Authors Helping Authors with Alva Sachs [Ep. 59 of The Writer’s Way Podcast]

Introducing Alva

Introduction

Laurie: Hello writers. Welcome to another episode of The Writer’s Way podcast. I’m Laurie here today with Alva Sachs. Hello. How lovely to meet you, Alva. 

Alva: Hi. Great to meet you. I didn’t realize you were up in Canada. 

Laurie: I am up in the cold north

Alva: or Canada. I have friends up in Nova Scotia. 

Laurie: Oh yes. 

Alva: So yeah, and I’ve been to Vancouver, so I’ve been there. So yeah, I’ve seen parts of it. 

Laurie: Okay. So I’m right in the middle of those two. 

Alva: It’s cold uh?

Laurie:  It’s cold, it’s cold. Yes, for my birthday, my husband bought me a really good quality heater for where I work because I’m  so cold all week. 

Alva: Well, I know what it’s like. I’m originally from Chicago, so I grew up in the snow and the cold and all the ice and everything. So. I understand. 

Laurie: And then did you escape it? You live… 

Alva: Well, I escaped it, um, we left Illinois for Kansas for eight and a half years. And then we’ve been here in California for 24, so there’s always been something. But my memories of, uh the snow and the ice. And when I was teaching, I used to have to go and start my car, uh, at lunchtime cause it wouldn’t start after school.

Laurie: Oh yeah. That’s exactly like where I live. So, you know. 

Alva: Exactly. Yup. 

Laurie: So why don’t I just share with our listeners, um, who you are and a bit about your publishing journey. 

Alva: Oh, wow. Ok, so we have all day to talk. Um, I’m Alva Sachs. I’m a former elementary school teacher for 16 years. Uh, I taught fourth and fifth, and then I went back to be a permanent sub in the building where my kids went to school and I did, um, kindergarten through fifth grade.

I have a master’s of education. And, um, I guess, and I never wanted to be a teacher. It was an accident. And it just so happened that I started at a community college and transferred down to the university of Illinois in Champaign Urbana. And enrollment was kind of difficult in the different colleges.

So I went into the college of education cause once you just take your general classes, you can, you know, change to another college. And it turned out I started transfer. I started taking education classes in my sophomore year and I loved it. And by the time I was a junior, I was in a grad program at night.

I was doing undergrad and grad all at the same time. 

Laurie: Oh wow. 

Alva: Incredible. And, um, I had wonderful opportunities and. Had a hard time getting a job, but I kept pursuing it and I was very fortunate and I love it. And to this day, I miss it when September or August rolls around, I keep thinking I need to be getting my classroom ready.

I need to be writing the names of my kids. But anyway, I did a lot of writing with my kids,  when I taught. That was very important. And uh, it was very hard seeing the kids who came to me in fifth grade couldn’t write a paragraph. And the writing skills were very, very incomplete. And I always wondered what happened as they went through first, second, third, fourth grade.

Cause that wasn’t how, and every, every teacher has their way. And you know, so it was good for me because I took a special class that they offered in our district. And I mentored other teachers in my building and I had a whole corner in my room that was a writing corner, and I had boxes that were labeled for rough drafts, first edit, second edit.

You know, final edit and then publish. Though, I guess it was just something that I was, I was doing and it was in my heart, didn’t do anything with it for a long time. And I had written “Circus Fever”, my first book actually when I was in this mentor program, and it was just sitting there for, I don’t know how many years, a long time.

And so, um, I was the, serendipity of it all is I was hosting my illustrator now with another children’s author and I, and I was helping them set up and I said, Oh, I have a, I have a book for kids, and they go, Oh, send it to us. You know how somebody says, Oh, I like example sends to me and how to be polite and supportive.

I actually waited three months before I sent them the manuscript and they loved it and I was going to publish it with them, but I decided to start my own company, which was the best thing I ever did. Which is the one thing I tell clients, cause I do consulting work, is to own your intellectual property.

You know, a lot of people take that for granted, don’t you think? I don’t know if you,

Laurie: Yep. 

Alva: Yeah. 

Laurie: Well, everybody’s built differently. I feel like some people are just too overwhelmed with those details because of their life or their, you know, whatever’s happening. But I think it’s smart to own your property for sure.

Alva: Very much important. Yeah, very important. So that’s when “Circus Fever” came and I started my own company. And, uh, and I have “My illustrator, Patricia”, it’s won many awards. We’re in our fourth printing. And, uh, it’s just been a great journey and it still holds up the test of time since I’ve been doing this for 12 years now.

Laurie: Oh, wow. 

Alva: And so, 

Laurie: Oh, sorry, 

Alva: Go ahead. 

