The central theme of this podcast revolves around the exploration of Amanda Ferris children's book, "Little Panda and the Sticky Thoughts."

Throughout our dialogue, Amanda articulates her journey as a children's book author, emphasizing the profound significance of addressing children's emotional experiences through literature.

She reflects on her personal motivations, which stem from a desire to reconnect with her younger self and to provide children with the tools to navigate their emotions effectively.

The conversation delves into the intricacies of character development, the importance of meaningful relationships, and the strategies employed to market her book successfully.

Ultimately, Amanda's narrative not only highlights the creative process behind her work but also underscores her commitment to fostering emotional intelligence among young readers.

The conversation subsequently transitions to the practicalities of navigating the children's book market, wherein Amanda candidly shares the myriad challenges she has encountered in promoting her work.

She acknowledges the daunting task of maintaining momentum post-launch and the necessity of self-motivation in the entrepreneurial realm of authorship. Despite the obstacles, Amanda remains resolute, employing a methodical approach to marketing and outreach that includes engaging with her audience through social media platforms.

Her insights into the importance of perseverance and incremental progress resonate deeply, as she advocates for the notion that sustained effort, regardless of scale, is paramount in achieving success.

Through her narrative, Amanda encapsulates the essence of resilience and the inherent value of storytelling in shaping young minds, ultimately reiterating her commitment to fostering emotional intelligence in children through her literary contributions.

Takeaways:

• Amanda Ferris articulates her journey to becoming a children's book author, emphasizing the importance of pursuing one's passion and dreams, which resonates deeply with her core identity.
• The podcast highlights the significance of emotional intelligence for children, focusing on how Amanda's book, 'Little Panda and the Sticky Thoughts,' aims to teach young readers that they are not alone in their feelings.
• Amanda discusses the challenges of marketing her book, underscoring the need for persistence and the importance of incremental progress in the face of discouragement during the launch process.
• The conversation delves into the role of supportive relationships in personal growth, with Amanda sharing how her friends and family helped her embrace vulnerability and authenticity in her writing journey.
• Amanda expresses her desire to create books that foster conversations about emotions between children and their parents, highlighting the potential for enhancing emotional literacy from a young age.
• The podcast concludes with Amanda encouraging aspiring authors to take actionable steps toward their writing goals, emphasizing that starting before one feels entirely prepared is crucial for success.

Links:

• @amandaferriss (Instagram)
• Book Amazon, Little Panda and The Sticky Thoughts

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Miriam Laundry Publishing
• IngramSparks

Amanda Fares, Little Panda and the Sticky.

Thought Thanks, Amanda, for appearing on Adventures in the A Children's Book Authors Podcast.

Amanda has mentioned she's written a children's book, and today we're going to focus on her book, Little Panda and the Sticky Thoughts.

I love that title and I look forward to our conversation.

Amanda, before we jump into the details of your book, can you tell us what being a children's book author means to you?

Oh, that's a good question.

I think it means two things to me.

One is it means that I followed my dream and I did something that has been really meaningful and important to me since I was quite young, honestly.

I used to love to write when I was a kid, so that was the big thing that kind of got me back into it was revisiting who I was when I was little and what I was really passionate about at that time.

So being able to call myself a children's book author now feels really exciting and aligned to who I feel like I am at my core.

And then it also just means that I'm hopeful that I'm making a difference and that I'm teaching kids more about their emotions and more about that you're not alone when you have some of these big thoughts that sometimes when we have we feel alone in.

So it also means making an impact, I hope.

Fantastic.

And so tell us about the inspiration behind your book.

I know there's a dedication page, but tell us the whole inspiration behind behind your book.

Yeah, as I mentioned, I went through a phase of my life where I was really thinking about what do I want?

What would feel really aligned and meaningful for me in my life at this phase where I'm at now.

And I always was a writer when I was young, I would write and enter poetry contests and I would write short stories, and my teachers in elementary school would let me put my short stories on as plays for the class.

So I was always really creative.

And I got to a point where somebody asked me, oh, would you say you're a creative person?

And I said no.

And then that made me so sad because I was like, no, I am at my core, so creative.

And I need to get back to that.

I started wanting to revisit the things that I loved to do when I was young.

And I started taking some writing workshops.

And it was around that time that I actually had a situation with a friend that made me feel really bad, honestly.

And I was struggling with my own thoughts.

But I've done a lot of therapy at this point in my life and so I felt I was actually pretty well equipped to deal with it.

And I had a moment of reflection where I was proud of how I had handled the situation.

And I thought, wow, if my young self would have had these tools, that would have been so helpful.

And then this idea just came to me, and I started immediately jotting down notes and coming up with ideas for different books.

And immediately I knew I wanted it to be a series.

And my grandfather and I had a very close relationship growing up, and he and I would always read together, and that was one of the big things that kept us really close over the years.

And he used to call me his little panda when I was young.

And so it just came to me.

That would be such an amazing way for me to honor my relationship with my grandfather as well.

And so the series idea was born.

Oh, fantastic.

When did you actually start to put pen to paper?

Did you come up with the name first and then build out the story from there?

I actually, when I first had the idea, I had an idea for a different book first, but I knew the series would be called Little Panda in some capacity.

And then when the situation arose with my friend, I knew, okay, I'm going to divert.

I'm going to go this way with this book.

And, yeah, the idea just came to me right away.

I had always thought about thoughts in the realm of sticky thoughts, and I pulled from something I'd been thinking about in my life before, even though I hadn't really ever put it together in the concept of a book.

