Luz, a newly minted children's book author, shares her profound experiences and insights regarding her debut work, "Sweet Playdate Club."

This episode delves into the significance of being a children's book author, as Luz reflects on the emotional resonance her storytelling creates within families.

She recounts heartwarming anecdotes, including the delightful impact her book has had on children, transforming reluctant readers into avid ones.

Furthermore, Luz elaborates on the inspiration derived from her daughter, which served as the catalyst for her writing journey, emphasizing the importance of cultural appreciation and familial bonding through shared activities such as baking.

This conversation not only illuminates the creative process behind her book but also serves as a beacon of encouragement for aspiring authors to pursue their dreams with vigor and determination.

As the podcast unfolds, Luz shares the intricacies of her publishing journey, detailing her collaboration with a hybrid publisher and the challenges she faced in bringing her book to fruition.

She discusses the importance of selecting the right illustrator, emphasizing the need for visual storytelling that complements her narrative.

The conversation also touches on practical aspects of book publishing, such as distribution channels and marketing strategies, providing aspiring authors with valuable insights into the publishing landscape.

Luz's journey is not merely one of personal achievement; it is a call to action for others to pursue their passions and create stories that reflect their unique experiences.

She encourages listeners to embrace their creativity, work through doubts, and understand that the path to publication, while fraught with challenges, is ultimately rewarding and filled with opportunities for connection and impact.

Takeaways:

1. The essence of being a children's book author is rooted in the profound connections made through storytelling and shared experiences.
2. Luz's journey to authorship was catalyzed by a desire for personal fulfillment during challenging times, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. The inspiration for Sweet Playdate Club emerged from Luz's daughter, highlighting the importance of familial bonds and shared culinary adventures.
4. The process of writing children's books requires continuous creativity and a commitment to capturing the authenticity of childhood experiences.
5. Luz emphasizes the significance of community and collaboration in the writing process, including the importance of an illustrator who resonates with her vision.
6. The book Sweet Playdate Club serves not only as a source of entertainment but also as a means to foster conversations about cultural appreciation and teamwork.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. sweetplaydateclub Book
2. Instagram

Companies Mentioned:

1. Amazon
2. Miriam Laundry
3. Ingram Sparks
4. Advocate Art

Luz.

Dang.

Sweet Playdate Club.

Thanks, Luz, for appearing on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors podcast.

Luz has mentioned that she has written a children's book, Sweet Playdate Club, and I look forward to our conversation.

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

I know you're newly minted here.

Tell us about all.

All this shine.

First of all, let me say thank you for having me here.

This is such a great opportunity for me.

The feel good is the emails, the videos, the moments, cards, the family coming together, the support system.

The one moment I could tell you is I have a very special friend who has a child.

He is, I want to say, about 8 years old, and he's an athlete, not a big reader.

And she sends me a video telling me, this child reads to me every single night.

Never once, ever wanted to pick up a book.

A book because he was an athlete.

He was not a really big reader.

You don't know what that did to my heart.

My daughter being proud of me, sharing her stories and making sure that people see the world through her, how it meant to her, and all the memories that she made and everybody else can make those same memories.

So that's pretty special.

That's my feel good moments.

Excellent.

Is that kind of the moment when you realize that, hey, I'm a children's book author.

Yeah, launch day when I became the first Amazon's bestseller.

That day, that's when I said, oh, my God, I'm a children's book authority.

This is really happening.

I like to get into the origin story.

Tell us the inspiration behind your book.

How did it all start?

Sweet Playdate Club was inspired by my daughter, Sky.

Yes.

I was that mom that was very limited with electronics.

She didn't have an iPad.

She didn't even get her first phone.

So she was 14.

And that's because she went to high school.

And so I tried to put it away as long as I could, but Skylar has a really big sweet tooth.

Her way of getting more sweets through her day or her week would be making play dates, having play dates, and having the kids make treats.

