Lynn and Jonathan share their inspiring journey of creating "Robby the Dyslexic Taxi and the Airport Adventure," a children's book that gives a voice to those with Dyslexia and promotes understanding among young readers.

The story emerged during the COVID-19 lockdown as a family project, reflecting their collective experiences and challenges with Dyslexia.

Jonathan, who has been personally affected by Dyslexia, discusses the importance of representation in children's literature and how they aimed to create discussions around differences rather than stigmas.

The duo emphasizes their self-publishing journey, the lessons learned, and plans to expand the "Creative Cab Company" series.

Their heartfelt conversation underscores the value of creativity, community support, and storytelling in fostering empathy and connection among readers of all backgrounds.

Jonathan Greenberg was diagnosed with Dyslexia as a young child. While Jon always knew that he learned differently than others, he did not let it personify who he was.

Like most kids, Jonathan had a bookshelf full of books; however, since Jon couldn't read them at first, he became captivated by the artwork and illustrations of every one of them.

Jonathan worked hard and overcame his disability; however, his love for art developed into his passion.

Jonathan is a graduate student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, so it was a natural evolution for him to collaborate with his mother, an advocate for neurodiverse children, to co-author and illustrate a children's book. He is currently working on his MFA, Master of Fine Arts.

Jonathan looks forward to continuing to create and illustrate stories with neurodiverse characters and expanding his artistic endeavours through other mediums.

Lynn Greenberg has focused her life on being a champion for children. As a trained Attorney, Lynn spent her time in the legal world practicing family law, providing pro bono work for kids, and advocating on their behalf.

When her youngest son Jonathan was diagnosed with Dyslexia, becoming his advocate, as well as others, came easy. Understanding how to gather facts and create strategic plans, Lynn developed a road map to success for her son and has since become an active supporter of all neurodivergent children.

Writing a children's book with Jonathan was simply the natural progression for Lynn. Robby the Dyslexic Taxi and the Airport Adventure was born out of Lynn's desire for neurodivergent children to see themselves as characters in a storyline.

Lynn plans to continue creating stories relatable for all children.

Lynn and Jonathan delve into the heartwarming journey behind their children's book, "Robbie the Dyslexic Taxi and the Airport Adventure."

The conversation opens with Jonathan sharing how the pandemic lockdown spurred their creative collaboration. He highlights their challenges and how baking bread and gardening led to brainstorming ideas for a children's book.

John's personal experience with Dyslexia becomes a central theme, revealing the family's commitment to supporting him through his educational struggles.

The duo emphasizes the lack of representation for dyslexic children in literature, expressing their desire to create a voice for those who often feel unheard.

The discussion evolves as they address the importance of representation in children's literature.

Papa Rick, Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors podcast host, recounts a touching moment with her granddaughter, with whom he had shared Lynn and Joanthan's book.

Papa Rick's granddaughter recognized Dyslexia from school, illuminating how societal awareness has progressed.

This segment highlights the book's aim to foster discussions about differences and inclusivity among young readers as the conversation flows into the logistics of self-publishing.

Both Lynn and Jonathan share insights into their publishing journey, the decision to self-publish due to the lengthy processes typically associated with traditional publishing, and the various platforms they utilized for distribution. Their experiences reflect a passionate commitment to ensuring that their story reaches as many children as possible, emphasizing the joy they found in creating and sharing their work.

The episode culminates in discussing the future of their creative endeavours, with John hinting at the next character in their upcoming series, who will represent ADHD.

The mother-son duo shares their experiences and lessons learned, encouraging aspiring authors to find their passion and pursue it relentlessly.

They stress the importance of community support and the understanding that challenges can be met with resilience and creativity.

Their story is a testament to the power of family collaboration and the impact of storytelling in addressing real-world issues, making it a compelling listen for anyone interested in children's literature and the journeys of authors behind the stories.

Takeaways:

• The motivation behind writing Robbie the Dyslexic Taxi stemmed from personal family experiences with Dyslexia.
• Joint efforts during the pandemic led to creating a children's book project.
• Robbie's character was inspired by John's experience with Dyslexia and the support from his family.
• The book aims to create conversations about differences, fostering understanding among children.
• Self-publishing options allowed the authors to reach a wider audience during COVID-19.
• The Creative Cab Company symbolizes creativity in neurodiversity, highlighting diverse ways of thinking.