Laurie: I just going to say, how many books do you have published now?

Alva:  I have five published and I, and that’s when um, I decided to start my own company with Three Wishes Publishing, and I didn’t know what, I didn’t know what a DBA was. 

Laurie: Yeah

Alva: I didn’t, I didn’t know anything. And, um, I was standing in my kitchen, I remember it like yesterday. I see, well do I want to be Alva’s books, books for kids, you know, and I wanted to be, and literally from the ceilings, three wishes popped up cause I have 3 kids. And so it’s for my three kids. And my nephew’s a graphic designer.

He designed my fairy godmother and the rest is history. Yeah. So I have, I have five books and I have the same illustrator. And we want to make sure that each book has its own identity, its own type of artistic integrity and that type of stuff. So, um, it’s been really, really thrilling. 

Laurie: Oh, that’s great. I love the name of your publishing company, that brought a tear to my eye, 

Alva: But she’s really cute. She’s, you know, she’s just, she’s a cartoony and she’s got a magic wand and she’s holding up three fingers. So just. Oh, those together. I’ll send. I’ll send it, send a picture to you, and then continue with literacy.

I’m president of Reading is Fundamental in Southern California here, and we help help get new books to kids in Los Angeles, in Orange County, um, through our program. It’s a motivational reading program and we serve 60,000 kids. 

Laurie: Wow. 

Alva: And we get them three books, three brand new books a year through grants and donations and things that are all brand new.

Laurie: Oh, that’s lovely.

Alva: So it’s really, it’s a huge part of my life. 

Laurie: I bet that takes a lot of time. 

Alva: Well, it’s important to give back. 

Laurie: Yeah. 

Alva: It’s very, very important to give back. So I have five books and I’m thrilled with them and I have a lot of fun. 

Laurie: And you have stuffies too, or dolls. 

Alva: I do. Well, this is Jessica and, and she goes with “Circus Fever”.

Laurie: Cute. Okay. 

Alva: And I had them all laid out here for you. This is Julie, and she goes with, “I’m Five”, I should just say “Circus Fever” is about little girl who loves the circus and the clowns, and has an adventure at the circus. 

Laurie: Okay.

Alva: Julie’s turning five and she’s ready for school, but school’s not ready for her. And something like that happened.

Laurie: That happens a lot I think. 

Alva: Well, she’s born in the summer. Oh, she has to learn to wait, and it’s also really good a thing to learn how to wait and grow into your own skin. Yeah. This is Justin. Sorry. His helmet just fell out. He loves to skateboard with his buddies. 

Laurie: Well, it’s good that he has a helmet. 

Alva: And “It’s on your Mark. Get set. Go” He, Mario and Marcus are buddies and they have an unusual Saturday, and Justin’s got his skateboard with him and they have an adventure with their dads. It’s a multicultural book, and it deals with, uh, sons and dads, which I think is, you know, very, very special. To be able to do that, and I was able, because I’m the author, I could use my kids’ names for all the main characters. 

Laurie: Yes, I did that. I did that too. 

Alva: You do that too. 

Laurie: And I ran out of kids, I was like, where am I going to find more kids! 

Alva: So that’s how Danny Dragon got born. Oh, he’s a third year master dragon. And so he’s my character and he can’t fly or breathe fire like all the other dragons. So he has a dilemma, and this book is the first time I’ve ever done, I woke up in the middle of the night, I had a regular manuscript and I woke up at night, which I always keep pencil and paper by my bed. Do you do that? 

Laurie: No. I don’t wake up with ideas though. 

Alva: I dream a lot. Don’t you? Do dream your stories? 

Laurie: I feel like I’m still recovering from little kids and lack of sleep, so when I sleep, I sleep. 

Alva: Oh, how old are your kids? 

Laurie: 11, eight, and five now. 

Alva: Yeah. 

Laurie: Yeah. I get to sleep now. 

Alva: Yeah. Well, um, so what happened to me is I said, I had it written like a regular manuscript that dah, dah, dah, da, paragraph, dah, dah, dah, dah.

And I literally woke up in the middle of the night and said, this would make a really fun graphic camo comic books for kids. It is done in black and white. 

Laurie: Yeah. 

Alva: And it’s done with the bubbles. And it’s done with a narration, you know, like in the box. Yeah. Did not know how I could maintain the integrity of the story and the development of the characters in a comic panel form.

Laurie: Yeah. 

Alva: And I did. I mean, I’m happy with it and it’s up. People have loved it. And, um, and I sell it with a box of colored pencils so kids can color it. Oh, it’s really, it was a great awakening. And in the bag. I have blank templates, so they make dragons or do their own comic story. So Danny’s, I don’t know, kind of near and dear to me, and it’s all done in gray scale.