And then I started just making notes.

So I would just sit and create outlines and come up with ideas.

The classic thing where, like, when I'm lying in bed and my mind starts racing, I would get out my phone notes and jot a few ideas down and then the next day build them into the outline.

Good for you.

I'm curious as you now brought a book to market.

And I did watch your Instagram reels and the opening of your book, and that was fun.

I'm interested now.

You have this product to sell.

You're not only a children's book author, but you also have a children's book business.

What does your children's business book plan look like?

Do you have a plan?

I have a plan that is Honestly, constantly evolving and changing, because this is my first time doing something like this.

And what I've learned is that getting discovered is really hard.

You have this idea and you think it's going to be amazing, and you have the launch, and that's so exciting.

And then the momentum kind of dies, and you realize that it's really on you to keep pushing this forward.

And so I think the number one part of my plan is that I don't allow myself to get discouraged.

And I always tell myself that all I have to do is one little thing to keep moving it forward, and I don't have to feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of things.

So I think that has enabled me to continue with the rest of my plan.

And there's different components to it.

I haven't done much in the way of school visits, but I did my first one last week, and that was so fulfilling.

So I definitely want to do that.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Yeah, it was really fun.

So that's on the plan now.

I'm going to be sending out some press releases, and then I've done a lot on social media, so I want to continue to do that.

And I've actually had a significant amount of success doing advertisements through ingramsparks.

I've been picked up by a few bookstores across Europe and in the US And I remember the first time I got one in the uk, I was thinking, like, well, this is so cool to think that little Panda is making her way across Europe now and exciting, because you just don't know, like, where these things are going to end up.

But it's fun to think that she's out there.

I'm glad you have taking your own advice that you gave yourself, which is just to keep going, because that's where it can get a little frustrating.

Like you said, you had that big push and success at the beginning, and then all of a sudden you think, oh, now what do I do?

What's the sustainability portion?

And that's why I always ask people to share what they're doing in terms of a children's book plan.

Because if you listen to our podcast show, probably 99% of the children's book authors that I've had on the show, even ones that have written 10 children's books, the biggest frustration they have is still figuring out how do I market my book.

And even when I've talked to a couple of children's book authors who have been traditionally published, where they have a publisher, they say the publisher expects you to keep the momentum going on your book, they're not going to do it for you.

Yeah.

When I learned that, I was also really surprised because I'm like, what are you taking all the money for if you're not going to help this market?

So that was so surprising to me to learn that because I thought that they would be undergoing a lot of marketing if you went that path.

But, yeah, it's definitely a challenge.

You just have to be willing to not give up and not be discouraged by the fact that things do seem quiet.

And that's just part of the process.

What I try to tell myself is these things happen slowly over time.

With something like this, especially in the genre that my book is in and my series is in, it's a lot about, I think, word of mouth and how it makes people feel and do people trust in the messaging and those kind of things don't really happen overnight.

You have to establish trust.

And I think you need to leave room for people to discover it.

And I just constantly try to remind myself that.

And obviously it's not always easy because it does feel like an uphill battle.

So that's why I kind of just tell myself, if you can just do one thing each day or two or three things each week, even if they're really small, that's still forward movement, and that's really what matters.

If I can just keep taking forward movement, that's how I measure my success currently.

Good for you.

And I noticed you have your book format in soft cover, hardcover and ebook.

And just so you know, and I wanted to show you this, I have your book on my iPad.

Love it.

You can see how vibrant the colors are.

I'll move it through this a little bit, but I just.

Look at that.

That is just phenomenal.

I love colors.

Yeah.

So that's all my iPad.

So nice job.

Thank you so much.

The illustrator did an amazing job and I gave her guidance in the beginning.

Now I will say I am creative, but I am not artistically creative.

And so when I started working with the illustrator, I told her, I'm not good at this part of it, but I know that I want it to be whimsical.

And I like pastels and those kind of whimsical, magical colors.

And so she really took that and ran with it, which was amazing.

And I actually loved it because when I did the school visit, the kids were saying, how did you pick those colors?

Colors are so bright and magical.

So the.

Well, and you know, I love.

Is that I love the color purple.

It's sounds like a good name for a book.

It's a great color and I don't think gets used as much as it should.

So good for you because it definitely is a standout color.

Tell us a little bit about how you.

When I talk to some children's book authors, they usually launch with either a hardcover or an ebook, or they launch with a soft cover and an ebook.

Tell us why you decided to launch with all three formats, like a hardcover, a softcover and an ebook.

Yeah, I love a hardcover book and I think they look so beautiful.

Not that a softcover doesn't, but there's just something extra special about it.

And I think a lot of people like hardcover books when they're building a collection of books.

And also I think hardcovers are like slightly more durable for children.

But I just wanted everything to be available so that people could choose whatever felt the best for them.

And thankfully it was easy to facilitate that.

Although I know initially Amazon has a very high price for hardcover.

So it was a little bit of time before the hardcovers were getting any traction other than when I was selling them directly.

And I noticed your pricing, this is only my opinion is and it's because we have ourselves written published to children's books.

I noticed that your all your pricing tends to me to be on the lower side of where it should be.

There is a little wiggle room for you to perhaps take your margins up a bit.

And because it's not inexpensive to bring a children's book to market.

I just mentioned that to you is, you know, I just go on Amazon.

I don't know if you did that, but you'll see that that 999 for an ebook, I think you're about half of that is about standard.

Now I'm talking for the audience.

I'm talking in Canadian pricing.

