Learning to BE an Author...Again

At the end of 2017, when Shawnee Scientific Press released I See Me: More Than One Tree, my lifelong dream of having a picture book published came true. This is when the world met Becca Epps:

All images illustrated by the wonderfully talented Melissa Connally 

My life grew even bigger than my dreams when I learned that I See Me would be just the first in a series of six picture books!  

Each one of the books gently guides children ages five to eight (and older people too) through acceptance and mindfulness, using stories. An acceptance and commitment training (ACT) model, in particular, is used. Thus, each book covers one core process of ACT. 

I See Me: More Than One Tree is all about what ACT calls self-as-context. In the first book, Becca learns that she's more than her grades, her moods, her body and the roles she plays. 

Book two, to be published by Shawnee ANY day now, is entitled Becca Epps Learns to BE. The ACT process that it covers is contact with the present moment. We learn that Becca has a little trouble with paying attention, delaying impulses and managing her internal and external worlds. She learns some strategies, though, that help her with emotion regulation, relaxation, decreasing distraction. and increasing attention. She learns to like her choices more too. 

Since I wanted to write a book about Becca being in the present moment that was developmentally appropriate, and certainly not too teachy or preachy, I turned to texts on mindfulness for children that I liked a lot. And, I did the ReFoReMo thing. I have to give a proper shout-out to Carrie Charley Brown and Kirstine Erekson Call. For those of you who aren't in the KidLit world, this means, I basically picked apart, in studious detail, mentor texts as part of REading FOr REsearch (MOnth). I counted the words in Lemonade Hurricane by Licia Morelli (published by Tilbury House) and King Calm by Susan Sweet and Brenda Miles, which is published by 'Magination Press and both Peaceful Piggy Meditation and Moody Cow Meditates, published by Wisdom Press and written by Kerry Lee MacLean. There were others that I all approached the same way.  

I looked for empowerment of children. I watched for alliteration patterns, and rules of three, and humor, and themes. And, I did some other important research things but I don't want to give away all of Carrie's and Kirsti's hard earned secrets. I also wrote this book in a writing workshop (Making Picture Book Magic) and had it edited by peers and by my main critique partner and friend (Iris Baldwin), and by all of my students, and my husband, and my mom, and a professional who was running that summer workshop who has multiple picture books published herself. And, I wrote so, so many drafts! It is hard to write about this concept for kiddos even though they "get it" more than adults do :)    

It became really apparent that Becca Epps' strengths and weaknesses were so similar to those of Amy ReBEKAH EPStein Murrell ;) And, I am really proud of this picture book number two, through and through. 

As with the first book, Melissa's illustrations are incredible and really complement my words and bring them to life in an incredible way - making them even better! Check out the little trailer that we made together: 

And, be on the lookout for book three, Hugging the Hard Stuff, which is about acceptance :) That one turned out pretty darn great too!