Writing books for me is kind of like being hooked on caffeine or nicotine. I just can’t quit. Of course I haven’t tried too hard either.
I never know when an inspiration for a book will present itself. Several years ago I was at a craft fair selling my latest book “Holiday Adventures for Kids”. I had threatened to name that book “Amen” as I assumed it would be my last book. But as it went through the publishing process you can see how that plan turned out. Amen became “Holiday Adventures for Kids”. 🙂 That addiction thing kicked in again.
At this particular craft fair a young lady began talking to me. In fact she got excited about my books and actually bought several. That always gets my attention. She was working with a Christian after school youth group in her home and in our discussion she mentioned that she was having a difficult time finding a children’s Advent book.
That was the wrong thing to say to an author, even an author who was planning on naming his last book “Amen”! Immediately the wheels started turning in my brain. Advent, let’s see what would be a good Advent story?
By the end of the craft fair an idea began taking shape in my mind. It was about the stable and all of the animals that lived in the stable. What if they decided to use their talents to ready the stable for the arrival of Baby Jesus? Think of the possibilities! There could be a reading for each day of Advent as an animal used its gift to help ready the stable. Oh, no, here we go again!
The Advent idea continued to churn in my brain for the rest of that fall and as winter approached the retiring author suddenly came out of retirement and began putting pen to paper.
But problems soon arose. Advent is twenty-five days long and my plan was to have twenty-five animals, a different animal for each day, using their talents to ready the stable for the arrival of the Christ Child. I began to run out of animals fast! There were camels, cows, mice, pigeons, donkeys, chickens, rats, and sheep. Let’s see that makes eight animals so far. That means I’ll need seventeen more! Yikes!
As I started to write I was able to have several animals require a couple Advent days to get their talent or gift figured out. The “stay tuned until tomorrow’s reading” would lend excitement and anticipation to the story I thought. I began to loose enthusiasm however as I was still falling short of filling up the twenty-five days of Advent. And then it happened and I’m even ashamed to admit it but I got so discouraged I quit. 🙁
Spring arrived and gave way to summer. I got immersed in the pumpkin crop and the garden. But every now and then I would contemplate ways to fill those twenty-five days of Advent. And then I met a little girl at the Fergus Falls mall that gave me a wonderful idea.
I was selling books at a craft fair at the Fergus Falls mall ( That’s the life of a self-published author marketing his wares.) when this little girl came to my booth and began paging through my “Holiday Adventures for Kids” book. Then she closed the book, clasped it to her chest and began begging her mom to buy the book for her.
That was impressive because children don’t usually show a lot of interest in the written word since the invention of their technology play things. Usually only moms and grandmothers stop and shop for my books. So I asked her which holiday story she liked in the book. Her reply indicated she had no interest in the stories as she said, “I want to color the pictures in the book!” You see the pictures in “Holiday Adventures for Kids” are in black and white.
At first my ego was slightly damaged but the more I thought about it I realized the book could be sold as part ‘coloring book’ too.
Then the lady at a craft fair in Graceville solidified the coloring possibilities when she told me the year before she had purchased “Holiday Adventures for Kids” at the craft fair and she had started coloring the pictures too.
I’m a little slow on the uptake sometimes but those two encounters even got my attention. Coloring is a big deal now so why not add a couple coloring pages to the Advent book. My Advent book just received an ‘idea’ transfusion.
As the next winter approached I tackled the job of resurrecting the disbanded Advent book. Just to be safe I didn’t title the book “Amen” either. I decided it would be called “The First Advent, Stories and Activities”.
By adding two pages to color, a dot-to-dot page, a word find and a puzzle page I solved the problem of not finding enough animals to fill out the twenty-five days of Advent.
Besides the activity pages David the stable boy, Anna the milk maid, Roger Rat, Cow the cow, Barb and Burt the spiders, the stable mice, Tuffy the rooster, One Hump the camel, Wooly and Fuzzy the sheep, Dan the donkey, the pigeons, bees and ants all used their talents to prepare the stable for the arrival of Baby Jesus Christmas morning.
Yesterday I signed off on the book and WestBow Press will begin the process of printing the books and making them available on line as well as being available at most major book stores. It will take two to three weeks for the process to be completed. Go to Amazon.com and type in the book’s title, “The First Advent, Stories and Activities” and get a firsthand view of the book.
It took two years of labor pains to birth my latest book but as I look back on those two years it was well worth it! 🙂
Until next time.