Of course, American would be less than that for sure.

And then a hardcover ranges because it all depends how you get it printed.

And hardcover can be a lot more expensive to get it printed.

And that's why the price is so high.

Yeah, no, it's true.

And that's good feedback.

I thought you were going to say the other way, that it's too expensive.

And I'm like, oh, I got to go look at the prices.

It sounds like I got to look at my prices anyways.

It was honestly hard to set the prices because it's my first book.

Yeah, I didn't really have context or understanding of the market properly.

And there's such a range of prices as well when you look on Amazon.

But my.

You're right.

I think My ebook is 499 or something very low.

So I think they need to.

Yeah, just evaluate that and look at how that works.

I mean, it's something that you just have to look at all the time for sure.

And play with it.

You publish through ingramsparks, and a lot of the children's book authors that I have on the show do go through ingramsparks.

And a lot of that's primarily for two reasons.

One is to reach all the other online retailers, and two is they will do a children's book, print it in a hardcover format versus Amazon.

You have to be a minimum of 72 pages before they'll actually print a hardcover book.

But tell us about the marketing aspect of it, because you're one of the few that I've talked to who've actually used ingramsparks ads to promote their book.

So tell us how you did that, and is it an expensive venture or do you feel like you're getting a return on your investment?

When I initially did it again, it was when I was creating my ingramsparks account and it had a promotion at the time.

So I. I think it was $150.

And then they would do a push, essentially where you would be featured on the front page and they would kind of do that, I think for a month it was.

And I, at the time, I didn't really have any context of what that meant, but I just figured, yeah, why not get it out there, hopefully be seen by some bookstores?

And I would say I probably got picked up by seven bookstores from that.

So in terms of returning on my money, I probably did not.

But I view some of these things like a little bit of a loss leader where maybe I didn't make the money back in books.

But for me, the fact that now my book is out there in markets that I don't live in, and now it's going to be able to trickle through those markets to me, I just want that exposure at this stage because I'm just trying to increase awareness about my book.

Some of the costs I've spent, I would say I've viewed it more like that in terms of can this over time create more awareness for my book that maybe lead to sales down the road?

And so that's how I view the Ingram Sparks investments that I've made.

And I've Done one or two other runs that have been about the same, like around a hundred dollars, and have resulted in kind of similar results.

Okay, good for you.

It's good to know.

And like I said, it's great information to be passed on because most of the children's book authors that I've had on as guests definitely use ingramsparks.

But you're the first one that's told me that you ran a couple of promotions to get further distribution, which I think is awesome.

So congratulations on doing that.

Thank you.

It is pretty exciting to see a random bookstore in some other part of the world ordering your book.

There's no doubt about it.

I want to talk to you about your publishing approach.

And first of all, each one of us has a unique publishing approach.

And terminology always gets played with.

Uh, I always talk about independent or indie publishing.

I talk about south slash hybrid publishing, and then I talk about traditional publishing.

And with myself and my grandkids, we publish our own books.

Our latest book, Hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival.

We're the publisher.

So the name of our publishing company is Caboose, the Rocky Mountain Bear Publishing Den.

And that's named after our main character, which is Caboose.

I love that.

Yeah.

And a lot of fun.

Now, I noticed that you have gone through Miriam Laundry Publishing.

Tell us about why you chose that method for yourself.

Yeah.

Getting started, I had this goal.

I knew I wanted to publish a book, and I knew I could figure it out on my own.

But I have a day job currently, and so I also knew that I was going to be having to try to balance this with what I'm doing day to day.

And initially, I took the masterclass on writing children's books, and there was just so many steps and stages.

And so I thought for my first book, it would be nice to have a really guided process.

I looked into the program, and I found out that it's a year.

You get a coach who guides you through it, and there's key deadlines that happen throughout the year to keep you on pace for getting your book published.

For me, I also knew somebody who illustrated the book a long time ago, and he and I had a conversation about what his experience was of the costs of getting these things done.

And there didn't seem to be like, a crazy difference in what I was paying versus what he anticipated the cost of doing it alone would be.

And so it just felt like a safe route for my first book, so I can really learn what I'm doing.

I liked having the Pressure of the timeline because it is a self motivated work to publish and write a children's book and there's no one telling you, hey, you need to hit this deadline.

I liked the idea that I could have some kind of deadlines to give myself the impetus to get things going and keep in a forward motion.

So I felt like for my first book just having that combined with clear advice and then help on some of the behind the scenes things.

I'm really glad that I did it that way because there would have been a lot going on and I, I just think initially when it's something that's so new, any of those barriers that stack up too high can be the reason why you don't do it.

Where you get overwhelmed and it feels like too much.

And I just wanted to remove the potential of those kind of barriers.

Romantic, probably 15 to 20%.

I haven't actually calculated out have used Miriam Laundrie, the children's book authors that I've had on as guests.

And I get a very similar story on the first book that they bring to market and publish.

And it's always positive.

I ask them, so I'll ask you the same question.

And I get varying answers.

Just so you know, is, would you use Miriam again to publish your second book if there's a second book in your future?

There's definitely a second book in my Future.

I've got 22 outlines for books, so.

I'm going to be ready for with my grandchildren.

We've written 38 children's books in our series.

The Adventures of Caboose, the Rocky Mountain Bear.

That's amazing.

Well, I need to pick your brain on your experience then because your point that you made earlier, like writing a children's book and getting out in the world is not cheap.

And so I want to do this in a way where I can continue down this path.