Social Links referenced in this episode:

• Website: creativecabcompany.com
• Book Funnel: https://BookHip.com/KKXWJRD
• Facebook: Creative Cab Co. - https://www.facebook.com/creativecabcomp
• https://www.instagram.com/creativecabcompany/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynn-greenberg-a4845071/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-greenberg-594599201/
• https://disabilityadvice.org/child-disability/

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• IngramSpark
• Amazon
• KDP
• Creative Cab Company
• Cloud Printer
• Bookshop.org
• Canva
• Creative Child magazine

If you can support us in any way, please click on the Tips in the Cookie Jar: " link; we appreciate all contributions.

Lynn, Jonathan, welcome to Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors.

Thanks for joining us today.

Thanks for having us.

My pleasure.

So if we could just jump right in and you could tell us about the inspiration behind Robbie the Dyslexic Taxi and the airport adventure.

How did it all get started?

And I'd love to hear from both of you.

Get, get both of your opinions.

We, like everyone else during lockdown, we were looking for things to do, and we baked a lot of bread and we started a garden.

And John was home from college and he's an art major, and there just wasn't a lot for him to do.

And it's hard to do art virtually.

And I was reading on FaceTime to my child, my grandchildren, and we started talking about what would a project look like, Maybe we could write a children's book.

And what do we know about.

And from that conversation, that's how we got to Robbie.

And John can talk to the Speak to the Dyslexic Taxi part of it.

Jonathan as mentioned, I was an art student.

I am an art student.

During this period of time, there was a lot of free time.

And especially when, like a figure drawing course tells you to write an essay about something, it shows that there's a bit of a disconnect.

As my mom mentioned, we just started discussing all of this stuff and, well, one of the reasons we decided on using dyslexia was because it was something we've all had to deal with in the family.

I'm the only one who had it.

Everyone else had to pull together and really buck up to help me be able to read and write.

So it's something they're all very familiar with.

And so when we were thinking about it, we realized there's not a lot of literature out there for people in a situation like mine, which is somewhat understandable because it's usually expected that someone who might not be able to read, why would they have a book?

But we wanted to change that by making stories for people who we felt didn't have enough of a voice in the book world.

It's quite interesting, too, because I think I had mentioned to, to Lynn and, and probably to you too, Jonathan.

I had my youngest granddaughter over and she saw the book and she read it and she, she knew about dyslexia.

And I thought, oh, how did you.

How do you know about this?

And she said, we take it in school.

And I thought, oh, I never took it in school.

I didn't even know the word.

And so it was quite Interesting.

So certainly it's neat that the world has come this far.

And she found the.

The book quite fascinating.

So thank you, so nice to hear for writing it.

That's what we strive for.

And honestly, even for people who don't have dyslexia, one of the reasons we wanted to do it was to cause.

Create discussions among people.

And that's something, whenever we hear that is occurring, it's really.

Yeah.

Amazing to hear.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Because I went to read the story to my grandson's class and at the time a lot of the kids were learning how to read and it really opened up conversations.

Kids who thought that sounds like me or other kids who were more fluent in their reading and thought, huh, now I get to understand someone else's point of view.

Really a terrific way to open conversations with people for sure.

So I'm also interested.

I actually have your website up on my iPad and I'm also interested in sharing your publishing approach.

I talk about being self published or traditionally published.

Maybe you can talk a little bit about how you came to market with your book.

We originally we just made it our was a passion project.

We spent time together and we enjoyed working together.

We decided, we decided to just see where it took us.

And I have a friend who's a book designer and I showed it to her and I say, tell me the truth, what do you think?

Does this have any length?

And she said, absolutely, it's adorable.

I'm going to help you put it together.

And I think once we had that, we had to decide what to do.

And I think during COVID a lot of people decided to write books.

And we were told by quite a few people that we would need an agent to find a publisher.

And right now that would be like a 3, 4, 5 year waiting list to try to find someone to help us with that.

And we decided that we really wanted to put this story out and we decided to self publish and hasn't been the easiest avenue, but it's been really interesting and we've learned a lot from it.

