Peter Cotton, a distinguished author of children's literature, joins us to illuminate the journey of his literary career, focusing particularly on his latest work, "What Fred the Snake and His Friends Learn about the Chinese Zodiac and the Great Race." This episode delves into Peter's evolution from a medical professor to a celebrated children's book author, sparked by the inspiration of his grandchildren and the whimsical character of Fred the Snake. We explore the profound significance of storytelling in fostering curiosity and imparting subtle lessons to young readers. Peter shares insights into the creative process behind his books, the collaboration with his illustrator, and the challenges of marketing in a saturated literary landscape. His passion for engaging the younger generation through delightful narratives and educational themes is both inspiring and instructive for aspiring authors in the realm of children's literature.

Peter Cotton, a distinguished author of children's literature, joins us to illuminate the journey of his literary career, focusing particularly on his latest work, "What Fred the Snake and His Friends Learn about the Chinese Zodiac and the Great Race." This episode delves into Peter's evolution from a medical professor to a celebrated children's book author, sparked by the inspiration of his grandchildren and the whimsical character of Fred the Snake. We explore the profound significance of storytelling in fostering curiosity and imparting subtle lessons to young readers. Peter shares insights into the creative process behind his books, the collaboration with his illustrator, and the challenges of marketing in a saturated literary landscape. His passion for engaging the younger generation through delightful narratives and educational themes is both inspiring and instructive for aspiring authors in the realm of children's literature.

The podcast features an insightful conversation with Peter Cotton, a distinguished author of children's literature, who delves into the genesis of his beloved character, Fred the Snake. Initially a bedtime story for his children, Fred's journey began over half a century ago. After a fortuitous accident involving an ambulance, Fred became a metaphor for resilience, ultimately blossoming into a series of ten books aimed at educating and entertaining young minds. In this episode, Peter shares the pivotal moments that inspired him to transition from a medical career to writing children's books, emphasizing the profound influence of his grandchildren on his creative process. He describes the joy he derives from engaging young audiences, illustrating how he seamlessly intertwines educational themes within whimsical narratives. Peter's latest endeavor revolves around the Chinese Zodiac, specifically the Year of the Snake, as he recounts the Great Race that shapes this traditional calendar. This exploration not only captivates young readers but also serves as an introduction to cultural concepts, fostering curiosity and understanding.

In a lighthearted yet profound exchange, Peter Cotton elaborates on the thematic richness embedded within his children's books, particularly emphasizing the moral lessons that Fred the Snake embodies. The conversation navigates the delicate balance between providing entertainment and imparting life lessons, as Peter elucidates the subtle educational elements woven into his narratives. He reflects on how Fred's adventures not only entertain but also address real-world issues, from safety awareness to the significance of friendship and community. The episode culminates in a discussion about the cultural significance of the Chinese Zodiac and its relevance to contemporary audiences, fostering an appreciation for diversity in storytelling. Peter's passion for writing and his commitment to nurturing young minds through literature shine through, making this episode a compelling listen for aspiring authors and readers alike, as it encapsulates the essence of creativity, cultural exploration, and the enduring impact of children's literature.

Takeaways:

• The podcast features Peter Cotton, an author of ten children's books, who shares his journey into writing.
• Peter's first book was inspired by a bedtime story he told his children many years ago.
• The latest book, focusing on the Chinese Zodiac, was prompted by Peter's Chinese friends and the upcoming Year of the Snake.
• He emphasizes the importance of engaging children through stories that entertain while providing subtle educational messages.
• Peter discusses the challenges of selling children's books in a saturated market filled with competition.
• He advises aspiring authors to follow their passion and not to become disheartened by initial setbacks.

Links referenced in this episode:

• petercottentails.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Bublish
• Goodnight Reads
• Tidewater Creative Media

Hi, my name is Peter Cotton, not named after a rabbit.

I'm the author of 10 books for young children featuring Fred the friendly and helpful Snake.

And I live in South Carolina on Charleston.