But I also obviously need to be very conscious of costs and what I'm investing, especially in the early phases where you're not really getting a ton back.

I have a really great person, Con Lavery, who lives in Vancouver.

He is phenomenal and he's the book formatter for all of our books.

And he does formatting in ebook, hardcover, softcover.

Amazing.

And he's also a website designer.

Tell us when it came to the publishing of your book, so what was the biggest challenge or frustration?

The biggest challenge, honestly, I would say has been like since the book launched with the marketing, that's definitely been the biggest challenge for me.

And then I think, yeah, the Other challenge, maybe that I had was working with an illustrator who was very busy.

And I did unfortunately have a lot of missed deadlines because I was on pace with this program.

That was a little bit stressful because there were moments where I thought I may not make my.

Set a launch date that I had.

Miriam.

They give you some recommended.

As far as I understand, they give you some recommendations on illustrators, but you choose your own illustrator.

So talk to us a little bit about that process about finding your illustrator.

Yeah, they do recommend a few agencies, and then it's up to you to decide do you want to work with those agencies or not.

I did end up finding a handful of illustrators whose work I really loved through one of the agencies that they recommended.

And what I basically did is I found it's hard because you have a portfolio, but obviously none of them are really going to match the vibe of your book.

So I chose, based on.

My main character is a panda bear.

I looked at people who had illustrated animals to see if they had styles of illustrating animals that spoke to me.

And then I looked at illustrators who were using color schemes and patterns that I liked.

And I kind of narrowed down from there.

And then I emailed the agency and just said, hey, here's five illustrators that I really like what I see from their portfolios.

And they kind of emailed back.

I think three of them had totally full books for the next year, and I just didn't want to wait that long.

So then she gave me a couple names of people who had capacity for the next little while, and then we kind of narrowed from there.

I had a couple conversations just to see if they were open to working with me, shared the script for my book, and then we went from there.

So, yeah, it was a fun process.

I honestly found it hard because there's so many talented illustrators.

So five tabs open on my computer to, like, how to.

And I noticed you went with someone in the uk.

Yeah.

And you know what?

Our illustrator.

Now, I didn't go through the same process as you.

I went to the Internet.

I knew I was looking for a specific style.

And we had actually developed our main character through a plushie.

Oh, yeah, the background there.

Nice.

Yeah.

So that's our plushie.

And then I was able to send a picture of the plushie to our illustrator and say, this is our main character.

And then.

And he was able to develop our whole.

It's kind of cool because we've got two children's books now in our series, and he was Able to build our characters around the look of Caboose, who happens to be female and is named after my granddaughter Kira.

And that's why Caboose starts with a K, because Kira starts with a K. Yeah.

So a lot of fun.

That's so cute.

I love that you guys did the plushie first.

That's such an interesting order, because I would love to do a plushie at some point.

So that's on my radar of things I want to do as well.

But it's so interesting.

That was your first step.

That's cool.

You know what it was is because my oldest granddaughter and I had went and we wrote our first story together, and she was the one who motivated me and her and I spent a lot of time in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

And she said, papa, we've done so many adventures.

We have so many pictures.

Can we write a story?

And so then we did that, and we came up with this idea of a bear in a trained engineering outfit.

And she had never seen a caboose because they stopped using cabooses about 20 years ago.

But we had one in our home.

It was my dad's toy train set.

And at the end of it was a red caboose.

And so she said, what is that?

Then we visualize in our mind what Caboose looked like.

And then my wife and I were in San Francisco on a vacation and went into one of those plushie stores, and magically we took a bear that we liked and then we clothed it.

That is so sweet.

I love that story.

We brought it back, and the first thing we did was show it to Kira and she said, caboose.

So she knew, just like my wife and I, what Caboose looked like.

We just hadn't brought Caboose to life.

That's amazing.

So a lot of fun.

Tell us a little bit more about your illustrator.

Would you use the same illustrator again for your second book?

I would, yeah.

She did an amazing job.

I love her illustrations.

I love her representation of little panda.

I love her use of colors, and there's just so many cute little details in there.

I think there's one page where they're having a little tea party and she's got the stuffed animals, and then she's that and she's dragging her bag and just.

I just think she did such a good job of capturing all the emotions.

And yeah, I, I, I love the.

Continuity, too, of characters, you know, that's why I saying to you is that when we finally got our main character, our illustrator was got Continuity of character.

And you probably know what I mean.

When I look at Digger and I look at Foxy, there's a continuity of character there.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

No, and I think it's nice to be able to have that same feel throughout a series.

Absolutely.

I'm curious about an author's website or a website.

Is that in your plans?

Definitely, yeah, that's definitely in my plans.

And something I want to get set up.

Do you want to do an author's website or do you want to do a branded website?

Yeah, yeah.

I'm like, in the process right now of trying to decide that because I'm thinking the same thing for my social medias.

I've been trying to think whether I want to continue going on my personal social media account or whether I want to create an account specifically for Little Panda and that series.

And I'm leaning towards the direction of the Little Panda universe.

So I think that's probably where I go and that's what I'm thinking at this point.

I think at some point I'll probably need to bring somebody on to help me with that because I think that's not my forte.

If you go to our website, Caboose, it's Caboose, the Rocky Mountain Bear.com Caboose with a K. And have a look at our website.

We decided because we had 38 stories in our series that we would brand it under our main character brand, and that's what we did.

So anyways, I just suggest that you look at that because it'll give you an idea if you want to go that way.

Or I would say probably 90% of the children's book authors I talk to use their own name.

