Since age eight I've loved to string words together- not so much verbally, but in writing. I wrote little ditties, and progressed on to be an editor for my high school paper fancifully called The Stylus, of all things. It was a family tradition in that my father had been editor of that same publication in the early 1940's. He had a penchant for writing also.
One of my first college courses at Sam Houston State University was Creative Writing. I had planned to major in theatre and minor in English. I entered the theatre department and felt so totally out of place and yet I'd been quite successful at UIL 2A One Act Play competitions. I felt I couldn't "hang" with more talented folks from larger schools and never even signed up for one theatre class. The same held true for the creative writing class. I dropped it after two classes since I was overwhelmed by the talent of my peers in the class. I literally had zero confidence. I ended up majoring in elementary education with an emphasis on teaching reading. I really poured into my students the love of writing, yet I no longer wrote for my own enjoyment.
In my master of education in counseling program, I wrote a seventy-eight page research paper. I absurdly loved the process. (Who in their right mind enjoys that?) I kept my little 4X6 research note cards for years and wish I'd never thrown them out. That, my friends, is truly a lost "art".
My passion for writing lay dormant for several more years until I was bored one day proctoring a test for gifted and talented students. I wrote a little poem about a moose that visited our town and all the sites he'd see there. My principal (friend) was having a meeting with a new student's mom (who was to become the campus PTO President) and I laughingly shared by creation. They thought it was cute. My future illustrator (Brenda Nichols) said she'd been an art minor in college (now the Head Coach of the Women's Basketball Program) and said it would be fun to create some pictures for my rhymes. As it turns out, she'd let her love of art disappear in the rush of marriage, babies, and career.
Fast forward a couple of months. I got a text from Brenda who said she'd finished my book. I didn't recall loaning her a book to read! She clarified that it was my illustrations for my moose book. Her talent was evident, and we began collaborating on all sorts of books for kiddos. You know.... counting with the Moose, Moose ABC's, at the beach with Moose, etc.
Unlike me, Brenda was a hot shot go-getter type of person and she decided we should find a publisher. We mailed off copies (after copyrighting a few of our creations) to some publishers and received the polite thanks, but no thanks correspondence. Brenda found a publisher in the Houston area which had published some local authors. She'd found a section for local authors in a little bookstore (yes, they actually had places once upon a time called bookstores where you could touch, look through, scan real books prior to purchase). She began to notice the common publishing company in several of the books. She called and being the type of gal that never takes no for an answer, she talked us into a meeting with said publisher, Smoothsailing Press.
We and our husbands arrived to the location and were greeted with fancy tea and fancy talk. Even though the publisher enjoyed our little offerings, he definitely wanted something much different. He gave us one week to come up with something different. Keep the Moose, but scrap everything else.
Our husbands very much assisted us in this creative process. We brainstormed all the way back to Huntsville and had a name for our little guy, Beauregard Le'Moose. We had a concept; Beauregard would travel the world! And we had our first location: New Orleans, a place we all knew well, and New Friend had even been born there! In spite of jobs and family obligations, we set to work. Me on the text and Brenda on the illustrations (simple map pencils). In one week we phoned the publisher and we were able to email the words and copies of illustrations to him. We'd pleasantly surprised him! He set up a meeting one week later. Again, our spouses joined us, and we were offered "real publishing" which meant royalties (at that time we dreamt we'd get rich off our little moose) instead of the fairly new publishing method known as self-publishing which meant a person paid thousands of dollars for a couple thousand books that the person had to sell themselves. We knew that method was not for us. We even had four other concepts for Beauregard already mapped out and those were quickly copyrighted as well.
You may wonder what happened to our little books? Beauregard Le'Moose is Loose in New Orleans was the only moose book that made it to print before Smoothsailing Press was sold. We had a lot of fun at book signings; the highlight was the one during Christmas at the famous The Little Toy Shop on Decatur in The French Quarter. Our little moose book even lived for a while in the window and on the shelves of that sweet little shop!
New Owners didn't want the little Moose books but wanted me to write chapter books (which research showed was the "in" thing in children's books). We'd been told by a professor in the education department that very few books existed for girls, particularly books about girls in sports! We knew the topic for sure, and invented Miss Priss who became the main character of Miss Priss ~ On and Off the Court. She dreamed of playing basketball despite her mother's attempts to turn her into a ballerina. I really stretched my creativity with this one since it was almost two hundred pages. This publisher did not just "rubber stamp" my offerings. She and her team were brutally honest at points in the process. I even told my husband I was just going to give up!
Brenda had to test her mettle as well because she'd never drawn realistic people before. Simple line drawings were sprinkled throughout the book. She was very busy the summer we were to make the push to completion and was not very available for her most important contribution- her knowledge of basketball. Fortunately, we had a Hall of Fame standout basketball player who had graduated from The University of Texas living with us (a really long story how that happened!) and she became my technical consultant as to what verbiage really came out of real coaches' mouths while instructing new players.
Finally, the Miss Priss ~ On and Off the Court was completed. Brenda was very busy and away now most of the time, so I was scheduled solo for several book appearances through Smoothsailing Press. Miss Priss was "going places." That is until one of the publishing partners became seriously ill and had not many moons to live. It was decided the publishing house would not be sold yet again, but rather just dissolved. We were told there was a long story to this, but we were not privy to details. We were told to come collect all copies of works that had gone to print. My husband and I loaded up his brand new truck (gift for turning the age of 60!) and we hauled as many of Beauregard as the shocks on his truck would allow back to Huntsville. Only a few Miss Priss books ever made it to print, and I went online and bought up the remaining dozen still in existence. We were told that we could never sell them again, yet the rights of the books were ours. Over time, I've given most of my copies away. I do not know what became of New Friend's copies. I treasure the few copies of Miss Priss that remain in my possession; the proof of the hardest work I've ever done. I am proud of each word in that book!
I have never considered trying to find another publisher, although I have copyrights on all four of the Beauregard books and the one Miss Priss. In today's publishing world, the only persons who seem to become published are celebrities who may or may not even scribble the first word of "their" books. This fact has given me pause long enough. I write for me. It's how I began at age eight (brand spanking new, shiny typewriter for Christmas) and that's how I'll write now.
Stay JOYful and Write On!
