I want to incorporate that into the story.

With my character that's blind, Even though she's blind in this life, in the dream world, she can shoot lasers from her eyes.

She can move things with her mind.

So I wanted to make sure that their illnesses with their superpowers in the.

Dream world, with your new books, have you introduced some new characters as superheroes?

Also, every country that Fearless travels to, he meets children there that have superpowers as well.

And also, so my Japan story, we're not going to say he's a villain, but I did introduce another character.

Okay.

Gonna get spicy.

I did.

So I introduced another character.

Well, he's gonna be introduced into the dream world.

It's not going to be in my Japan series, and he'll be ongoing.

It's gonna be really sweet.

It's incredible how your imagination, by introducing different countries, I can see how your imagination can run wild.

So I'm really curious because now you're like you said, you're about to.

You're embarking on writing your next book about the uk Share your writing process.

So can you share insights into your development and writing process of your children's books?

And the other thing is if you can explain, if you can think back to your first book and how your writing process and your development has maybe changed as you've gotten more and more into writing more children's books.

Well, yeah, sure.

As far as like the story development, my husband helped me and I have to shout him out again because he know me, Rick.

Sometimes I can have ADHD and be all over the place.

Bring it all together, Mel.

So let's make sure we don't confuse each other.

I said, okay, you write me right now.

Let's stick to one.

And like I said, the love of comic books and the love of superheroes helped me too.

To stick to a story, stick to the same thing.

It's hard to introduce different characters and stuff, but make sure your message is still the same.

Kindness, teamwork, make sure the message is always the same.

My husband helped me a lot with that, to make sure that all my ideas is condensed and makes sense.

I was able to work with that.

And like I said, I want to make sure that Fearless.

I just didn't want Fearless to be just one story here and there.

I wanted all the stories to connect and I wanted to all of them to continue with the same story behind it.

Like I said, my husband helped me with that and make sure that I'm writing on topic and make sure that we're still carrying the same message.

Because again, I know it's adventurous, but I want children to learn something.

I want them to learn that in Japan they have children that have this disease or that disease or I want children to learn.

Konichiwa means hello.

I want them to learn this and that.

So I wanted to make sure the message still was the same, but we still can have some fun with it.

And it's just like any other comic book or superhero, their story.

Everybody loves the good origin story.

Everybody likes a good continuation of a story.

So I have to keep that in mind and make sure everything still makes sense.

But the message is not being long.

I noticed you've talked about several times about researching.

I can see in your face there's a love of doing research.

And as you move from country to country, it must be fun for you to actually do the research on those countries because have you visited any of those countries that you've that you write about?

So here I'll be visiting Ghana for.

The first time the first country in your book series that you'll actually visit.

Yes.

I'm excited about doing that.

Eventually, I would like to visit different countries and show my children.

Oh, my God.

It's like my baby bowl.

You got the bum look like the one where I'm like, okay, buddy.

You wrote about that?

Yeah, I did.

Exciting.

Carmela, I want you to think back to 2022, because I want to talk to you about success and how you measure success.

The big thing is when you first.

So if you can think back to 2022, what did you envision success to be for your book?

And what does success look like now that you've written four, going on five books?

What's success look like in the beginning, and what's success look like for you now?

Success in the beginning.

I was just so happy, Rick, that I actually was able to put something together.

And I think that was my biggest success, that I, as a mom and a caregiver, I was able to pull something.

Like you, right?

I was able to do the research that was needed, try to find this.

And that did all of that practically on my own.

And I was happy about that.

And I was like, I actually.

I did this and what made me really happy.

And actually, I was like, okay, this is really successful.

When I hosted my first book signing, and I live in a little, small, little city in Marsville, Georgia, and we went to a little local bookstore in the city.

At first I was nervous.

I was like, oh, man, I don't know if I'm gonna do good.

I had 25 books.

I kid you not.

Because I said, you know what?

Me.

You know me, My mind all over the place.