The fact that we can just hold the book in a physical form and send it to other people is frankly amazing.

Yes, absolutely.

I know exactly what you're saying.

You can probably see I have your book in the background there, y'all.

It's my pleasure.

It gives me.

Robby, that's interesting too.

So I wasn't going to ask this question, but I'm curious and you'll.

And I'll tell you in a moment why I'm interested is why Robbie how did you.

Why Robbie?

That's because my middle name is actually Robert now.

My mom wanted to use one of either my first or last name, but I wanted to try making it so it wasn't just a complete me in as a character.

So we compromised and chose the middle name and gave it a little bit of a more cutesy sounding Y at the end.

The reason I ask is my father is William Robert and we named my son after my dad, so he's William Robert.

What's interesting is they both.

Actually I go by my middle name also because I'm William Richard.

I go by my middle name the whole.

So my dad went by Bob and my.

My son goes by Bobby.

And I was just curious on why Robbie.

That's very unsinkable and a very funny coincidence.

Yeah, absolutely.

When you say you self publish, so you did you.

Are you just doing print on demand?

So we started with IngramSpark.

Okay.

And navigate that a little bit.

And we decided to then also see what we could do with Amazon.

Kdp.

Yes.

And that's another language.

You have to set it up differently.

Absolutely.

And that took a while to figure out.

So we have paperback and hardcover.

And then we decided to try to go into something called Cloud Printer, where through our website, it's also print on demand, but differently.

So we have three platforms that you can actually buy the book on and Ingram can sell through two other platforms, bookshop.org and things like that where like smaller stores can get it.

Amazon, obviously you can make a few clicks and buy the book.

And then if you go to our website, you can do it that way.

So we felt like we were reaching as many people as possible with the three different approaches.

Good for you.

Good for you.

And that's.

I use.

Or we use Amazon and ingramsparks.

Also.

I haven't gone to our own.

You called it.

It's called Cloud Printer.

It's a company that.

It's a little.

It's a slightly different setup, but again it's print on demand.

So someone goes to your website, they order the book.

It just.

It comes directly from Cloud Printer printing to them.

Yes, it does.

Okay, it does.

Or if they go to Amazon, then it will come from Amazon kdp.

Or it could also come through Ingram.

That reciprocity.

Right.

And then.

Or if they go into a bookstore, it'll come probably through Ingram.

And you do three formats, I noticed.

So you do the soft cover or the paperback, hardcover, and you have an ebook.

So what generally tends to be the best seller out of the three I.

Would say the soft covers tend to be pretty popular due to the lower price tag.

But hardcovers are also fairly popular because there's nothing more.

There's no other feeling.

Like only a hardcover book.

Absolutely.

Soft cover, I think are the predominant seller.

I think children's books and ebooks, you can do it.

But I think children more often than not want to hold a book.

I think we don't have as many ebook sales for that.

Right.

And did you ever think of doing an audio.

The audiobook to it?

We.

We have and we just haven't quite figured out the best approach for that.

Have you done with your book?

Well, interesting you should ask me.

Actually.

What I did is I actually created a bookmark and there's a QR code.

Oh.

And when you actually scan the QR code, it turns it into an audiobook.

And my middle granddaughter.

Yeah, anyway, she's actually the voice of Caboose.

So he read the first.

Our first book and then we turned it into an audiobook.

So we try.

What we've done is with some of our book retailers, we offer the free audiobook if they buy the book.

And so they get the bookmark when they buy the book and they get the free audiobook.

That's a great idea.

And you know what, you can simply do this through Canva and through the free version.

Like you don't have to spend a fortune on a membership or anything.

And you can get a lot done at Canva.

Yeah.

So it is amazing.

Pretty fortunate.

I'm just going to tap on my iPad again and just pull up your website.

One of the questions I have, and I know when we first launched our children's book, what happened was some.

The advice that we got was start with a website first so you have somewhere for people to go and then do and then publish your book.

Well, we were so excited about our book.

By the time we heard that advice we had, we were already down the road to publishing the book.

So we published our book first and then it took us about six months to bring our website to.

To.

To life.

Tell us your story.

It's fairly similar to exactly what you just said, frankly.