And that's how it all inspired when I saw Skylar in my kitchen with her friends, spilling milk, flowers everywhere, giggles, happening, teamwork.

That's what we're all plant.

That's the seed, where it came from.

And I just started writing, and that's terrific.

The thing I love about children's books is they're always Based in some level of truth.

And it sounds like your book was inspired by your daughter and some nuggets of truth.

And when I first read your book, the first thing I thought of is I thought of my mother, who loved to bait, and she's no longer with us, but my mother spent time with my granddaughter, so that would have been her great granddaughter.

And the neatest picture that we have, and your book just brought memories back was my mom baking with my granddaughter.

That's cool.

And that's.

I don't want to reveal too much of your story, but towards the end, we know there's a grandparent involved that brought back memories of that whole thing.

And that's what I love about children's books, is they tend to draw us in some aspect.

We're just never sure what aspect they draw us in.

Knowing that you're a newly minted children's book author, do you have a children's book business plan?

Tell us about that.

Explain to aspiring children's book authors what you plan to do with your book.

Okay, let me go back a little bit.

I have always wanted to write children's book.

It's always been a very.

A passion of mine.

But of course, I didn't know where to start, how to begin.

During COVID we had a lot of time in our hands, and I wrote about 10 little stories, and I did some research, and I came across a publisher, and.

But everything was so uncertain at the time, and you didn't know what was going to happen.

There was so much unknowns.

So I put it away.

A couple years later, we moved into a new home.

So during the unboxing, I came across the stories again.

And I said, you know what?

This is it.

This is a sign.

Let's just do this.

I started to do some research again.

Believe it or not, that's same publisher would come up again.

So I'm not gonna talk about the publisher yet.

But that's when I knew that this wasn't.

This was it.

If you didn't do it now, you'd never do it.

And that's how it all started for me.

It started from writing ten little stories, making.

Like you said, all of us dealt with COVID and everybody has a different story.

I know a lot of people through Covid wrote books, and I actually wrote two business books through Covid.

And yeah, that's a different story into its own.

But it's interesting about how making a move, starting fresh by moving into a new home, and you open up a box and voila.

Yeah, and you know what?

I know that was only a couple of years, but I, one of my first guests, it was 30 years.

She wrote a story and put it away for 30 years.

And she went on to have her career in teaching.

And when she retired, she found her story on an old yellow writing pad.

And now she's got two books.

Yeah, it's incredible, right?

I noticed that you have your book in three formats on Amazon.

You've got a paperback, you've got a hardcover version, and you've got an E book.

And do you also have your book through ingramsparks?

I do.

Okay.

And so for the listeners, I think you've heard me say this before.

Ingramsparks is a company that does two things for you.

One, it gets you into all the other online retailers like Barnes and Noble, Walmart, so on.

And the other thing is that Amazon does not print a children's hardcover book, but Ingram Sparks does print a children's hardcover book.

Amazon, you have to have a minimum of 72 pages to have a hardcover book printed by them.

Let's jump in a bit about, because it's fascinating.

Like you said, you read the signs, you had this publisher keep popping up in your Facebook feed, and finally you decided this is a sign.

And that's what I always talk about.

There's really three ways to publish a children's book.

There's go get it traditionally published, which is where you find a publisher.

They take all the rights, they do all the work, and you get a small portion of the proceeds from the sale of each of the books.

Then there's self published or hybrid publishing, which is, I believe, what you've done.

And then there's, of course, independent publishing, which is what we did as a children's book author.

We took on all the duties and as a general manager, and we published our own book.

So I know you are using Miriam Laundrie, which is a hybrid children's book publisher.

But before we get into that, I'm curious, when it came to publishing your children's book, what was your biggest challenge or frustration.

Before publishing with Miriam or.

Yeah, yeah.

So when you were thinking, okay, you finally came back to it, you opened up the box, you're in your new home, you're going to start fresh, and you say, okay, now what, what was your biggest frustration or challenge to getting your, your children's book published?

