How I Became a Writer

Full disclosure here- I am not an influencer. This is the first blog post I have ever written and I‘ve called like four people already to make sure I was doing it correctly.  I don’t know how to do hair or makeup, I’m not great with technology, and my life is really not all that interesting. As it stands, I am a busy mom and wife who also works a full-time job as a registered nurse. Between working, cooking , cleaning, laundry, getting my kids to and from their activities/playdates, packing lunches, organizing schedules etc., I feel like the last few years of my life have been total chaos.  Forget about throwing in trying to do something for myself like taking a workout class or getting my nails done (hellooooo mom guilt). Of course I wouldn’t change anything, but most days, I’m just doing my best to try to make it to the end of the day. Looking back, how I became a published author happened purely by accident and I have my family to thank for that.

It all started with my children- my life’s greatest blessings. I have two children- a daughter named Amelia who is four and a son named Thomas who is two. These two are masters at evading bedtime. Absolute maestros. If delaying bedtime was an Olympic sport, my daughter would have a gold medal. Through the years, she has coached her younger brother and helped cultivate his bedtime evading skills as well.  He can now ward off bedtime just as expertly as she can. It’s borderline impressive. I can tell they’re tired (I know I am) and yet as soon as we announce, “Ok guys, time for bed!” they get an immediate second wind. Protests are quickly followed up with, “Mom, can you get me a snack (yes it’s always mom).. Now I need water.. Can we watch 5 more minutes please… Mom I have to pee… I don’t like theses pajamas they have buttons (what does that even mean).. When is it morning?” Any tactic their little minds can conjure up in order to delay bedtime another five minutes, they deploy. In the past, as I turned off the lights, the kids would inevitably end their crusade against bedtime with, “Mom, can you tell us a story?” Thus began the start of my story telling career.

I didn’t feel like I really knew any good stories when my daughter first asked me this question . I did know that I was not good at making things up. I somehow started telling my kids true stories about our family dog, Ferris. Once, while my husband and I were living in Jersey City, Ferris was sprayed by a group of skunks that emerged from our garage that was left slightly ajar. After getting sprayed, Ferris ran into our house and rubbed his dirty paws and skunk infested fur all over my brand-new white couch (yes I am an idiot for buying a white couch). My husband and I had to put our puppy (who despised the water) into the bathtub to be cleaned with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish soap. I ended up having to physically get in the tub with him while fully clothed because he was so scared. Ferris somehow escaped by leaping out of the tub and of course simultaneously getting sudsy water and bubbles all over the bathroom. Our entire house smelled like skunks for a month no matter how much I cleaned and we unsurprisingly had to buy a new couch. My children found this real life Ferris tale hilarious. “Mom tell it again!” became their latest strategy to avoid going to sleep.

After repeating the story about the skunks at bedtime for a while, the kids eventually started asking for another Ferris story. I realized I had a lot of stories to tell about Ferris. He was a high energy pup that seemed to find himself in trouble quite a bit over the years. I started telling them about the time Ferris had a fight with a giant gopher (who also somehow emerged from our half open garage- apparently, we didn’t learn our lesson with making sure it was fully closed post skunk gate, 2018). I told them about Ferris going to doggy day care and how one dog there was sort of a bully. I told them about Ferris chasing a wild turkey out of the yard at our new house when we eventually moved down the shore. I told them a story about how Ferris acted when he became a big brother/when my daughter was born. Story after story came flooding out of me.

This is where my husband comes in. My husband Dennis is the most sensible man I have ever met. Even when I am attempting be grandiose or hyperbolic, he can’t help but pull be back down to earth. “Let’s buy a yacht one day,” I said to him in our kitchen last week. His response was something like, “Well Kate, the probability of us ever actually owning a yacht is.. “ I stopped listening and walked out of the kitchen. Let a girl dream, Dens! Anyway, after hearing me narrate countless Ferris stories to the kids, he started telling me they were really good. He told me I should try to get them published. I knew absolutely nothing about how to get a children’s book published. I did not know where I would even begin. But hearing the most practical man on the planet encourage me to do something that seemed unfathomable to me, led me to believe I just might be able to do it.

I plan on making another post about how to self-publish a children’s book, so I won’t go into the details of that journey here. But I had about 12 books written before I decided to look for an illustrator to bring my stories to life. Actually, first I tried a free trial of a site called Canva. The site is designed to help you illustrate your own children’s book. They have YouTube videos that can  teach you how to illustrate  your story. Unfortunately, my illustrations were still awful even with all the tutorials, so I needed to illicit the help of a talented artist. I found Tommy Hardman on Reedsy- a website that is very helpful if you are looking to publish a book. There are designers, marketing tools, and editors available for hire. After seeing Tommy Hardman illustrate my first book, Ferris and the Family of Skunks, I immediately hired him for the next three books and we went to work.

My first book is set to be released on 5.27.2025. and will be available on amazon with the next few books of the series being released shortly thereafter. I’m really excited. I have loved the process of writing these stories and I hope you all love them as much as my own family does. I have to end this post by thanking my amazing children and my husband for kickstarting my career as an author. Let’s hope it’s a long and successful one! And for anyone thinking of writing a children’s book- YOU CAN DO IT! Believe you can. We all want to hear your idea.