So I was gonna get all these books, and I said, nope, nope.

Scale it down.

I think I got, like, 25 to 30 books.

I started small.

I had my little sign, Rick.

Within an hour, I was sold out.

It was so bad, Rick.

The bookstore said, carmela, do you have any more books?

You'll be fine.

Tom.

Congratulations.

That is terrific.

You don't have any.

No Parabola.

And I'm like.

I read the.

Like, I said I would get all excited and do too much, Rick, and then I'd be disappointed.

So I said, no, I'm going to start small.

And within an hour, they were gone.

People, parents coming up to me.

They were crying.

One doctor, he adopted.

His parents adopted African Americans.

And he was saying, it's hard for us to find books that.

Where he could see himself into them.

And he, like, choking up and trying not to cry.

He was like, My brother saw this book.

He said he was just so elated.

He said he was crying.

Like, oh my God, this is so special.

We hugging and crying.

I did not.

I'm hugging and crying with her mom.

She said, my son is autistic.

So when I read about Cruz, I'm crying and my son looking at me like, mama, what's wrong with you?

I was so nice to hear all the stories and.

Oh, man.

So that, that right there was the biggest.

Oh, man.

I thought I was just.

I was on cloud nine, Rick, about that.

And then how I feel about success now it's the same.

I'm happy to know that my story is getting out there.

Me and Amir was featured on Alana and Company, It's a news segment here last year.

And I just didn't think.

I don't know, Rick.

I just didn't think I would go that far.

And I was like, oh my God.

When they reached out to me and was like, we would like to feature you.

So usually I'm used to being like featured like in little magazines and I've been featured in the urban blog or whatever.

I was like, okay, I'm thinking they gonna write a little something about me.

And that was it.

And Rich, he said, we would like you to come on the show.

And I said, oh my God, I'm sweating just thinking about it.

Getting on that TV and talking to them, it just felt so natural.

And I was like, wow, I'm doing this.

Like, I'm really an author.

It just really hit me in my face.

I was like, I'm really an author.

I'm really doing this.

So it was like, the success then is magnified to now because I've been on the billboard, I've had a billboard done.

I've had a Brazilian radio show talk about me in Brazil.

Like I said, I've had interviews.

And it's just.

I don't know, Rick.

It's just sometimes don't feel real well.

No, but it's terrific.

And you know what, I know what you mean.

Because when we launched our first book, the local newspaper got a hold of us and they did.

I was shocked.

They did a three quarter page write up and a picture with our book and our plushie and the whole nine yards.

And I thought, wow, like, this is beyond my wildest expectations.

But from that newspaper article, two radio stations tracked us down and they wanted to interview me and my oldest granddaughter.

And we went to the radio stations and got interviewed.

Like you said, Carmela, you just don't know where it's going to take you once you get going.

That's right, Rick.

I was nervous and I'm like, oh, man, this is little old me, little old mom.

And I was like, these people really want to talk to me.

It's really cool and a very good experience.

Rick.

Amir go to school and play.

We call it play positive.

He has his eyes closed.

And I tell you, that boy must like the spotlight because his eyes was open the whole interview.

I thought, oh, man, what a positive experience.

And you started in 2022 and now it's almost 2026.

You're producing more than one book a year now.

That's incredible.

Did you ever think that you would turn it into that many books in your series?

No way.

No way.

I thought writing that one book, I said, I got me one book out there.

And then something just kept gnawing at me.

Then my husband, why don't you.

Why don't you licking a sherry.

Oh, man, here I am.

It's nice that you've got the support of your husband.

So tell us now, tell us the role of being a children's book author.

What does it mean to you in the grand scheme of things in your life now, being a children's book?

Arthur?

It means a lot to me.

This is my passion.

I thought passion at first, Rick was baking cakes because that's what I started out doing to help me manage how I was feeling about Amir and his condition and the things that he was going through.

I used bacon as the outlet.

And then after a while, that kind of died down.