Honestly, it was quite a few challenges, but one of them was believing in myself.

I didn't know where to start.

I knew I always wanted to write books.

I didn't know who to talk to, who was going to illustrate it.

What was the process?

I didn't even know where to begin.

That was one of the biggest challenges.

You've got all of these challenges floating around in your head.

Tell us what happened that you finally were able to say, ah, I'm going to take action, or what was that pivotal moment that you took?

You finally took action and you got hold of Miriam Laundrie.

Or maybe you didn't even start there.

Maybe you started sooner and then built to that.

Tell us about that.

I talked to a few publishers and I didn't get a chance to speak to Marian Laundrie at the time.

But I went to a conference that she was hosting and I actually met her face to face.

And that's when I knew the second day that I was in her conference.

I already know this is who I was going with.

Was just a ductary conference in your area, or there's no.

I actually flew to Canada.

Okay, so you flew to Canada.

And I decided, okay, I'm going to go to this conference.

I'm going to listen to what's being told.

And so that conference inspired you to take action.

I signed up in Mariam Laundrie.

I have to say, this was a smooth process.

She was so incredible to work with.

Her team was incredible to work with.

There was a lot of doubts, a lot of learning curves and a lot of delays, but they were.

I'm freaking out, but they were fine.

Don't worry, we'll take you step by step.

Any emails I sent, they were returned within five minutes.

Their work ethic was impressive.

I had to find the illustrator myself.

Right, right.

Because they don't work on that part.

They give you several leads too.

They do, they do.

And then you just pick whoever you are.

So I went with Advocate Art.

Okay.

And just so you know, I've talked to about 75 children's book authors and about 20 to 25% have actually published with Miriam.

Wow.

Yeah.

And a lot of times that's how I get my leads, is a lot of these authors that have worked with Miriam are in a Facebook group.

And then they go back and forth and then they'll say, you know what, I was just on Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors podcast.

You should reach out to Rick and take it from there.

That is a very positive thing that happens for me through Miriam Laundrie, even though I'm an independently published children's book author.

I wanted to tell you.

And this is.

Cause I know other authors or inspiring authors will listen.

One of my biggest challenges was also keeping it at 32 pages.

That was tough because a lot of things happen in the kitchen with the kids and making sure that the message stayed pure and age appropriate because I wanted it for it to have meaning for both for kids and for parents, not just the kids.

That was one of my biggest challenges.

That's so true.

I hear that all the time about when the writing the story and staying pure.

And that's why I always say to aspiring children's book authors or even experienced children's book authors, make sure you have an editor.

Because they tend to be the least expensive but probably the most important person because, yeah, they help you stay on task, they help you stay on message, and they make sure that at the end of the day, most children's books, if they're 32 pages, are between 500 and 1,000 words.

And they help you stay on target to make sure that you're within that zone.

Yeah, that was pretty hard.

Yes, you want to.

Of course, you have to stay on within the 32 pages, but you still want.

You get your message across the way you think it should come across.

I've noticed.

And you know what?

That's the beautiful thing about whether you're self published or you're independently published.

At the end of the day, you have the literary license to do whatever you want.

And that's what some authors do.

I've seen authors have thousands of words and it's just the way they feel and what's important to them for sure.

When you got around to working with Miriam and you went on your search for an illustrator, did you end up using someone that they recommended or did you do a broader search for an illustrator?

I did a broader search.

She sent me a few people to look at.

And so I just went on abbotkr and there are thousands of illustrators out there.

I know it's so small, but when I saw Hannah Wood's eyes, I just went with it.

I liked how.

Because I feel like I saw my daughter's eyes.

My daughter is.

We're mixed.

We're interracial couple.

My daughter's.

We are Hispanic and Asian.

So I needed to make sure that she had the correct eyes.