Specifics are we created the book we knew we wanted to at a certain point, especially after we got the this has legs talk that we wanted to get it published.

So we did go to Ingram and start working on that.

And we tried figuring out the website while we were doing that, but not.

Neither of us really had any background in web design of any kind.

So it wasn't until after it was published, self published.

That.

And we found someone who was able to help us that we were able to fully get the site running.

And our website has had many iterations and the first one was very unprofessional.

It.

Let's say it clearly looked like someone's first attempt at trying to do something.

Oh, quite interesting.

So I noticed you call it the Creative Cab Company, which I love the name, but tell us the story behind that.

So we, we thought people with neurodivergent issues are very creative people.

They have to think outside the box.

Dyslexics, people with dyscalculia, dysgraphia, adhd, all the.

So many of the neurodivergent issues, they.

They think in different ways.

And to us that's creative and a superpower.

And so that's how we got to the name of Creative Cab Company.

And we are in the process of writing a whole series.

The next book is almost ready to be published.

And so the next character is actually gonna have ADHD, but is also a friend of Robbie's at the Creative Cab Company.

Oh, cool.

Because I read the book a couple of times now and of course with my granddaughter, my youngest granddaughter.

And I noticed you had introduced like a green cab.

I think Allison was one of the characters.

He used family.

Family member names.

Okay.

And did he use and is already a family member name also?

Yes, all the characters are.

It's interesting how we all have this passion about.

I wanted.

I've got five grandchildren.

Oh, wow.

So I wanted to draw them into the project.

And so of course we're doing the same as you.

We're trying to turn it into a book series.

And so part of it was we caboose.

Our main character, Cabooses actually starts with a K instead of a C.

And the reason being is my oldest granddaughter who's the co author of the book.

Her name is Kira with a K.

Slender.

Yeah.

So that's what we did.

And then our next book.

So we're working on our second book also.

It's called Hijinks at the Big Head Folk Music Festival because that's the town that Caboose is from and there's a beaver and my middle granddaughter who I was showing you a picture, her name is Bailey.

So it's Bailey the Beaver.

So all of the other characters are going to in the family.

That's very.

It's definitely fun.

It brings your family.

Family is there?

Yeah, absolutely.

So it's nice to hear that.

So now with your website, I'm interested.

Jonathan because of your art background.

One thing that I will say that happened to us now, it was more by accident than anything.

Of course.

We launched our book, we had these great graphics.

Now we had to hire an illustrator.

We're not as fortunate as you to have the talent to be a illustrator.

Now we had all these graphics.

To actually be able to use them helped us in developing our website.

The graphics from our book.

The nice thing about it is we used it to actually build out our website.

So is there plans, Jonathan, to take some of your.

Because I see you're a very skillful artist and your illustrations are cool.

Are you going to somehow incorporate some of your.

The artwork into the website?

There definitely will be probably plans to add more images from this new book we're writing into the website.

Okay.

As for my art practice, the topics, we occasionally might do something like that, but different mindsets.

So we tend to sometimes keep a little separate.

John has different websites for his other artwork.

He's getting an MFA right now.

And there's.

Now we're talking about whether or not we want to link it to our website.

So that's a work in progress for sure.

For sure.

Yeah.

And you know what the nice thing about a website is always fluid.

And now the motivation behind your book, of course you explained to us about Jonathan and having dyslexia and what else was the motivation?

I know, Lynn, I think your background, you have some background that led to this.

But was that the total motivation or was there more to the story than that?

We.

John is my youngest of four children.

Okay.

And now we are.

I have three in law children, three grandchildren.

But when.

Which is amazing.

When John was little though, everyone learns differently.

We know that.

But John just wasn't hitting some of the milestones that we thought he should be.

But I knew he was so smart.

He could tell you at a very young age every Thomas the Tank Engine name, but not tell you that Thomas started with the letter T.

His teachers were not always that nice about it.

John is.

John might be slow.

John is a boy.

John is all the things that just didn't ring true for me.

And so we started to explore that and had him tested.

Okay.

Sure enough, classic dyslexic, very smart, but just needed to learn how to read differently.

And I think for us it became a family affair.

We Chun went to a wonderful school.

They cried at school, which meant that I was going to have to drive him.

And we all decided that as a family that we would make that commitment.