And then my desire for writing came upon me and I started writing and stuff.

And I don't know, it's just like a feeling I can't explain.

Like it's just something.

I guess I felt like I was.

People say I was better to do this.

I feel like that.

That I was born to write and born to inspire others.

And my son was born to inspire others because he sure did inspire me.

And I want that feeling to never to die down, because that's my purpose.

That's what drives me.

It drives me not only my love for my son, but my love for other children, too, like my son.

All children, of course.

It's a special place in your heart for children that want to be seen and heard and can't be the voice like I put on my TikTok.

I'm the voice for the voiceless.

And what that means to me is I'm a voice through those fear, those fearless theories.

I'm that voice for them.

I'm that voice for Amir when I go and advocate for him.

Whatever I do, I'm always going to be an advocate for him.

And I want to be an advocate for other children.

We want to see more of children like Amir, other children in the media.

We want to see him on books and this and that, toys.

Why not?

Why can't we see that just because a person is in a wheelchair doesn't mean anything?

Hey, that's cool.

Extra legs, right?

I'm using a cane.

Doesn't make me fit less than a person that doesn't have one.

So that's my purpose.

And it drives me.

It just drives me.

And I'm gonna just continue to do it.

Hey, to my last breath.

That's terrific, because it's interesting.

I had a guest on Krishana Greer episode 44, and she wrote a book called the Boy in the Wheelchair.

And it was such a touching story.

And I had another guest, feral English episode 33 on who just launched a book.

The boy who wanted to fly a Boat.

A boy in a wheelchair.

And I haven't had a chance to talk to her.

It's her second book.

It's interesting how there's some common threads that happen all the time.

And the interesting thing I also find for you is how your husband's embraced it and how it's fit into your life at home in terms of the typical time you take to write.

Have you set time aside or what's your writing time look like?

Is it scheduled?

Are you inspired?

And then you just write.

Like, how do you do your writing?

Essentially, I like to do my writing, of course, when the kids are gone from school and I'm alone and I can actually sit down, gather my thoughts, get my tablet, and then I could just write the ideas, everything to just flow.

And by the time my kids come home from school, my husband comes on, like, to pester him.

Okay, what you think?

I started on my UK story.

What you think?

So we'll sit down, we'll talk and have our ideas and stuff.

And that really, that.

That my kids are gone and, like, all the outside world is shut out.

I can sit down, I can focus on what I want to write about, what I want to say.

I can do my research.

Then, Rick, about, okay, if I'm going to this country, what's the real childhood diseases over there?

I can do my research.

It's quiet.

I have that time all to myself.

So that's the best term that I have to work because I'm busy.

Rick, if it's not being a mom, I'm a caregiver.

I have to take Amir.

He has appointments, he has therapies, he has this and that.

I will never have the time.

Don't you, Rick?

Oh, man.

I can just relax.

Get me some tea and I'm good.

Good for you.

Advice for aspiring children's book authors.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to get started or who has started and then they've stopped.

They just don't know what to do next.

The advice I would give is to do it.

Don't procrastinate.

Do it.

Because you could sit on a gold mine.

Can you imagine if the writers were Harry Potter or Dr. Seuss?

If they just would have sat there, they had a great story and just sat there and we wouldn't have never known nothing about any of these feelings.

Just do it.

That you suicide.

Time to start and do it.

Let your imagination flow a while because I know mine go all over the place, but let your imagination flow.

Cut out the outside world and just do it.

Because I've talked to so many people that says I always wanted to write a two of this book.

I started, but then I stopped and I asked them what, what happened?

Oh, sometimes you lack a motivation and like for me and I can brag, but my family is the best motivation because even my late sister, she passed away from AML leukemia and that was my cheerleader.

When she passed away, I was like, oh, I don't know if I could.

I just, I didn't, I didn't have it in me.

And my husband was the one that inspired.

He said, come on, Mello, turn greed for something to something positive.

Come on, let's continue working with the future.