I'm looking out at the sun and the beach right now.

Couldn't be better.

But I'm very happy to join you and talk about my writing journey.

Started off as a professor of medicine, and when I retired, my wife said she married me for life, but not for lunch, so you better find something else to do.

I started on my children's books.

Oh, great.

So we're going to jump right into that.

So thanks, Peter, for appearing on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors podcast.

Like Peter said, he's written 10 books in his children's book series, Fred the Snake, and today we're going to be focusing on his new book, what Fred the Snake and His Friends Learn about the Chinese Zodiac and the Great Race.

I'm looking forward to our conversation, Peter.

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

Enjoy it enormously.

I got a lot of stimulation from my grandchildren, as I know you did, having read some stuff about you and your books, and they seem to enjoy it, and I enjoy working with them.

My first one was actually a bedtime story when my kids were very young.

That's the 50 years ago, I told them a bedtime story about how to cross the road.

Actually, how not to cross the road because unfortunately, Fred didn't quite understand what he had to do.

And he got into a little bit of an accident with an ambulance and had to go to hospital.

And that's a story.

But anyway, I didn't do anything with it until my kids had their kids and they said, what happened to Fred?

Actually, I said, what happened to Fred?

Fred.

Because Fred was actually in two pieces after his accident for a while before he got mended.

I found the text.

I found a wonderful illustrator who happens to be Canadian, not very close to you, but near in Toronto somewhere.

And she and I got out the first book when Fred the Snake got squished and mended.

Actually, that was an update of it.

2010, I think, was the first time it came out okay, but then it got changed a little bit.

Were children the inspiration behind your first book?

Yes, no question.

It was a bedtime story.

I was trying to keep them amused and perhaps educated a little bit at the same time.

And that applies to all my books, I like to think that kids are amused, but there's also some subtle education in there where they're not looking, like how not to cross the road.

I love it.

I love it.

Tell us the inspiration now behind your latest book because it's certainly different from your.

Your first book.

Tell us how Fred went on this journey or adventure.

And I said, oh, actually, I didn't.

I'm embarrassed to say.

So I looked that up, and I found the Chinese zodiac lunar calendar, as some call it, is actually rather fun because it consists of 12 animals, and the order in which they appear in the calendar is determined by the great race.

They have to race across the river to meet the Jade Emperor at the Heavenly Gate.

I loved it because guess what year I was born?

My wife and I were born in the same year, but we were born in the Year of the Snake.

Oh, great.

I think I look a little older than 1 years old, but we were actually water snakes, thanks to you.

You opened our eyes up to the Chinese zodiac calendar.

Yeah, it is fun.

And it's still used for ceremonial occasions.

And the year starts, finishes, and starts again at the Spring Festival, which was just started last two weeks ago, February 17, when all the Chinese get together and have a great family time and have a lot to eat and they dance around.

So it's a very exuberant time.

That's fantastic.

Was it your Chinese friends making you aware of the Chinese zodiac that triggered your whole new adventure in your latest book?

Yes, it was.

It was.

They got me started.

I'd been thinking about something else because my seven, eight, and nine books were all about traveling around the United States visiting all the popular famous sites.

So I was looking for something a little different.

And that one just took my eye very quickly.

And I knew that Bonnie the illustrator was going to have a real ball

with it, and she did.

And we'll definitely get into talking about your illustrator a little later in the show.

I'm interested, Peter.

I love it when I can have someone on who's been a children's book author for as long as you have.

And I like to talk to people about their children's book business.

And as a seasoned children's book author, can you tell us about your children's business?

Book plan.

What does it look like?

That's one of the reasons I'm talking to people like you, because I want more people to hear about the books.

My wife thinks it's about time we sold a few more rather than just go on writing for fun.

I think your wife and my wife are exactly the same.

Yeah, I'm self published, but I have actually a management company.

It's a sort of hybrid system.

I'm not sure how popular that is.

A company called Bublish who takes not a traditional publisher, sort of swallows you and spits out bits at a time and does some publicity for you.