And most of that's because they don't have one central or branded character.

They've written four or five children's books, but they don't have the same branded character.

They go under one umbrella.

That's all you have to really think about is what's Your intention?

Yeah, Arval, 38 of your books series are published.

Great question.

No, we've only published two because of the cost is published.

We have two in development.

So, yeah, would I like to get all 38?

When we hit the lotto max, give me a call.

That's what I like to do with my 22 books.

I'm like, they're there and they're ready, but there's going to be strategic.

Roll out some beasts.

I will tell you one thing that we did, though, because I have five grandchildren, we have made about half of them into audiobooks using their young voices.

Oh, that is so cute.

I love that.

That's such a great idea.

Yeah, I'm really happy about that.

We definitely have about half of them in audiobook format now.

Have we published them all in audiobook format?

Not yet, but I'm slowly working towards that.

Amazing.

That's awesome.

With your website now, I know you're going to work on that, and you're still deciding whether you go branded with your character or you go author.

I also noticed you have over 5,800 Instagram followers.

And I, like, I just about fell on the floor because that's a great number to have.

It's mostly Instagram.

Tell us about this Instagram journey that you went on and how it worked for you, because I know you did some publicity before you launched your book and then, of course, when you launched your book and after your.

After you launch your book on Instagram.

So take us through your Instagram strategy.

Yeah, so it was interesting.

Like, I tried the TikTok and Instagram, and TikTok definitely was more successful than Instagram.

But I felt like my journey would be an interesting part of the storytelling because I have been a corporate lawyer for the last 10, 11 years.

I love seeing people on a journey of fulfillment where maybe the path they started on isn't the path that they end on.

And there has to be some point of transition where we really take a risk, take a leap, believe that we could do something different from what we're doing now.

And I think that journey is interesting and inspiring because it's really easy once you start in one path, to feel like, now I'm on this path, this is what I have to do.

And so when I came up with the idea, my brother, he's really big in social media, and he's really good at that.

And so he was, yeah, you should tell this story as part of the process because people will find that inspiring and interesting.

And it was definitely outside of my comfort zone to do that.

I think people really liked following along, and it was one of my favorite parts of the process was the reconnection with people from different points of my life, who you forget when it's out there online, who might be watching it.

I had some amazing, like, connection moments with people from my past, from different points of my life who had followed along and were really inspired by it, really loved the story.

People who were messaging me saying, oh, you inspired me to sign up for a class for this, or I've been thinking a lot about this since watching your stories and now I think I want to get into this.

And that was so meaningful for me, especially because it felt so uncomfortable putting myself out there like that.

So to have some of those really nice moments coming from it definitely motivated me to keep going with it.

Is your.

Your social media preference Instagram, or do you have a TikTok account also?

I do have a TikTok account as well, but my preference is definitely social Instagram.

The trick is for you now to figure out if you decide to go branded with with Little Panda, how to get some of those followers, 5,800 to move over with you or transition or.

I know that's the hardest part, honestly, starting fresh, just a lot of work.

To grow Instagram or social media accounts these days takes a lot of consistency and vulnerability.

And starting from scratch with a new Little Panda account will be, again, another uphill battle on this channel could be.

A little easier because at least, hopefully, of the 5,800 followers, maybe not all of them are looking for a children's book.

But for those who come over and follow you, from those 5,800 to little panda, they might be more core.

And that's what you're looking for, right?

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Was there a specific person or event that motivated you to finally.

Because we talked about when you were younger and you entered writing contests and you love that aspect of it and your creativity, and then it went dormant, and then all of a sudden, boom.

It's like a magic wand hit you over the head and you picked up your pen and said, oh, I'm going to get back at this.

I'm going to write a children's book.

So was there a specific person or event that just triggered you to finally do this?

It had just been slowly building over a number of years.

I'm just feeling, like a general sense of dissatisfaction in my life as a corporate lawyer.

I was really good at my job, but I didn't feel fulfilled by the work that I was doing.

And so I think I was getting to the point where I was feeling like, okay, I've had quote, unquote, success in my career, but it's not giving me this sense of meaning and fulfillment that I hoped I would feel in my life.

And over a number of years, I was thinking, okay, if I wasn't going to do this, what would I want to do?

And initially, anything that I felt really called to do, it felt so different and far removed from what I was doing as a corporate lawyer that I almost, just for a year or so dismissed those things and kind of felt like they weren't possible because it was too big of a change from where I was currently at.

But I think the trickle of that feeling grew and grew over a number of years until I finally just decided I can't be someone who just decides that my life looks like this, and I'm just not even gonna try to change it if I want more meaning in it.

And so at that point, I just asked myself, okay, I need to maybe let go of the idea that I have all the answers now or know how it's gonna work out and just figure out the same as what I've said with the book is just like, what are some small things that I could do that would make inspired or that I'm moving in a direction that feels better and more exciting to me?

And so at the time, I watched a Hallmark movie, which is kind of funny, but it was about this woman who was, like, reconnecting with her younger self.

And it.

I think it just inspired me of, yeah, I need to think back to who I was when I was young, of what are the things that were just core to who I was that nobody was telling me to do this.

This was just inside of me of what I wanted to do.

Writing has always been that.

I've always, in the back of my mind, ever since I was young, had this goal to write a book or write books.

And so it's not like that idea came from nowhere.

It's just something that I had never really pursued.

Even as a lawyer, I write professionally.

It's a different kind of writing, But I've just always liked writing and I've always been good at it.

And so it was just like this slow step of, okay, all I have to do is just sign up for a workshop.

