Where'd You Come Up With That?! Wednesdays!

 

Stinky Ol' Pig is a story about Percy, a curious little piglet who overhears a private conversation between some of the other farm animals. 

One farm animal, Mr. Lamb, has some unpleasant things to say about pigs and how dirty pigs are. Percy decides he doesn't want to be a stinky old pig, so he finds some sweet-smelling honeysuckle to wallow in.

Mom takes Percy aside and explains that all animals are different and pigs are made to wallow in the mud and cool off. 

So, where'd this idea come from? I'm not 100% sure why I chose pigs. I wanted to write a different type of animal story for children, so when pigs came to mind I came up with a pig who wants to smell nice.

Now, working off that, I had to decide why he didn't want to stink, and how he and Mama Pig would deal with the issue. I think writing it this way teaches children a few concepts: 

1. You shouldn't care what others say about you.
2. Everyone should be free to be themselves.
3. Compromise can be beneficial.
4. Not all beings are made to be the same, and that's ok.
5. Acceptance for those who are different than you.

The story underwent years of revisions until I felt it was ready for publication. Also, I couldn't draw pigs; I'm not great at illustrations. Luckily, I found Canva.com and the perfect image for the story. 

Stinkly Ol'Pig is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can read for free on Kindle Unlimited! 

Even more updates!

 I have updated my pages on where to buy ebooks and children's books. The picture books are less pricey at Barnes & Noble, but I don't have an ebook format for picture books on B&N, yet. I'm still working on it.

On Amazon, the picture books are also available as ebooks and on Kindle Unlimited. So, you can read them for free if you have it. ❤

The adult ebooks are no longer on Kindle Unlimited because I can't enroll them now that they are available on many other platforms. I hope that's a good thing! 👀

Stories to Wrap Your Mind Around: Volume 6 will be available on September 1 as planned. I'm still working on editing for The Bindlestiff Myster, but I hope to have it available in October. 🙏

My next product is Opal and Ali. I started writing this one a long time ago, and I had 5 out of 10 chapters. I lost all but 2! I had writing saved on a disc that no longer works. I don't know if it's degraded or what, but I am not happy about it. 😡

Luckily, I still have some handwritten notes and an outline for all chapters, so I'll start again! I've made the cover. I love book covers on Canva. I think it'll inspire me to write!

 

I haven't written out a blurb or summary, yet. But, it's a children's story about a little girl who finds an unusual friend in the garden of her new home. 

It's not a picture book but a children's first chapter book. 

I'm sure I'll be back soon with more updates!! 

Happy Reading!

Where'd You Come Up With That?! Wednesdays~ The Sofa Monster

In this story, Sammy is scared when a creature emerges from the couch cushions. The monster is a hodge-podge of things lost down the sofa cushions, like loose change, candy, toothpicks, and old shoe strings. 

Sammy tries to tell his parents about the sofa monster, but they don't believe him. Later, the monster is hiding under the dinner table, and he helps Sammy get rid of his peas so he can have dessert. Then he finds the monster hiding under his bed. The monster is nice, so Sammy crawls under the bed with him and is surprised when he finds out what the Sofa Monster wants. Together they make a deal so that both he and Sofa Monster get what they want. 

This story came to me as I was cleaning underneath the couch cushions and in the cracks. I really don't know how all that stuff gets in there, but I never know what I'm going to find. That got me thinking about what happens to the "stuff" that gets lost in the cracks. There could be a whole different world in those sofa cushions!

I think anyone with kids can relate to finding "stuff"  in odd places. You never know what kids will do when you're not looking. 

And from there the Sofa Monster was born! 

You can find the book on Amazon and directly from the publisher Pen It! Publications.

The Sofa Monster is also listed on LitPick for student reviews. 

Happy Reading!