A friend sends me the “Guideposts” magazine as a Christmas gift every year.  This spring the magazine, in connection with Inspiring Voices Publishing, conducted a contest.  A story in not a lot of words.  I literally sent them an outline of “Harry”.  I didn’t win but, as I expected, I got a call from the publisher.  Sales, you know.  But the rep. asked if I had considered taking this short story and stretching it into a book.  I told her it started as a short book and I whacked it to meet their contest word requirement.  She was impressed.  She said she thought it’d be a cute kid’s book.  Heck, I hadn’t thought of writing children’s books but I took her words to heart and reviewed and rewrote “Harry”.  The sales pitch?  Didn’t cover “Harry” but the rep thought maybe I had some longer stories I’d like to consider publishing.  Of course, I do have several longer things I’d like to consider publishing.

But I wasn’t impressed with their methods and opted out.  I did continue reworking “Harry”.  I asked Lynnaea Brodar, in Mesa Arizona, if she’d have time to read and comment on it.  She literally edited it right down to the spacing after periods.  She also read it to her 7-year old granddaughter who loved the story.   I asked what she thought of having illustrations of the different cats printed in the story.  Great.

I work with a very talented artist and asked him if he’d consider illustrating “Harry”.  Well, he didn’t know.  He didn’t have a lot of time.  I asked if he’d read the manuscript and give me a definite yes or no.  A week later he asked how many illustrations I wanted.  He loved the story too.

That was when I decided I was going to publish a chldren’s book. 

 

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