Because the idea of a book, I didn't initially, I wasn't thinking children's book, but the idea of a book.

I had some ideas, but it seemed overwhelming to me because there's a lot that I feel like I need to learn to write a full novel.

But I just said, okay, take that barrier out of your mind and then just sign up for a workshop and just start writing.

Start free writing and get yourself in the mindset of someone who writes.

And then the next step will come when you're ready for the next step.

I just tried to think about it in that way, and it was that sequence of events and then obviously, the situation with my friend, and then things rolled from there.

So it was definitely building over a few Years.

You know what?

It's interesting.

We all come at it a little differently.

For me, I've never grown up, so when I had five grandchildren, I just got to live my childhood over again.

And this time we've turned it into stories.

I love that.

Yeah.

I honestly think it's so important.

I would say I'm the same as you.

Even though I've gone on this more serious path.

I've always been so young at heart.

And I. I love a sense of play and silliness is so important to me in my life.

And so, yeah, just re embracing that.

I think it keeps us young and it keeps us happy.

I love that you get to do this with your grandkids.

I feel like that's such a fun and special thing that they're gonna always remember forever.

And for you guys to have that time and be able to do this together is so amazing.

My grandfather is no longer with us, but I would have loved for him to be here for part of this because I know he would have loved it so much too.

That's fantastic.

And it's nice that you and him were engaged in reading.

That's very cool.

I'm curious about your character development because now that you've told us, you've given us some behind the scenes or behind the curtain and your playfulness and your idea not relive your childhood, but to bring out some childlike fun in your life.

Talk to us about little pandas.

Character development is part of Little Panda, a reflection of your personality.

And then take us through Little Panda's mom and dad and Foxy and Digger.

Little Panda definitely is a reflection of me in many ways.

I have always been like, very playful, energetic, all these things.

But I have also always carried within me this people pleasing side of myself and this desire to please other people.

And I can get anxious if I feel like people don't like me or if I misconstrue a situation.

And there's different layers of this that are going to play out in future books.

But I just really felt like the best way that I can tell this story in a way to help other people is a way that I understand, which is my own experience of these things.

And so that's where that came from.

And it has been really amazing because so many people who have read it will and adults.

Honestly, one of my.

One of our family friends bought it and then she brought it to a book club of 25 women and then they all bought four copies because they read it at their book club and they were like.

I felt like I was reading my own story, reading this, which is amazing, because when we feel these things, we feel alone in them and we feel like nobody else feels like that.

So that was really important to me.

And then when I was developing the characters for her parents and her friends, I wanted these to be characters who can help her on her journey, but also who allow her to learn these things for herself.

I've been really lucky in my life that when I got to a point in my life where I was ready to start being a little bit more honest and a little bit more vulnerable, I've been really lucky to have friends and family who have been really supportive and then step into that vulnerability with me as well.

But I know not everybody has that, but I wanted to represent that as a possibility so that people who read this book understand that there are relationships like that out there and that those are the kind of relationships we should all be seeking to have.

So do you have a foxy and a digger in your life?

I have many foxy and diggers in my life.

I'm grateful to have amazing friendships in my life.

Yeah, I love it.

I love it.

So do your friends try and say, oh, Amanda, is that me?

Nobody's actually asked that question yet, which is funny.

So I wouldn't say each one has an exact replication in my life, but more representative of the kinds of relationships that I have.

Oh, good.

And so hopefully, after they listen to this podcast episode, we're going to say they'll come out of the woodwork.

Exactly.

They're going to be demanding to know which one it is.

Yeah, I love it.

And what about your mom and dad?

Yeah, my parents actually split up when I was really young.

That this is not an accurate representation of the book.

Okay.

But both of my parents remarried before I was 4, and so I've grown up with my full family.

I've got six brothers and sisters across two households.

And we all grew up together from when we were babies.

And we're all very close.

So I've been really lucky to have two full families.

And I'm really close with both of my stepparents.

Nice.

That's fantastic.

So I know you started discuss the theme and how you're looking ahead to other relevant themes to your main theme.

Talk to us a little bit more about the theme of the book.

The theme of this book really is about emotions and anxiety and these thoughts that come into our head that they feel really real in the moment, and how can we not let ourselves be so overcome by those feelings and fears that it derails our life or takes us out of the path that we should be on.

And I've had this before where I'll get really anxious.

And you believe sometimes what your brain is telling you in those moments, and it can hold you back from life if you let it.

And you can get too carried away with these stories.

And so the theme is really believing in ourselves in such a way that, like, when we have these thoughts come up, we can recognize that they're there and they don't have to control us.

And then we also have the ability to question them and maybe think about whether or not they're real or is there something else to this situation that maybe is influencing why those thoughts may be coming up and then how we can get on track back to our true self.

And the theme of all of the books is going to be similar is helping people to understand that we all have big emotions like that within us, and then we're not alone when we have those things.

And then hopefully, over the course of the series, giving people tools of when these things come up.

How can I handle this?

So with Little Panda, we saw that she really wanted to avoid these feelings.

At first, she did not want to feel them.

And I think a lot of us want to do that.

We try to avoid these things, and we hope that it'll go away if we avoid it.

But with Little Panda and her sticky thoughts, they just get louder the longer you try to avoid them.

And she tried eating lots of cookies, and she tried distracting herself with video games, and eventually she really just had to face those things.

And I think we could all benefit from a younger age at learning that we don't have to run from those feelings and that actually there's a real power in facing them and being able to have honest conversations about the very real things that we're feeling and the very real things that we're all feeling.