Like, I wanted to make sure that there was a connection with Guy and the character.

And that's when I saw her other books.

I said, this is her.

You know what?

It's nice when you do your own research too, because that's what happened to us, is that as an independent publisher, we had to find an illustrator.

I tried to find, and I'm in Canada, and so I tried to find an illustrator and I. I couldn't find one in our area.

And like you, I went on the Internet.

I was looking for a feel like you were, and I wasn't as specific as you were with people.

I was.

I don't know why.

No, but that was important to you, and that's.

I think that's a great message for aspiring children's book authors.

If you have a certain look that you want to capture, it's your book.

Do the extra work to do as you have done.

That's what we did.

We went on and I looked for a illustrator that could capture the great outdoors, the feel of Caboose, like you and I had talked about before we got on the recording, the moment I sent a picture of what we wanted Caboose to look like.

And the illustrator came back and said, what do you think?

And we said, that's her.

That's Caboose.

We're now up to two published children's book books in our series.

The beautiful thing about it is that our illustrator was able to capture what we were visualizing.

And that's exactly what you were looking for.

You wanted the illustrator to capture what you were visualizing.

You know, I have to give it to illustrators, though.

You can say what you want to say and describe what you want to say and reiterate what you want to say it look like, but they don't have your visual and they do come up with exactly what you were thinking.

It's pretty amazing.

It is.

You know what?

We were lucky because all of our stories, we've written 38 stories in the Adventures of Caboose, the Rocky Mountain Bear.

And I've written all 38 with my five grandchildren.

And what's amazing is that in today's world, and you were talking about the digital world with your daughter not getting a cell phone till she was 14.

Our oldest granddaughter, Kira.

Kira starts a K. And that's how we why we start Caboose with a K. Because of Kira.

But the iPhone is the reason I call her our digital baby.

Because there is no film, there is no negatives.

Every single picture from the moment she was born is all digital.

And the beautiful thing about that is then I've been able to capture all these adventures in digital in pictures.

It was really my granddaughter, my oldest granddaughter, who said, papa, we have all of these pictures in your iPhone.

We should write stories about them.

And that's how it all started.

That's the neat thing about that.

Because we had between three and 10 pictures of each of our adventures, I was actually able to send those to the illustrator to at least set a feeling for that person.

Because our illustrator, I live just outside the Rocky Mountains, and our illustrator lives in England and he's never been to the Rocky Mountains.

It was our pictures that allowed him to do, like you're talking about, create these illustrations.

Once you had your illustrator tell us a little bit more, did you actually send your completed story to the illustrator and then they started from there?

I sent the whole entire manuscript to the illustrator and she came back about a week later with the template.

Okay, so was it black and white or a storyboard or what was it?

It was a storyboard.

It wasn't black and white.

And it was just pictures, like, you know, like whatever little story, she would make a picture out of that story, which I found fascinating.

I noticed you don't have a website, an author's website now.

Do you plan to do a website in the future?

Yes, it's actually in the making.

It's still in process.

Is it going to be an author's website like your name, or is it going to be the Sweet Playmate Club?

Tell us a little bit about that.

I think it's going to be the Sweet Play Date Club only because it's only the first book and I, of course I plan to have a series.

There's.

There's so many moments I have to share with the world.

Not just the very first one.

Sweet Play Day Club was the very first book that was published.

But from there on, I.

Because it was such a great way to share the story and I got such great feedback and I.

It's only been, what, six months?

And people are like, so when's the next one?

When's the next story?

When's the next treat?

When is the next recipe?

Okay, hold on.

Let's just get through the first.

I love the name and I love how you've done that, because it's.

What we did is we named our first book the Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear.

You knew once you read the title there was going to be more adventures.

And our second book, what we did, and I'll just show it to you.

I know the listening audience can't see it, but.

But you'll see, we took our banner.

We Adventures of Caboose the Rocky Mountain Bear.