The kids and my husband, the kids that were home were going to have to pitch in a little more.

We were going to have to eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly because it's a private school.

But really, we really just wanted to support John and help him learn how to read.

And we knew he was not, unfortunately, going to get the education he needed here at our public school.

And there's just a lot of misunderstanding, even with a lot of teachers about what dyslexia is.

And so we, I think, wanted to open up conversations.

That's nice, because I saw part of your dedication was to your school, right?

Yes.

Actually, one of the reasons we, I think, subconsciously chose a taxi was because, quite frankly, my mom was the first taxi because she was constantly moving me around, getting from school to here.

And the drive to school was not a short one.

Oh, she really.

The whole family did.

But she also especially sacrificed a lot of time to get me to where I am today.

Do you think some of those car rides, like.

I'm thinking about the character development.

I'd like you to talk a little bit about that.

But do you think some of those car rides somehow subconsciously finally made their way forward?

And when.

And when you guys wrote the book or the inspiration behind the book?

The conversation.

We always had lively conversations in the car.

But honestly, more than that, I'd say we always like to listen to audiobooks.

Okay.

So I think we've always had a strong connection to literature, which is interesting with my background.

And so I think, if anything, it just.

And one of the things we love to do was like, guess what was coming next, if it was a mystery or something like that.

Okay.

I was thinking about the story, right?

And Robbie going to pick up the customer.

And the customer usually had a routine, but that day the routine changed.

And all of a sudden Robbie was.

Oh, so that's why I was curious on did that.

Did the story develop from maybe even a circumstance that may have happened on one of the car rides to school one day or where you guys maybe had to go on a field trip and you thought maybe you were going to school and mom was taking you somewhere different?

I didn't pinpoint an exact location, but all those things did happen at one point or another.

It's without traffic that the school was a good 45 minutes to an hour.

Every possible adventure you could have in a car you.

We had.

And including.

It's one of the roads is a smaller highway, a very older one.

And it's not for trucks.

18 wheeler trucks.

I would.

I can't even Count how many times an 18 wheeler would get stuck on this road, under a blade, under a bridge?

Usually, yeah, we've seen it all.

And we, we had that kind of in mind about adventures in cars.

We had meals, we listened to music, we sat.

We pretty much sometimes lived in that thing.

So the, The.

Is there.

Get a sense of the theme of the book.

Is there any.

Is there an underlying theme that you had in mind?

Because I noticed there was a celebration when Robbie got back to the Creative Cab Company.

Can you explain that?

I would say that the main thing we wanted people to get out of this book is just because you're quote, unquote different doesn't mean you don't deserve a place in this world and you can't succeed in it.

And so we wanted to show that Robbie figuring out how to solve his conundrum, he should get rewarded for it and he should get the love that everyone else would deserve.

So that was, I think, our main sort of target, that you are just as good as anyone else.

And I think also when John was little, computers were very different.

You couldn't Google dyslexia.

You couldn't.

There.

It wasn't so much of a community.

You couldn't.

Like now there are Facebook groups and things like that.

And back then there weren't.

And I think it's so important to.

When you're facing different things to find your people, to find a community.

It really helps, I think, to talk to other people who are going through the same sorts of issues.

And I think John can speak to it.

But I knew when I.

When John started at the Windward School, I found parents who could tell the same story, and we bonded over that.

Finding out that I was not alone in this world was one of the best things that could have happened to me because prior to learning I was dyslexic, I didn't understand what I was doing wrong or I believed some of the things the teachers were saying.

But then I got tested and I found out, oh, it's not just one thing, it's many.

And it's.

There's a reason it's not my fault.

And then I met everyone else and I was like, oh, I'm not alone.

And so that just.

And you know what?

I noticed on your website, you listed some of the famous people in this world that have dyslexia.

And I thought, you know what?

That's a pretty incredible list.

So you're in welcome company.

We say John superpower.

Absolutely.

So now that you're working on your Second book and you're talking about building into a series.

Tell me a bit about the writing process for both of you.

Like how does this work and how does it work to be co authors?

We definitely, there's a lot of cooperation involved and we talk through things and it's a back and forth of.

First we come up with the idea and then we have to build on it.