I hope that those are the messages that kids can take with them, and it gives them language to help articulate the things that they're feeling.

Fantastic.

Talk a bit about the central teaching, because what I loved about your book, and definitely it's towards the end of the book, is that you have exercise questions to do some reflection on the story.

And I thought that's really kind of neat because a lot of times you get a children's book and you read it.

I'm not sure if parents always are asking their children, so what did you learn from this book?

Or they don't know how to maybe formulate the question.

And the nice thing about it is you did it in a fun way.

It's, I think, about six questions.

It creates some extra dialogue.

Talk to us about all of that.

I wanted there to be a way for families to discuss these things after in a way that was easy for the kids.

So I wanted them to be able to think about what happened to Little Panda in the book and then try to be able to articulate it for themselves.

Because I think that's the first step in this message being useful for them going forward.

If they can have a conversation after they read the book and understand the concepts in it and what it means to them, I think they're going to be more likely to be able to articulate that going forward.

And then for parents, I hope that it created an easy way for them to have these conversations with their kids and for them to think about what those conversations might look like.

And then also it paves the way that once they've had that conversation, if these things come up in the future, they maybe have a language that they can recognize within each other of how they're talking about these things.

And I think it just opens the door of establishing that kind of communication.

And so then those kinds of conversations feel safer in the future because they're already existing and they're already happening.

And I'm sure people who are reading the book are already definitely more leaning to the side of being people who are having those conversations.

Anyways, I hope that it creates an environment to have those and also for the kids themselves to be a little bit creative, because I think some of the questions in there are asking the kids, what would this look like to you?

How does a sticky thought look in your brain?

And so it's also teaching the kids that they can see this from their own lens.

And it's not necessarily just the way that we drew it in the book, but that there's room for their imagination.

And maybe it looks a little bit different for them.

And that's okay, too.

Absolutely.

I talk to a lot of teachers who are children's book authors or retired teachers, and a lot of them focus on that social, emotional learning.

It's great because that allows.

Maybe it's a tough dialogue with your parents, but it's not a tough dialogue if it's in a form of a question through a children's book.

It creates that dialogue.

So that's fantastic.

And I noticed a lot of children's book authors now are creating a curriculum from their books because they're Trying to get their books into the school systems.

The nice thing is you've got a nice base to develop a curriculum.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

So share.

Now that we know you're going to work on.

Wow.

Like you said, working on a second book, you've got ideas.

You outlined 22 books.

Share some insights into your development and writing process for your children's book.

Yeah, so I was lucky because it was one of those flow moments that they talk about, like, synchronicity, where when I first got the idea and all the ideas were coming at me, I feel like when you enter a state of flow, for me anyways, it's like the ideas are coming to you, but you don't know where they're coming.

It's like some kind of spiritual connection or something like that.

The ideas are coming.

So I had all my initial ideas and I was brainstorming.

And then basically what I would do over the next little while is anytime I would have an idea, day or night, I have a note open in my notepad in my phone specifically dedicated to these books.

And so anytime I have an idea, I just quickly go in there, I jot a few things down so I don't forget it.

And then once I'm ready to actually write the next book, I will sit down and I'll go through.

I'll create an outline.

What is the flow of the story?

What's the key message that I want to happen?

And I find once that usually happens, my brain will start, like, filling in the gaps, and I'll, ooh, like, this would be a good idea for this part.

And this will be.

So I'll write those all down more.

An outline, like point form.

Nothing like overly developed.

But I let that percolate.

And then maybe over the course of a month or so, I won't do anything other than just add to my outline, and I'll let the ideas come to me when they will.

And honestly, sometimes in that process, I'll get an idea for one of the other books, and so I'll just go add to the outline for that book, too.

And then I found when it was time with this book to write it down, I had to force myself in a room for a day.

And I said to myself, you're not leaving until you have a draft.

And it doesn't matter how bad the draft is, but you just have to write one.

Because I sat down and I tried to write the first sentence of the book so many times, and it honestly sounded so bad every single Time that I would just be like, okay, obviously today is not the day.

I'm just not going to write it today.

And then eventually I realized, okay, I'm never going to write it if I allow this to be the thing that is holding me from writing it.

I basically just said, okay, the first sentence is the first paragraph, the first page, whatever is going to be really bad.

But that's okay.

Just write the draft.

And the first paragraph was honestly by far the hardest.

And then once that was on the paper, at least the rest floating came to me.

And a lot of changes happened from that point.

But it was a lot easier to edit it and refine it than it was honestly to get that first paragraph done.

But I just really had to be forceful with myself at that point.

I think that's gonna be the way forward with all of them.

Absolutely.

And it's interesting.

I was lucky cause I was a member of Toastmasters for years.

And the one thing about Toastmasters, of course, they always said you had to have a strong opening.

That taught me to think about the opening first.

And so for me, it was the end that was more difficult than it was the start.

I thought the start was hard for everybody.

So you're proving me wrong.

Yeah.

So just join Toastmasters and you'll learn how to do strong openings and you'll be fine.

Okay, what do you do that would be nice?

Because I feel like the first sentence just always sounded so silly to me.

I'd be like, no, this sounds ridiculous, I'd have to go back.

But you learned the art of hooks.

Besides your own personal experience.

Are you conducting or did you conduct any additional research to write you books?

I didn't actually.

I feel like I have done a lot of therapy.

I've done therapy for 12 years.