And then our second book is actually called Hijinks from the Big Head Folk Music Festival.

That's the intention is to have a master brand like Caboose, and then to build out the adventures from there.

And that's a beautiful thing about you setting up yours is the Playdate Club is there's so many things that children do in a club.

So for you, the amount of stories is endless.

Are you going to use some of the graphics from your first book to build out your website?

Yes, I'm going to keep it consistent.

Is the illustrator going to help you?

Yes, she's all in.

She's all in.

Do you have the skills to do the website or are you hiring it out?

How are you going about that?

I have my nephew who is an IT guy.

He's working on it.

It was interesting because on Tuesday I interviewed children's book author Rusty Austin.

And Rusty's from Palm Springs, California, and he just recently retired.

He's got four children's books.

And that's when he noticed he started to get a lot more traction on his books because he had a place, a home for his four books.

And so I'm glad because we went through the same thing as you is we wrote our first children's book.

We created a link for Amazon, and we put that on our social media.

At the end of the day, a lot of people said, where's your home?

And I said, what do you mean, home?

And they said, where's your home for your book?

And they meant website and.

And that's how we all come about it.

But it's fun because I'm excited for you because we did the same thing as you're doing.

We used the illustrations from our first and second book to build our website.

Good luck and much success you'll have.

You'll have to let me know when you do have it go live because I can go in and change the show notes to add it in the future.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Absolutely.

Motivation.

Was there a specific person or event that motivated you to finally take action?

I know you said you moved into a new home, you pulled your story out, but what motivated you to take action?

Was there a person or an event.

I want to say, coming out of COVID We have a business, so obviously that was a little tough for us.

We didn't know what was going to happen.

But I feel like I needed some kind of motivation, something for me.

I have been working alongside my husband for many years, and I just needed something for me, like it was just mine.

And I think that Was the very first inspiration.

Nice.

And has it filled that void in a way or that drive?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

I was just focused on the one book, although I had written a little stories, but once this happened, and voila.

I was a published author.

I just want to keep writing and not just children's books.

Obviously, my focus will be children's books, because that's always been my passion, but now I want to do other things, so we'll see.

So I'm back and forth.

So I'm pretty busy now.

Yeah.

No, that's fantastic character development in your books.

And I know that you have two main characters, Danny and Sky.

Talk to us about that whole relationship and why two main characters, and they go through this adventure together, and it's very cool.

I don't want to give the whole story away, but tell us about this whole character development of Dani and Sky.

It's actually true.

Everything about the book is true.

So Dani is one of my oldest nieces who is actually adopted, and she spends a lot of time in my house with sky.

And that's how it all started with them two cooking.

She's actually a baker.

She's a culinary baker.

And she went to school, and she's doing fantastic.

Now she's a grown woman.

Skylar is gonna be 17.

But that was the character development.

I can't even tell you that I developed the character, because it was in my face.

It was in my kitchen.

It just.

It happened so naturally, and I just wrote it all down.

I always say to aspiring children's book authors, if I talk to you about our book series and our adventures, every single story is based on it.

An actual event that happened.

And in our case, we turned our characters into animals.

And each one of my grandchildren has chosen a animal that naturally lives in the Rocky Mountains.

That's just what we decide to do now.

In our books, we also add humans because we want to make sure that people understand we're on this world together with animals and all kinds of wildlife.

We need to understand that we're sharing this, and so that's what we try and do.

That's right.

I love what you created.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

The theme of your book.

Let's talk about the theme.

I know when you went through Miriam Laundrie and then you used their editing process and all that, did you have multiple themes, or did you have a clear theme right from the beginning, or did they help you drill it down?

Tell us about that journey.

I had it clear from the beginning.

I had it clear from the beginning.

I knew that that book was going to be about sharing, baking, laughing together, making stories, accepting different cultures.

I already knew what the story was about.

Marion didn't.

She didn't even try to change it.