These people just take care of the things that need to be done like getting ISBN numbers and getting things out there in various different ways.

So that's been actually quite a useful partnership for me.

I would recommend it.

And you've been doing that.

I think.

So you've been with them a long time.

Yes, indeed.

And it's been a good journey.

Tell us a little bit about that.

You said it's hybrid and.

And I think most people think of being self published that you have a hybrid publisher and they pretty well take care of all the publishing aspects of it.

But when it comes to sales and marketing, they take a backseat and say it's up to the children's book author.

In your case, you have a more symbiotic role where they've gotten involved with you.

The answer is maybe basically they do have promotion people, but they cost money.

It's not as if they've got their investment on the line.

It's entirely up to me whether I employ them to put out ads and things like that.

Which seems fine.

It's a business.

Absolutely.

And that's why I always talk right up front.

When we get aspiring children's book authors listening to us or even potential readers to understand that what the children's book author is making an investment because generally they're independently or self hybrid published.

Not a lot of us get a traditional publisher.

That's why I like to bring up the business aspect of it so that people understand the moment they create a published children's book, they really have a product.

And when you have a product, you'd like to sell it and you'd like to market it.

Yeah.

And people need to understand that perhaps 99% of these or lose money and 1% make money.

That is absolutely true.

So thank you for sharing that no, it's really important so people understand that part of it and that they need to think about more as a business.

So at least you've got some revenue coming in to support your habit.

Yes, it is a bit of a habit, you're right.

When it comes to publishing, now that you've had almost, I guess over 8 years experience, what's the biggest challenge or frustration behind the whole publishing process?

Is there something you can share with us?

Yeah, it's sales, basically.

Everything else is a lot of fun.

But getting the word out there, there's a zillion children's books out there.

If you walk into a major bookstore, go to the children's department, get very depressed because there are million books and a lot of them really very good.

When I review other children's books, as I do a nice company called Goodnight Reads, I'm not sure we ever come across that, which is a way of getting reviews.

You review other people's books and they review your books.

But bottom line is there are plenty of books in the bookstores that have got thousands of five star reviews and they get a lot of attention.

That's undoubtedly the main frustration.

It's great writing them.

It's fun giving them away to the grandchildren and reading to them and persuading some of the friends to purchase them and some of the local bookstores.

But it's an uphill struggle, as you have discovered with your caboose book.

Yes, absolutely.

I couldn't agree with you more.

You have your books on Amazon, you have them in, I believe, three formats.

You've got an ebook, a soft cover and a hardcover.

And do you also use ingramsparks for all other online retailers?

Yes, I do.

And the Soundcop is available on my website.

Okay, we'll talk about Peter's website in a moment.

But it's a great website, a lot of fun.

We'll definitely put links to your website in our show notes.

Are you doing strictly print on demand or do you have you printed off large quantities?

What's your strategy behind that?

It's halfway between I've got a study full of books ready to be given away or sold.

As I said, I sell them from my website.

So they're printed when I ask for them to be printed.

But I keep 20 or 30 of each version, each book on hand.

Let's jump in with your relationship with your illustrator.

I think it's Bonnie Lemaire.

Yes.

When I talk to a lot of children's book authors who have written more than one book, they tend to stay with the same illustrator.

And it's pretty neat.

And you've had obviously a long term relationship with your illustrator.

So tell us how you found Bonnie and then tell us how this whole journey of having her be involved in 10 books, that's pretty incredible.

Right at the beginning, when I was looking for an illustrator, I was working with some offshoot of Amazon that used to be called Createspace or something like that.

Okay.

And they gave me six websites to look at and she jumped out as being absolutely perfect.

And she is indeed.

I'm enormously grateful to her.

The book is probably 60%.

Any success is probably due to her pictures rather than my text.

Although I do try quite hard.

But we've worked together very closely.

I didn't meet her.

As I told you, she lives in Canada, near Toronto.