So a lot of what I pulled on are things that I've learned over the years from therapy and different retreats and workshops that I've gone on.

So for this book, I didn't do any specific research other than pulling from what I've learned through my own therapeutic experiences.

Maybe for a future book that that may change.

You talk to us about writing and I'm curious to just delve a little deeper.

Can you tell us what your role as a children's book author now means to you in the grand scheme of your life?

Because I know you have a very busy professional life.

But talk to us about how it's rounded out your life by becoming a children's book author.

It honestly has really given me the sense of meaning and Purpose that I was initially looking for.

It feels very aligned for me.

It feels very meaningful.

I love the idea of creating something, but I love even more the idea of hopefully having a positive impact on young readers who.

It's hard growing up, and it's hard learning about all our emotions at a time when you care so much about what the people around you think, and you're trying to make friends and you're easily influenced by the people around you.

And I think we are at an interesting point in time now where there's a real shift towards prioritizing mental health in these kinds of conversations.

But I think for me, it just is so important to equip children to grow and develop in a way that's gonna help them succeed as they age and be better equipped as adults to manage their emotions and things.

I think it's obviously so important for each individual child.

I think for our society as a whole, it's also very important that we raise children and adults who can handle these kinds of things in ways that are maybe less harmful than some of what we see in the world now.

Absolutely.

I've talked to several children's book authors who have said, you know what?

It has been for their mental health.

It's helped them out a lot.

One of my earliest guests, Amber B. Mitchell, episode 30.

The first thing she said to me, and she wrote the book the Chickadee who Knew?

And it was quite interesting to hear that now you taking writing and fitting it into your life.

Talk to us about how you see how it's going to enrichen your life.

I think it enriches my life in so many ways from a creative fulfillment perspective.

But the connections that I've been making with people and families and kids during the school visit, that was so amazing.

I almost dissociate in a way, like when people are complimenting me on the book sometimes it's almost hard to process.

That is my book that I wrote, if that makes sense.

It's very surreal in a really cool way.

But the connection from that is really amazing.

And so I just want to keep doing it and making sure that I'm, like, finding the time to allow this to exist in my life because it is just so fulfilling.

And I think that, like you mentioned earlier, the community of children's book authors have been so amazing to connect with, and all of the relationships and connections coming from it have been so wonderful.

So it's really important to me to continue on this path.

For sure.

Good for you.

I loved how you shared your method of capturing those ideas you have into an app.

And I think that's very appropriate.

I use my note app and I love how you shared that.

But I'm also wondering, are you devoting a certain amount of time to writing or is it more inspirational or what's driving your time to write?

It's definitely mandated.

So once I have my notes in a good place, I have to look at my week, make sure that I feel like I'll have the capacity for it that week.

But I try to give myself mandates of okay, this three day weekend, Saturday is about the book or every week I give myself mini goals.

You're going to send a message to three people this week to try to get the book out there, give three gifts away or whatever it is.

So I set like mini deadlines for myself and I'll be honest with you, I don't always meet them, but I meet them more than if I weren't setting any for myself.

So I think that's again, what I'm like measuring it by is am I actually just consistently doing things to move it forward?

But I definitely have this self mandated time and for the writing specifically, it's very much like mandated.

Like I will pick a day and I will just force myself to sit on that day and I will not let myself leave until I've written like X amount of words or pages or whatever.

Let's take this advice a bit further.

So what kind of advice would you give aspiring authors?

I think you just have to do it.

The biggest thing personally for me that used to stand in my way was getting overwhelmed by the volume of things that had to happen for my end goal to arrive.

And the number one thing that allowed me to move forward and be successful in publishing a book was to let go of all of that and be okay with not knowing how things were going to turn out, but taking the next step in the process anyways.

And so I would say start before you're ready, start before you know how it's all going to work out, or before you know what all the steps are and just think of what is the next thing that I could do that is within the realm of my skill set my knowledge base now and trust that if you are always doing that every time you finish the next step, eventually you will figure out what the next one is and before you know it, you'll have written and published a book.

If you can't get past that, it will always remain elusive in the future because there's never going to be a perfect time and you're never going to have all the answers when you start.

Thank you.

What keeps you going as a children's book author?

That feeling of purpose and, like, mission driven that I feel when I'm writing and when I'm working on Little Panda, along with the idea of the impact that I can possibly be having based on some of the feedback that I've received from families and kids who have read my book.

So I just hope to continue having that kind of impact.

Initially, it feels like, oh, if you're not having a ton of impact, what's the point?

But when you hear individual stories of cute little things that have happened or meaningful moments, it just motivates you to want to continue to have that kind of impact.

So I think those two things terrific.

And so encouragement for readers.

I usually save this towards the end, but why should children's book readers purchase your book?

Children's book readers should purchase my book because they'll relate to Little Panda, and I think she'll help them understand their own emotions and how they can have conversations when they're having hard thoughts.

Final thoughts.

Amanda, is there anything that you said, Geez, I wish Rick would have asked me that question.

Final thoughts?

I don't think so.

I feel like this has been a great conversation and you've asked me a lot of great questions.

Amanda, 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 will significantly benefit aspiring authors and readers, and we promise to provide our audience with links to Amanda's social media and her book.

And if you've enjoyed this episode, please hit the subscribe button to listen to our future episodes and feel free to share this episode with anyone inspired by or who enjoys hearing about Amanda and her children's book, Little Panda and the Sticky Thoughts.

Thanks, Amanda.

Thank you so much for having me.

I've really enjoyed being here and it was really nice to meet you.