She was happy with what I had.

Of course, there was like punctuations and marks and stuff like that, but other than that, the story stayed true.

How did you tie your theme into your central teaching?

I would say basically the experience and the moments, that's how it all just came together.

There is two little girls, like you said, from different cultural backgrounds who have are introducing each other to their own special treats from their culture.

And they share the journey together.

They go on this journey where one comes over and bakes the recipe with the other person and then they go to the other house and they do the same thing.

I love that and I loved how you share the recipe.

So just for the listeners, if it's just for the recipes, buy the sweet Play Date Club book.

Just for the recipe.

Just for the recipe.

My wife is makes a one of the desserts that you talk about, but it has the cherry on top.

It doesn't have the thumbprint in the middle.

The shortbread cookie, the sharp bread cookie.

Yeah, but a lot of fun.

Again, your book brought back memories of my mom made those cookies and passed it on to my wife and we passed it on to our children.

Those are our festive cookies.

We make those every holiday.

That's our cookie.

For us, it's guava.

That's our traditional thumbprint.

That's what you're filling in with.

But because sky was little, she just explores.

She explored with Nutella, she explored with sprinkles.

You can put whatever your little heart desires in.

And I think that's fun.

That's a lot of fun for them.

And it's a good way to introduce baking to children in a fun manner where they get to control part of the recipe.

I love it.

Thank you.

I know you said you're working on your second book, so you're busy because you're also working on your website, but I'm curious about your writing process from two standpoints.

Take us back to when you first started writing.

And like you said, you wrote about 10 stories, threw them in a box, and let them percolate or stew for a couple of years.

And what's different now?

Take us back and then bring us forward to your writing process now.

Okay, so in the beginning, it's more like you just write what you saw, not in journaling.

You just write down what you saw.

And now it's because I've learned, obviously we've learned how to do it now and I've had some help.

Now it's more imagination.

Now you can add.

There's so much more you can do to it.

Before it was you just write, Right?

We write what you feel, write what you experience.

But now it's like there's so much more.

Now you think about color, you think about the outfits, you think about the background.

There's so much to think about.

And that's.

That's what's fun about it.

Well, with you, setting it up as a club in the series is what it does.

And that's what I.

We were talking about earlier about the adventures.

Once you used a club or adventures, use that word, then all of a sudden it gives you this literary license to go all out.

Do you think you've got more purpose or more focus now?

Definitely more purpose.

Okay.

Because I saw what it did.

Besides your own personal experience with Danny and Skyler, tell us, did you conduct or are you going to conduct any additional research in the future as you write your books?

Right now I'm going to stick to my stories only because I still have nine to go.

Okay.

So I want to stick to that.

Obviously I'll do research on that because I have to make sure that the recipes are perfected.

I didn't make these recipes.

The children did.

So obviously have to go back and research on how they did it.

How what did they used.

These girls are so much older now.

I'm hoping that they remember these days and we can go back and talk about it.

To have your niece actually go into the culinary industry, right.

You must have a lot of fond memories to help drive that now her professional career.

That's right.

And when you say nine, it's interesting because we're up to 38 and.

But the only reason I mention that is that you may find that your nine manifests itself into 18 or 20, whatever.

You know what?

I hope so.

I hope so.

Success.

Knowing that you're newly minted children's book author, you've released your first book.

I want you to think about this in two ways.

I want you to think about before you even had your published book, how were you envisioning success for your book?

And now that you have your book published, what's that success look like?

And does it match up or what's changed?

I want to say both.

It does match up.

But I think that what changed was my feelings.

How I'm sure you've understand this you know what it does to people when you get phone calls and the kids talk to you about it and they're excited?

You know what that does to your heart?

Even the success that Sweet Play Day Club has had since July and it's only been a couple months, my heart is full.

So that's what that changed.

It matched up with the success.

I was a little scared, obviously, because it was my first time.