I didn't meet her until the fourth book, which is about Charleston, where I live.

Fred and his friends explored Charleston and I said, if you're going to illustrate Charleston, you better come and have a look at it.

And so she came with her purple hair and her rather aggressive teenage son and we had a bit of fun together.

She's promised to come back and visit again soon, but she hasn't done so.

But the main thing about her acquire from her beautiful drawings is that she not only interprets what I ask her to do, but she also throws other things in there.

Even now, if I go back to read one of the earlier books, I see something that I hadn't noticed before, which is just to add a little tweak, somewhere there's a muffrum in the corner or parrot doing something crazy.

It's just amazing.

It is terrific.

When you get.

Our illustrator actually lives in the uk.

Oh.

Every time I talk to children's book authors, I'm amazed at where their illustrators are.

But the beautiful thing about technology today is that it's like you and I are sitting in the same room and yet we're thousands and thousands of kilometers away.

So it's pretty incredible what technology allows us to do.

Yeah.

When you say uk, you mean United Kingdom.

I do.

That's the University of Kentucky around here.

Oh, yes.

I do mean the United Kingdom.

That's where I grew up and worked for first half of my life.

My grandfather was born in London, England.

Now he was 2 when the family immigrated.

But so he doesn't carry the same.

You still have that English accent which must fascinate people.

I don't have an accent.

Everybody else around me.

Oh, yeah, exactly.

I want to talk to you a Little bit more about your illustrator.

So I know you said she met you in Charleston on your fourth book, but I want to take.

Go back to your first book and I want to talk about Fred because certainly want to talk about Fred the snake and about your puppeteering.

And I'd like to know, did you have a vision of what Fred should look like, or was Bonnie, who said, what do you think?

No, she came up with it.

But let me step back and tell you why I chose a snake.

You might think that a koala bear or a puppy would actually be more attractive.

Or a bear.

Or a bear.

Yeah.

Cuddling bear.

Not a big black bear, but a cuddly one.

But if we go back to when my kids were young with this bedtime story, I was working in London as a stomach doctor, a gastroenterologist, using a lot of those flexible instruments, endoscopes, that most people have had some fairly familiar experience with.

And so I was telling my kids what I was doing all day and showed them a picture of a flexible black endoscope.

And my son said, that's a snake.

I said, oh, yeah, you're right, it is a snake.

So that's for some reason how I got into Fred.

And I'm trying.

Been trying to make him as friendly and helpful and not threatening as possible.

But some people still a little bit nervous about now.

Do you have an attachment to the name Fred?

Is it someone from your family or your past, or did Fred just seem appropriate?

It's a good question.

And it's a.

There was a song at the time, it was a children's song.

Rudd said, fred, have a cup of tea.

And it was an obsession.

We sang it and sang it.

So that's where Fred came from.

Terrific, Terrific.

Nice to know.

So let's talk about your website, because you've got a great website and I love how you have such a great sense of humor about your name and because, like you said, you're not the rabbit.

That's right.

But you probably got teased all your life about being Peter the Rabbit.

Now, I don't know when Peter the Cottontail was written, but you probably do.

Yeah, it was.

I wasn't teased because I didn't know that I was named after a rabbit until I moved to the United States because it pit.

A cottontail doesn't exist or didn't exist in England.

Beatrix Potter wrote about Peter Rabbit and Flopsy Mopsy and Peter Cottontail, but she never wrote about Peter Cottontail.

That was a sort of Hallmark invention in the States.

So it wasn't until I moved over here that suddenly people started laughing at the checkout counter.

And what was your mother thinking?

So I could have been a little bit irritated after, but I decided that we would.

We'd embrace it.

People started giving us rabbits, usually not live ones.

But would it be a lot worse than be associated with an adorable rabbit?

That's been fun.

She also wrote about Benjamin Bunny, and that happens to be my middle name.

So I've got the whole thing there.

When you were putting your website together, one thing I noticed is you use a company called Tidewater Creative Media with your website.