But it's really a collaborative endeavor to come up with these stories.

I think originally I was gonna write the story and John was gonna do the illustrations.

And then we thought, this is silly, he certainly has a point of view.

And from the beginning we decided, obviously, mother son, but we would have to wear separate hats.

We would have to be partners and authors and business partners.

And we've really stuck to that.

And it's worked for us.

We're very lucky.

We work well together.

Fantastic.

Fantastic.

I was, I'd been fortunate too, because it's not with my children, it's with my grandchildren.

But it's sometimes easier.

Yeah, sometimes easier, for sure.

Very true.

I'm not going to defend that.

And I had a very busy career, so my children didn't get the same TLC, tender loving care as my grandchildren get.

Or so it certainly leads to more adventures.

And that's why the adventure is in our book title for sure.

So I'm curious about how do you measure success?

I know a lot of people think, oh, you write a book and you sell thousands of copies and you go on a writing circuit and people put you up in first class hotels and you get a movie deal.

Most of that is not true at all.

So tell me about how you both are measuring your success.

I certainly wouldn't poo lots of people buying the book, but mostly because we want everyone to feel good about and understand what dyslexia is.

And for us, an example is John.

We went to.

Sometimes we'll go to a school and read and we went back to Windward and the kids who got to listen to the story and then there was a Q and A and they treated John like a rock star because they could see themselves in him and see the success he's built from where they are now to where he is.

And they, oh, can we have your autographs?

And they really, it all resonated with them.

And I think for me watching that is.

That's exactly what we wanted from this book.

So to me, that's success.

Honestly, it's a very similar place.

For me, it would be great if people would go out of their way and Buy our book.

But at the end of the day, we really just wanted to make something that could make people feel is a win in our book.

I also noticed that you won the.

I want to get this right.

Can you tell me a little bit about that success and how did the recognition come about?

Yeah, we.

That the English.

No, they're both.

The Spanish we actually translated into Spanish.

I.

But we had sent books out to different committees, and just because we.

We had been asked to do that, people wanted to know more about our book.

And this particular company, this, the Children's Creatives, is sitting.

I can never get it right.

You'll have to excuse me.

I didn't want to misquote, but when they asked us for the book and we sent it, they told us that we won in our category of children's books, and we were thrilled.

Good for you.

Congratulations on that.

Thank you.

That's pretty special.

You know what?

I actually haven't submitted our book for awards like you've done.

I've actually submitted our book for grants because it's all about.

It's definitely writing a children's book generally isn't a way to get rich.

And my wife and I said, you know what?

We'll take the sale proceeds from the first book to pay for the second book.

So that's being.

That's what we've been trying to do in our journey.

So if.

If I.

If we can get a grant or two to help, then all the more, all the better.

Yeah, for sure.

I was going to ask this a little later, but I'll ask it now.

Tell me about now.

You offer your book in Spanish.

So tell me about how that happened and what's that experience been like?

We.

We don't speak Spanish fluently.

I know a little, but I cannot tell you daily here on the east coast, especially in a community we're close to New York.

We know people in Florida, people who speak Spanish.

It's one of the fastest growing communities in our country.

And we're not even talking the world, but in our country.

And we know for a fact, I know some teachers who do teach children who speak Spanish, that there is a huge community that's dyslexic, and they absolutely do not have this book and less resources than some other students.

And so we were hoping to reach them as well.

Interesting.

Because you know what I.

Part of this is to help aspiring authors.

You know what if you think about it, whether you live in the United States or you live in Canada, most of us are immigrants.

Our background, 100%.

It's.

And that still continues to this day.

So to.

Actually someone might be.

Might come be new to the country and English isn't their first language.

And so it's neat that you guys launched the book in Spanish because even though that you're in the United States, people go, oh, I can do this maybe in my mother tongue first, which maybe is Spanish, and then translate it to English.

I just want people to know as authors that there's more than one way to come at a children's book, even if your first language isn't English, even in North America.

True.

So thanks for being inspirational about that.

That's pretty neat.

Is there any other deeper reason for this first doing it in Spanish or.

We just wanted more people to be able to access it.

It would be interesting because one of the first bulk orders that we had was to a school in France.

And so we were like, huh, that's interesting.

So we've thought.