He was my cheerleader.

Come on, let's you got something good.

Come on, let's continue.

Let's continue.

Continue.

So I did.

Some people do motivation or they don't have the motivation from family members or friends, but find your own.

You don't need that.

Absolutely.

You sitting on the gold mine.

Find your own motivation.

If that's something that you are willing to do and do anything for it, do it.

Don't sit there and relax.

It's so true.

Because the biggest compliment I've got so far for me for this show was I had, I had someone reach out who was trying to get her book finished.

And she reached out and she said, you know what?

Your guests have motivated me to finally take action and finish my book.

She said, if I finish my book and I'm going to finish my book, can I become a guest on your show.

And I said, absolutely.

And about six months later, she was a guest on our show.

Like you said, you find your motivation.

And if it's shows like ours and children's book authors like yourself, Carmela, then use that as your motivation.

Because I always say you're a doer.

You've taken doing to the nth degree, so you're ready.

You're welcome, Carmela.

And encouragement for readers.

Why should children's book readers purchase your books?

They should purchase my books because I think what they will find is the story behind this little boy.

That these children, even though they may not be able to speak, they have the same hopes and aspirations, desires that you have.

And my books teach kindness and teamwork.

So when they see that, and sometimes children like to see what represents them, it will be so happy to see a child on TV that's in a wheelchair when they go to sleep dreaming and they're a superhero.

That will motivate me.

Oh, I got to see that.

I got to read about that.

Like my friend daughter, she's so inquisitive.

She always.

When she comes to the house, she always, I would like to see a mirror.

Okay, we go in his letters, Amir, she holds his hand.

She talks to him.

She has that empathy.

And she always asks me, okay, auntie, so can you tell me about Amir's illness again?

And I sit there with and ran into her.

She said, okay, because I read an established.

I'm the one.

Okay, So I read an asparagus that Amir has explained that to me.

I can't believe President, they want to know what's this?

What makes Amir different.

I think what motivates them is not only, like I said, it's adventurous and they actually can learn something.

It's nothing to a kid to learn my.

I read this book, learn some documentary.

That's exactly how my son is.

Well, okay, buddy.

Having a good time.

And they want to know how to show a little bit of kindness.

How can I do this for this person?

How can I do that for this person?

So that motivates a lot of people.

Yes, that's right.

And I know if I can motivate my niece and inspire my niece, I know I can Many others.

That's terrific.

Your books are available for purchase through Amazon, through.

For everybody who knows about Ingram Sparks.

Ingram Sparks supplies companies like Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, other online book retailers.

So that's where people can get your books and they can also go to your website.

That's correct.

Carmela final thoughts.

Is there anything that you're you thinking?

Oh, I wish Rick would ask me that question.

Is there anything that I've missed here that you'd like to share?

Shoot Rick, you.

You covered everything.

Let me but like just a message out there to parents or caregivers, moms, dad, I know how it feels to essentially grieve somebody that's here.

When you look at a child or a loved one and they're sick and this and that, it's easy to be have that pain and despair.

But turn that into something positive.

And if you are an inspired Arthur that deals with things like I do, turn that grief and that despair into something positive.

Make it a light, make it a beacon, make it motivational because you may touch and inspire others, new upcoming authors and stuff.

Don't give up.

Have that.

Even if you don't have that back end of motivation.

Motivate yourself.

Be your own motivator.

Just do it.

What a great message.

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

Your generosity of time, your insights.

Wow.

A lot of great content for people to digest, including yourself.

Remember, you can go back and listen.

Your content will greatly benefit aspiring children's book authors and readers, and we promise to provide our audience with all of Carmela's social media links and her links to her website.

If you've enjoyed this episode, please hit the subscribe button to listen to future episodes and feel free to share this episode with anyone inspired by or who enjoys hearing about Carmela and her children's book series, Fearless the Amazing Boy with Special Abilities.

Thanks Carmela.

Thank you, Rick.