Talk to us about that.

It's a local ex serviceman called Chad who is very helpful.

And in fact, I've got another appointment with him today to add some additional bragging on the website because I've got a few more awards recently since what was put up on there, International Impact Award and things like that.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

That's been a good.

We've only been working together for about three years, I think revamped what I had before.

I signed up for your mailing list because you offered me a free coloring book.

Tell us about the coloring book and how is that working for you?

That's very simple.

And since only the front page is in color, it's pretty cheap.

So I usually give it away when I've got a stall at some market or when I'm talking to schools or stuff like that.

I use it basically as a gift.

It's based on the first book which Pushcott mended.

It's just got a series of pictures that kids can use their crayons on.

There's nothing clever about it.

Okay.

No, but it's important, Peter, as we talk to aspiring children's book authors and they're.

You're always looking for how can you build your email list and reach more readers?

I like to share techniques that other children's book authors are using.

And how would you say it's working for you?

Has it been building a children's book list for you?

It's difficult to know.

Difficult to answer that, I'm afraid.

I'm not sure whether I'm sending digital versions or paper versions.

Oh, sorry.

I didn't ask for my mailing address.

It just ask for my email address.

I'm willing to guess it's digital.

I also want to talk to you about your social media.

Talk to us about how you're using your social media to promote your books.

It's not intuitive to me as a great grandfather, but I do have plenty of grandchildren and great grandchildren who try and steer me and.

And I do have stuff on Facebook and Instagram.

I've struggled with TikTok because that's a professional organization.

I do my bit, but I don't frankly understand all of it and I'm sure I'm not utilizing it to maximum effect.

Yeah, I did notice this post this morning.

You had commented on LinkedIn.

Oh, yeah, okay, that's nice.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

This is great because you've got Chad coming in to talk to you and who's from Tidewater.

And I'm curious, how is Chad helping you use your website to promote your books?

Basically, he puts stuff on it that he thinks will help and he helps me with getting out emails to my email list on mailchimp.

It's attached to the website, so we get out some.

Some emails from time to encourage people.

I noticed on your website you have book reading visit.

So I'd like to talk to you about your book reading visit strategy.

And I'd also like to talk about your hand puppet, Fred the Snake.

Did you have Fred the Snake hand puppet from the beginning when you did book readings, or did it develop down the road?

Has it made an impact on your book reading?

I think the kids like it.

I read at local schools and libraries and they're all amused and they want to have a go with it.

I've also got some electric snakes, which caused chaos.

When I go to schools, the teachers are very upset about me bringing electric snakes.

The kids all want to steer these snakes around the room.

That's terrific.

I have to say, I enormously enjoyed the school visits.

They're not very productive in schools, but it's a lot of fun.

Absolutely.

And so do you voice the different characters or do you just voice Fred?

Oh, that's a good question.

No, just Fred.

When I read.

That's an interesting idea.

When I read the books and show the images up on the screen, I just use my normal voice.

But I guess I could.

Huh.

That's interesting.

Maybe I should.

I know.

I'm just curious.

I know you don't have an accent, but what.

What is it the children say about where Fred is originally from?

Do they make any comments?

They do ask.

And it's actually, as you know, from the first book, he came from the jungle Jungle Jim sent him as a gift.

And to say, it's not much of

a jungle in England.

No, I think must have come from Africa somewhere.

If you read on to the third book, Fred got a bit lonely and so he sent A message to Jim and said, please send some more animals.

So Jungle Jim came over with a bunch of different animals to join the boy.

And then in the later books, I include a couple of my grandchildren, Purdy and Jack.

In the latest book, they're the ones that actually discovered about the Chinese zodiac from two Chinese kids at school.

Two Chinese kids, Connor and Ellie, who are actually the children of a gastroenterology colleague of mine.

So they joined.

Did you say your grandchildren or great grandchildren?

These are two grandchildren.

Okay.

And did they actually say, we'd love to be characters in a children's book?

