An Unexpected Children’s Book Series

It’s official: what I had thought would be a one-off project has turned into a franchise. I am creating a children’s book series!

No, this is not a continuation of Melvin the Missing Sock—it’s a collection of stories dedicated to teaching kids vocabulary and valuable lessons from the quirky perspectives of critters and inanimate objects. I can’t wait to introduce to you our newest friend, Bertrand the Bashful Bumblebee!

Now, if you’ve been following The Inquisitive Inkpot, you might be thinking, “Wait… I thought you were writing a sequel to The Exile?”

The answer is “yes.”

Well, more precisely, I’m planning the sequel. The actual writing will likely not begin for another month, as I keep prodding Bertrand toward publication.

In any case, both projects are underway. Their side-by-side progress has, in fact, helped me avoid burning out on either one of them over the last couple of months.

Although there are many reasons to celebrate the beginning of a children’s book series, I must say one of parts I cherish most is how unexpected this all was.

Never did I foresee myself writing a children’s book in the first place. Much less did I foresee myself liking it. Even less did I foresee myself deciding that one wasn’t enough, two wasn’t enough, and three probably isn’t enough either!

Beyond the surprise of it all, though, is the knowledge that the same children (and more!) who read Melvin and couldn’t get enough will soon have another book to laugh over and learn from, with more beautiful illustrations from Lauren Fisher.

Some logistics remain to be determined, but one thing is for sure: things are falling into place. I plan to share some pictures from the storyboarding session for Bertrand and even a video of the process—accompanied by my creative team. Who is my creative team, you ask? You’ll find out in a couple of weeks, but you’ve already met one of its members. 😉

It has been less than peachy juggling the revision of Bertrand, the planning of my next historical fiction novel, and the continued marketing of Melvin—who is hopefully about to make his debut in a major bookstore soon here! (More on that to follow.) But one bonus of these dreary winter months is that there are fewer activities to distract me from those necessary hours laboring in front of a computer or notebook. If you are an author, you know exactly what I am talking about. And if you’re not an author, well, maybe use your extra time to try something new. Try writing a story. Who knows? You might like it as much as I did. 🙂

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