So then we started to talk about should we translate and what should the first language probably should be in this country?

Spanish.

We have thought about also doing other languages.

We'll see how this Spanish version does.

Very interesting.

Jonathan.

This.

I'll direct this to Jonathan first, only because of his art background.

I'm curious.

So your art and then the role of writing.

So tell me about how that fits in your mind, like doing your art and then doing the writing.

For me, I've always been a huge fan of storytelling.

Even when I was unable to read or write.

One of my favorite things to do was look at picture books, specifically the pictures inside them.

Because even if I wasn't able to read what was going on, I could make guesses and tell a story.

And that urge never really went away, even after I was remediated.

Okay.

So now the only difference is I have combined writing with my art practice and so that creates some more abstract pieces at times.

But I deeply enjoy that sort of switch I made.

And Lynn, the role of writing for you.

I was an English major way back when I went to college.

I've always.

I love.

I've always loved reading.

I've always loved words.

I went on to law school where words matter.

And I.

I really liked being a lawyer at a point.

I really loved creative writing more.

A little bit more.

And so decided that was more the avenue that I would pursue.

So we have your story in terms of.

With COVID hitting and the lockdown and using that time to develop a book.

I heard today it's four years since COVID hit, so I thought, wow.

So I'm curious on what advice now you would have for people aren't in lockdown anymore.

But so what advice would you give aspiring authors today if they wanted to start a book, children's book?

I would say find something.

Find a topic that speaks to you.

Find a story that you are interested in telling.

I think like anything else, a children's book or any literature, I think it resonates and the writing is more honest and resounds with people when you speak from the heart.

So find something that you are passionate about and then write about it.

And I would build on that and say finding that passion is incredibly important, but also sometimes sharing it with others and finding people who you trust to help you along that path.

It might be a bit bumpy at times.

We learned that personally.

But finding people you can trust, you're not a mountain.

You can't possibly know how to do all of this stuff.

So don't take it too hard when you hit a roadblock and you're struggling to figure out what's next.

Lynn, now that you've shared that you have grandchildren, tell me a little bit about are they interested in saying you helped Jonathan?

So can you help?

I do a book or.

Every child's different, as you said.

But I'm curious, are.

Is any one of them interested in doing their own children's book?

I don't know if they're yet, but they're just super happy to be in these stories and to be able to show that.

My nephew always loves showing a copy of the book to his friends.

And my niece is also up there doing the similar thing.

I think honestly, I would love for them one day to come to us and say they wanted to do something like that.

But I think as of this moment, they're more interested in being able to say that they're a part of it.

The youngest is way too.

He's little.

He's.

Yeah.

But I would say yes, I would.

And to also say that my grandson idolizes.

They both idolize John.

But now the my grandson is starting to explore art classes and I think that.

That they are both interested and we'll see how they want to pursue it for sure.

Fantastic.

It's all.

It just makes your heart warm, right?

When you say that, Uncle.

A feeling like no other.

Thank you.

That is fantastic.

So I'm also interested in.

Of course, we're talking to readers.

So tell me why should book readers purchase your book?

It's a great book.

The illustrations are wonderful.

John's characters are really endearing and really adorable.

The pictures are great.

And I think, as we've said, I think it speaks.

It opens up conversations.

It talks about people's differences and why it's so good to applaud those and not to be negative about them.

I think the world needs more of that, quite frankly.

I think there's a little bit too much negativity.

And for us, we feel really good about the fact that people would talk about their differences and applaud them.

Every little thing helps.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because I mean, that you look at.

Like you said, first of all, Jonathan, I love the illustrations.

I wish I was.

I had trouble drawing a happy face, so.

Okay.

I feel like never put yourself down what your level is.

That that is something I have seen many things in my time being an art student from, and that there is no such thing as bad for everyone.

So I'm sure your faces, even if you say you struggle with the smiley faces, I'm sure they're actually quite good and interesting.

Thanks.

So, in terms of the illustrations, I'm curious, did some of the illustrations come first and then the words, or did all the words come first and then the illustrations?

There were ideas of what pages might look like, but generally speaking, the words were what I based the images around.

The very first thing is we, John drew Robbie.

Yes.

And then the rest of the story grew from that.