No, I think I just threw them in, actually.

But they seem to be very pleased.

I haven't put the great grandchildren in yet, but it depends if I make any more books.

Maybe I'll get that right down there.

Yeah.

The only reason I talk is that that's what I love about yourself and myself.

I have five grandchildren, and they're all co authors of.

We've written 38 stories.

We've only published two books, but someday, if I hit the Super Max lotto or something, I'll publish them all.

And of course, they've helped be co authors in all of the books, so it's fun.

And we've actually had them narrate about half of the books, so I've captured their young voices as narrators for the story.

That's a great idea.

I need to do that.

How old is Kira?

Oh, you know what?

Kira's now 22.

Okay.

Yeah.

So her.

And her and I started our whole adventure in the Rocky Mountains when she was 5.

And I had a career that allowed me to have a little more time.

I had good vacation time.

So a lot of times her and I would go to the Rocky Mountains, and I taught her how to ski and horseback ride and hiking and all that, and it turned into so many adventures.

It was her insistence when she was about 7 or 8 that we start writing a children's book.

And then from all those adventures that came along, her cousins and her sister, and it just kept mushrooming itself and manifesting itself a children's book series.

So definitely a lot of fun.

It's nice when you have that special connection with your grandchildren and you get them involved.

It's a legacy that will never go away.

Correct.

I agree.

So I want to talk a little bit about character development.

We talked about Fred the Snake.

And in your latest book, you introduced two of your grandchildren, and they.

Now the two grandchildren.

Are there really two friends?

Chinese friends?

No, I made that up.

Those.

Those As I said, are the kids of a doctor colleague of mine that was encouraging me to write the book.

He didn't say, write the book and put my kids in it.

Okay.

I said, I need some kids.

And he said, use mine.

Oh, God.

Okay, so they.

So you've got four characters based on four real people.

Absolutely, yes.

Terrific.

Terrific.

It's always fun to do that.

And we talked about the theme of your book.

Share a little bit more.

Did you know much about the Chinese zodiac and the Great Race?

Because I'll tell you, until I read your book and started doing a little research, I thought, oh.

Because I didn't understand what the Great Race was.

And I thought, I've got a really.

I read your book and I thought, I gotta dig a little deeper.

And that's how I found out my wife and I are water snakes.

That's nice.

Yeah.

I didn't actually know much about it.

I certainly didn't know a lot about it.

And I said I hadn't heard about the Great Race.

I knew a certain amount about the Chinese calendar, and I've always enjoyed the Chinese New Year.

I'm very fond of Chinese food, so that's a good time to be enjoying it.

And as I mentioned, I've been in China a lot, lecturing in my previous life, so I should have known more about it than I did.

To be brutally honest, I'm a bit embarrassed about it.

But now I know a lot about it.

It goes deeper and deeper, as if you go get into a lot of the details, it gets very complicated.

Absolutely.

I have to tell you, like, a sidebar here, but.

Oh, probably about 25 years ago, we must have ordered Chinese food just before Christmas.

And one of the giveaways is, they gave you a Chinese calendar in a box.

Oh, okay.

So what happened was my mother had this bright idea of actually wrapping it as a gift and putting it under the Christmas tree.

And I forget which one of us she gave it to as a gift, but when we opened it, we thought, what the heck is that?

Anyways, year after year, for 20 years, this Chinese calendar, whoever got it rewrapped it and the next year gave it as a gift.

And about three or four years ago, my wife and I had it, but we didn't wrap it.

And my children started thinking, where is that Chinese calendar?

So my son said, what happened?

And they thought, we lost it.

We didn't.

This year, my wife wrapped it and put it under the Christmas tree for my son.

And we've got a couple of pictures that are Just magnificent of him opening this and finding the Chinese calendar.

So I'm sure it's going to resurrect itself and be part of our family history for years to come again.

Yeah, those sort of little traditions are very valuable.

It is.

It is the central teaching from the book.

What is it that you want people to know about the central teaching from your latest book to be helpful?