I didn't know how well it was going to do.

But now I'm so excited to see what's next because now I understand the process and I know how successful it can be, what warmth it brings to homes.

So that's my excitement and that's what's changed for me.

And now that you've had this experience, will you use Miriam Laundrie's services again, or do you see yourself taking on more roles than you would have had you not gone through the Miriam Laundrie publishing program?

I think I'm going to stick to Miriam Laundrie.

I really enjoyed her process.

It was flawless.

It was easy.

I liked it.

I feel comfortable with her.

And what about your illustrator?

Same thing.

So you're going to stick with her as long as you're doing?

As long as she lets me.

Okay, Good for you.

I love the excitement.

People can't see the.

Because we do this in audio, even though we've audited video, but people can't see the expression and the love on your face of being a children's book authority, which is awesome.

And I noticed you're hugging your book, which is fantastic, the whole time.

You notice?

Yes, absolutely and rightfully.

I always keep both our copies of our books right in front of me.

Very proud of them.

And you know where and whenever we get to share.

That's.

I think that's fantastic.

Now that you're a published children's book author, and I know you talked about how you were doing something for yourself, and I love that because most of us don't reveal that, but it is, you know what, we're all doing something for ourselves.

I'm curious now, what's the role of writing mean to you in the grand scheme of your life?

Now, the role of writing, I want to say it makes me fulfilled that I have accomplished something special.

It makes me want to keep going.

I feel like I have.

Not that I didn't have purpose before, but like I have a major purpose now.

I know you recently published this, so tell us a little bit about now that you have this great feeling.

You have this book in your Hand.

Have you gone out and done any public readings yet or worked any markets or events or, like, how have you taking the love of your life that you've got in your arms?

My other child.

Your other child.

How have you shared your other child with the world?

Okay, I'm waiting for Barnes and Noble to get back to me on a book signing.

I have four scheduled book readings next year.

I didn't realize that you needed a little time to get approved by the board.

I thought you can just call.

Doesn't work.

I think learning curves, local libraries.

Definitely two readings here in my area, in the schools.

What else am I doing?

Festival.

Festival.

So besides Barnes and Noble, is there any other bookstores independently?

Just for now.

It's just Barnes and Noble for now.

And you said events.

Talk to us about that.

Festivals next year.

There's three of them.

What type of festival?

There is one in Ocean City.

Okay, this is funny because I was researching festivals and of course, a lot of book fairs.

And we're in that.

We're doing that.

But then there was one that came up that was a food festival, and I was like, what am I gonna do in a food festival?

But then I realized my book is about food.

Yes, everything's about food.

When they see a book stand, they're gonna say, what's this about?

It's food.

So I'm hoping that that works out.

Well in terms of advice for aspiring authors.

The nice thing about it, that should be fairly fresh for you.

What advice would you give aspiring children's book authors?

For me, I would say, don't wait.

Just do it.

Work with what you have.

Write when you're in doubt, write when you're uncomfortable, and just go for it.

Because I wanted to do this for a long time, and I proved that dreams do not expire.

So just write and go for it.

Do your research.

Pick your publishing company, pick your illustrator, and go for it.

What's meant to be is going to be.

In other words, don't throw your stories in a box.

Nope.

Don't put them on a show.

Keep writing a thousand times if you have to.

You know what?

And you've hit it right on the button.

My granddaughter and I, we wrote our first story, and she was so excited about it, she said, papa, can we write the titles to the next stories?

And we ended up writing probably 15 or 20 titles of the next stories in our adventures because that's something that she wanted to do.

And I still have the journal where we wrote them all down.

It was pretty special.

And, like, you said, even if all the stories aren't coming to you in full, write down even the bare minimum to get you started.

And.

And you can come back to it.

You can.

The sweet play date Club.

I didn't find the idol to the very, very end.

Oh, and that was stressful.

Let's pick up on that for a second.