I know there's.

I think there's a blue taxi and a green taxi, and Robbie's yellow.

So how did you settle on yellow for Robbie?

First, we thought that would be the most recognizable as a taxi.

We wanted to add some color, and we didn't want to add confusion.

So we took the Thomas the Tank Engine approach of every car is slightly different, even though probably you wouldn't see these things in the wild.

That's great.

I know.

We talked about your books available on Amazon, through all other online and book retailers, through IngramSpark's distribution center system.

And then you called it, I'm sorry, cloud.

Cloud printer.

But that almost doesn't matter.

If they go to the website, the Creative Cab Company, there's a landing page that can direct you right to where you buy it.

Right.

Okay.

Now that's another approach.

All right.

And I.

I only asked this question because over the last couple of podcast interviews I've done, I.

The last two, they both created a online store on their website.

One's using Shopify, and the other One is using Printful.

And of course the neat thing about for you is with Jonathan being so talented as an illustrator.

I'm just curious on, are you thinking at some point of doing merchandise through your website or have you given that any thought?

Oh, we've definitely.

We tried a mug once, just started prototyping that.

We've done bookmarks like you did.

They didn't lead to an audiobook, but they did lead us to the website page.

We've tried coloring pages that we give out during readings, so that is definitely on the table.

We were trying to iron out some of the things that we were having some issues with.

One of them was part of the website.

And so we wanted to make our website really friendly for everyone and easy to navigate.

And now we are definitely in the process of thinking about what kind of merchandise might be fun to include as well.

Yeah.

And the only reason I mentioned if it wasn't for other children's book authors saying, you know what?

I didn't.

I had all the graphics, but I didn't have the infrastructure.

Shopify or Printful.

They have the infrastructure and they do all the work.

You just pay them, they take part of the proceeds.

But then you have some merchandise, especially some of the characters, like they come to life on whatever it is, a mug or a bag or whatever it happens to be.

We have trademarked all of it, so it's ours to, to decide how we want to use it.

So I'm wondering if you could give us your final thoughts.

Is there anything you'd like to share with both, not only aspiring book authors, chivalry book authors, but also readers, children's book readers.

So if you could answer it in two parts, that would be fantastic.

As I said for writers, don't get hung up, there will be issues.

And just don't lose hope that this won't work.

Because if you put in the time and the effort, it will.

And that is there is no other feeling like it.

And for readers, I'd say maybe not every book is for you.

And you'll find though, the only way you'll find what you really love is by reading a ton.

And if you have ever any trouble reading like I did, don't let it get to you.

You'll be able to find a way through it.

There are so many other famous, well known, renowned people that have had been in similar shoes as you and they've been able to survive and flourish.

Right.

That is important to know you're not alone.

That you will, you can and will succeed.

Right.

And I would just add to that.

If this is something that you decide that you're passionate about, I think you need to develop a little bit of a thicker skin because I think it's important to understand that what you might think is perfect might be better if it was tweaked and maybe you ask some opinions or maybe you show friends or you show other authors.

Again, finding a community I think is really helpful because extra eyes on all of the project is really, we have found to be very helpful.

That's great.

And so obviously sharing with family and have some friends made their way into the book too?

Yeah, not yet.

We have had the family lines have gotten further from immediate but.

Right.

I think, who knows, maybe by book three or four we'll have.

We.

We have had a few pets thrown in there, so we'll see where we go.

Oh, good for you.

Good for you.

You know what, I really want to thank both of you so much for being a guest and the generosity of your time and your insight.

This is so important that people have these insights.

They realize there's no right or wrong way.

There's no.

There's no set formula.

How we all come about it is all different.

But at the end of the day, you folks created your book.

We created our book and we came at it a little different than you came at it.

But what you said, Jonathan, it can be done if you stick to it for sure.

And your story is wonderful, your books are adorable and we really thank you so much for, for including us and for talking and spending the time.

It's been a pleasure.

Thank you both to the audience.

We promised to put in Lynn and Jonathan, links to Robbie the Dyslexic Taxi and the Airport Adventure and to your website, the Creative Cab Company.

Then you can find us on social media.

Creative Cab Company.

And if you have questions or want to ask or talk their way, find us DM us.

Go to the website.