I think Fred is always helpful.

When he went to school in the second book, the kids were a little bit nervous about having a snake at school, let alone the teacher.

But he turned himself into things that they needed, like a soccer goal and a jump rope and a water slide and things like that.

So he became very popular and helpful.

And helpful in the sense of telling people things that they should or should not do.

When he went camping, he learned actually from Jungle Jim that he shouldn't be eating nice looking berries or mushrooms and things at the side of the road.

And then they got into a.

Was it whitewater rafting and they went over a waterfall and had to be mended, had to be rescued.

So there's some messages in there.

When they went to the beach.

Fred's girlfriend Bernadette, they're now married.

They got married in Las Vegas.

In the seventh book, Bernadette got carried away on a wave when she went to the beach and had to be rescued.

So that was a message about being careful when you swim in the ocean and little things like that, trying to sneak them in when people are not looking.

Fantastic.

So I'm curious, because you've written your 10th book, can you share some insight into your development of each book and your writing process?

Good question.

I sit down in a little quiet study where I don't go and choose a topic like, as I said, going to the beach or going camping or going exploring.

And then I set off.

All my books are in rhyme and what I say is sometimes a little bit determined by what rhymes.

But I try and visualize what I'm going to ask Bonnie to illustrate what's going to look good while I'm doing that.

And then I get a sort of rough draft and I usually share that with the kids and my daughter, who actually used to work in the BBC and is a good editor, she's good at making suggestions of how to improve the books.

And then basically then I throw it at Bonnie to see what she makes of it.

Terrific.

When you think back on your first nine books, and of course I haven't read them all.

I've read your first book, I've read your 10th book.

But I'm curious, when it came to this book, obviously you had to do some research.

Did you do research into your other nine books or was that drawn from your personal experience?

It really didn't need to be much research, I guess.

The 7, 8 and 9 have Fred and his friends exploring the United States, leaving from Charleston, going up the east coast and then in the center, then on the west coast, ending up in Hawaii.

I picked out the famous places that I thought they'd like to visit, but I did do a little bit of research about some of them.

Did you go to all those places?

I did not, but Fred did.

Okay, no.

I guess I have been to most of them, but I needed to know a little bit about Mount Rushmore.

I wanted to make sure I knew exactly which presidents were at Mount Rushmore and what Crazy Horse was, what a wedding venue in Las Vegas looks like, important things like that.

I'm curious about success, so I'm going to take you on a little bit of an adventure, a little bit of a journey.

Think back to when you wrote your first book and how did you envision success and what success looked like to you now that you're now published your 10th book?

So what's the big difference?

And take us on that adventure.

I don't think I was looking for success.

I was just looking to have some fun and to amuse the grandchildren and then anybody else who is around.

And then I found it was fun.

After I retired for a very busy life in medicine, as I mentioned, my wife told me I needed something else to do and I can't play golf every day, even in South Carolina, where the weather's usually pretty good.

I'm not a good person to sit around and do nothing.

So that turned out to be something that I really enjoyed doing and I thought I was pretty good at it, to be honest.

And it's nice that you got involved with your grandchildren also.

Yeah.

Because it's interesting.

Somebody told me the secret to a long and healthy life and I said, what's that secret?

And they said, get younger friends.

When you think about your grandchildren, I can't think of.

And now you've got great grandchildren.

Staying engaged with them definitely will help keep your you younger.

The role of writing for you.

You talked about having a great long career.

But talk to us now about what's the role of writing doing for you now.

And currently, basically, it's, as I said, it's keeping me busy on the mood, like to sit down and watch movies on the TV or I'M actually not a very good person at reading books either, to be honest.

So it's keeping me amused and out of the kitchen most of the time.

Although actually I can do a pretty decent job in the kitchen if required.

So it's become an important part of my life.

There's your next book, Fred in the Kitchen, because you said he's married now, right?

Yes, indeed.

A problem about snakes is they don't have any arms, so he has to do everything with his tail.