And I'm glad you mentioned this, because most people, the children's book authors I've talked to, generally have their title before anything else.

And I know that we did.

We had the Adventures of Caboose, the Rocky Mountain Bear.

We had the title.

We just didn't have anything else.

In your case, you didn't have the title to the very end, so.

The very, very end.

So take us through that.

Actually, I was being pushed to hurry.

Up with the fight, but.

So what did you have in mind?

What was your what originally?

What did you think?

What was the process?

I feel first, I knew it was going to be something play date, because it was all about play dates, right?

Or something teamwork or friendship or.

But it was so broad.

So I said I didn't know what to do.

My family and my nieces and nephews were all with me throughout this journey.

And my little one, Quinn, says to me, you know, let's.

I want to do one of the recipes I want to try.

So it's.

It's like getting warm.

It's.

It's in June.

And I said, oh, let's do the ice pop.

Okay.

And while we're making it, she's trying it out before she puts it in the.

You want to scoop the dough and eat it?

Yeah.

So she wants to try the ice cream.

And I said, oh, it's pretty hot right now.

She says, no, let's try it.

Let's try.

Okay, fine.

She goes, wow, this is really sweet.

This is a street play date.

That's why it came about.

Wow.

At the very end.

And I emailed.

So emailed Mary and laundry right away.

Title.

That is fantastic.

You're the first one to take us through that again.

To aspiring children's book authors.

You know, don't get caught up in trying to come up with the perfect title.

Live your story, share it with others, and like Luz has done, and make sure you have the time.

I don't knock to the last second, but you have the time.

No, don't do what I did.

It worked out.

Yes.

No, that.

That's fantastic.

One thing I also wanted to mention to you is I'm going to put you in contact with a children's book author I interviewed recently.

Her name is Jessica McAnelli, episode 56.

And she actually wrote a children's book on food safety.

Food Safety in the Kitchen.

But it's a children's book.

I'll send her a little email for you and then you guys can hook up.

Maybe there's something there that you guys can do together.

I'm sure I can learn a lot from her.

Fantastic encouragement for readers.

Why should people purchase your book?

Okay, I think one, it will keep them away from the screens for a little while.

It would help to work together, include each other.

And for the parents, I want to say it opens up conversations about teamwork, friendship, cultural appreciation.

And most of all, I think it reminds families how powerful these simple little moments together make everlasting memories.

Because these are memories that I'm sharing with you that I actually recommend through with my child.

That's terrific.

And the thing, like I said to you at the beginning and I love is that rather than involve a mother, you involved a grandmother.

That triggered such fond memories for me of my granddaughter actually baking with my mother.

So that's multi generational.

And we have a picture of them in the kitchen doing that together.

This is a takeaway.

Your memory, your memory.

Thank you for sharing that.

Final thoughts.

Is there anything that you would like to share that you said, oh, I wish Rick would have asked me that question.

Is there something that you'd like to share with the audience?

You did a really good job and you know what?

I was very nervous.

I don't even know how it all sounds, but I feel very comfortable with you and I really appreciate you.

Rick, thank you for having me here.

Obviously, I want to thank my family, my husband, my daughter who made it all happen.

Thank you so much.

It was so much fun with you today.

I truly admire what you created with Caboose.

I love the heart behind it.

I love that it's a family thing done together.

You know, my book is about family together too.

And I enjoyed every little bit of Maureen sharing a little sweetness with you.

Thank you.

So, Luz, thank you for being a guest on the Adventures in the Heart of Children's Book Authors podcast.

Your generosity of time, your insights will significantly help aspiring children's book authors who, like you said, just take action.

And also, I hope this inspires readers because you have a very special book.

Yeah.

We promise to provide our audience with links to Luz's social media.

And when her website goes live, we'll definitely ask her to send us that and we'll make sure that the link to our website goes into our Show Notes 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 Luz and her children's book, Sweet Play Date Club.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Rick.