He learned his Alphabet when he went to school while writing with his tail.

And he's done some other clever things, like when Jungle Jim got actually locked in on Alcatraz and the keeper threw the key away because Jim had been rather naughty.

So Fred actually had to pick the lock with his tail.

Was pretty, pretty clever and very useful.

I love it.

But I'm curious.

You've written quite a few books in a short period of time.

Some people might say, come on, Rick, eight years is almost a decade, but that's pretty darn good.

How much time are you devoting to your writing?

Right now?

None, because I'm busy promoting and talking to nice people like you.

But when I was writing about one book a year, that wasn't the only thing I was doing.

I was still actually, although I stopped practicing medicine, I was still involved in medical research and teaching, still lecturing around the country and actually all over the world.

I was doing a bunch of other things.

And did you mention that when you went out into the field, did you talk about your also being a children's book author?

Yes, of course.

Good.

I was thinking, you gotta take advantage of this.

Cause people love it.

Yesterday I was out buying a couple of new pairs of running shoes, and the guy innocently said, oh, what are you doing today?

And I said, I'm a children's book author, podcaster, and I also write children's books.

And the moment I did that, that opened the door up to a multiple of questions.

That's good.

Actually, I'm going back to Hong Kong later this year to Talk at the 40th anniversary of a meeting that I started there.

And so I'm certainly planning to have a book signing for all the Chinese people to come to that meeting and

have been to Singapore.

Yeah.

The only reason I ask is I noticed over the last little while we've been getting a following in Singapore, and I thought, this is interesting.

Anyway, I've actually I've given lectures in over 50 countries, so I have a.

A lot of contacts all over the world.

Terrific.

That's terrific.

I'm glad to see that you're promoting your books at the same time.

And again, it's a message to get out to children's book authors and aspiring children's book authors is that once you have this product, it's like Peter's saying, you've got to be out there promoting it.

And you know what?

Don't be shy.

I find most people, when you say you're a children's book authority, they find it extremely fascinating and are always interested in what your book's all about or books advice.

Peter, for aspiring authors, what advice would you give to someone just starting out?

Don't get depressed too quickly or disheartened if you.

It's like everything in life.

You've got to follow your passion, got to find something that gets you really enjoy and stick with it, even when people tell you that's not the smartest thing to do.

So if you enjoy doing it, best of luck.

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

Oh, being around the young people, like you said, that's a good part of it.

And I just enjoy writing.

I wrote a lot as a medical professor and then I switched to a different genre.

Enjoy it.

And you've got such a great sense of humor, so I'm sure that gives you some cachet or helps you with the children.

I hope so.

Especially with Fred the snake on your.

One of your hands.

And I have a jungle gym hat.

A jungle hat.

Oh, fantastic.

Yeah.

Well, encouragement for readers.

Why should readers purchase your books?

They're fun and you learn something from them.

There's not stuff down your throat or in bullet points.

It comes at you quietly when you're not looking.

I think those are good enough reasons.

Absolutely.

Final thoughts.

Peter, is there some question you thought, oh, I wish Rick would ask me that.

Or something that you would like to share.

That's a good question.

I think I'd like people to know a bit more about my website, petercottentails.com that's T A L E S dot T A I L S petercottentails.comthat's all about me and the books that'll be

in the show notes and we'll make sure we spell tales correctly.

And as I mentioned, signed copies of the books are available from that website, so I enjoyed dealing with those.

Terrific.

Terrific.

Peter, thanks so much for being a guest on the Adventures in the Heart at Children's Book Authors Podcast.

Your generosity of time.

Your insights will significantly benefit aspiring children's book authors and readers.

We promise to provide our audience, as I've mentioned, with all the links that Peter's talked about, his website, his social media and his books.

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 Peter and his children's books.

About Fred the Snake and his latest release, what Fred the Snake and his Friends Learn about the Chinese Zodiac and the Great Race.

Thank you, Peter.

I enjoy it very much.

Thank you.