It’s funny. Uh, kids really relate to it in a whole lot of ways. So that’s Danny. And then my last one that I just did. If I wanted to, I to Jewish books, I’m Jewish, my husband’s Catholic, and we celebrate everything. Oh, I wanted to do so I have “Dancing Dreidels”. 

Laurie: Okay. 

Alva: And Sheila’s one of the dreidels in the story, and it’s about four dreidels who are besties and they’re getting ready for the big Hanukkah party so that they could spin or dance for the party. But there’s a problem. Sheila keeps falling down. 

Laurie: Oh, Shelia.

Alva: With the help of her other dreidel friends, we find out what happens at the Hanukkah party. So those are my books and I’ve had a lot of fun with them. And I’m not like preachy or, um, moralistic. I tried to write in a way were. We all have things and hurdles that we need to overcome in life and they don’t have to be big, they don’t have to be emotional or whatever.

But there’s always some journey that we’re all on, regardless of our age. Especially kids, and then they get it really frustrated and upset or their friends can do this or they can’t do this or so on and so forth. I think it’s really important to say, well, you may not be able to do it as now, but if you practice or if you learn or your family helps you or you tell somebody, you’re going to find a great support network that’s just kind of invisibly around you.

If you will. And so that’s basically what I try. I try to insert that into my stories, but not in a preachy type of way. And, um, and you know, when I go to classrooms and do events, I say, um, have you ever had trouble with this? You know, or like, my son couldn’t tie his shoes, like in Danny Dragon and he couldn’t fly or breathe fire.

My son’s friends taught him how to tie shoes. And my daughter to this day, she’s 35. She makes little bunny ears to tie her shoes. 

Laurie: It is a tricky skill.

Alva: So I think the important thing is just to respect where a child is coming from, you know, regardless of, um, you know, their situation, whether it’s physical, whether it’s family, whether it’s friend, whether it’s school.

Laurie: Yeah. 

Alva: Uh, you know, let’s lift them up. And let them know, you understand, you know, and it takes time and it takes support. And then sometimes you have to say to yourself, well, this is the best I can do. Like my one daughter had a, she was a special needs child. And um, she called me from school at the payphone cause she’s 33. She’s 33. And she calls and she goes, guess what? I got my test back. I didn’t fail, I got a ‘C’, you know. 

And yeah, if you can get a C and that’s the best thing you can do and it makes your heart just go, you know, bumpity, bump. That’s just amazing. You know, being a teacher, I think that had a lot to do with you know with my kids. 

Laurie: Yeah. I think that always helps when you’re a teacher. You have a different perspective. 

Alva: And I got married later, know I wasn’t 80 but I was like in my thirties when I got married and that type of stuff. And I think that helped. That kind of helped me. So it’s not helping me now. Cause I have my first grandson and I’m older and I can’t crawl.

But anyway, I sent, the most important thing is to hear children. You know, don’t talk down to them. You need to hear them. And you need to let them think and feel and not have that fear of being judged or saying, well, so-and-so can do it, or your sister could do it, or why can’t you do it? Or why do you feel that way?

You know? And you have to respect those feelings because that comes from inside them. And it’s very, very hard, uh, to translate that into real stuff. So 

Laurie: I think that’s really smart. That probably comes from your lifetime of teaching and really understanding kids, like you really know them. 

Alva: Yeah. And I’m not think I didn’t have, my kids are great, but I, I just think that if you look at them as their people, you know, they’re not just objects, objects, and they have thoughts and they have feelings and I, that’s what I tried to do with my, my kids and my books and everything. And when I go to classrooms and. And stuff. So it’s, it’s been an incredible journey. 

Laurie: Oh, I was happy for you and your books look lovely. And so I know people will wonder about the dolls. So do you sell the dolls or are they just props for your visit? 

Alva: Oh, they’re actually from a company, um, let me bend down and reached for Jessica, there’s a company in Florida called Budzies.

Laurie: Oh! Okay. Yeah, I’ve heard of that. 

Alva: Oh, have you? 

Laurie: Yeah. 

Alva: You just send in a flat, you know, upload your image. 

Laurie: Yeah, I like to do that. 

Alva: I decide which image I wanted to send to them, but this one really got it because this is how her hair is in the story. 

Laurie: Yeah. It’s adorable.

Alva: And she’s got her flower for the story, and well, her, her coat, her whole outfit, and I did that. I did that for each of them. 

Laurie: And like, you just use it for props

Alva: yeah, they’re not cheap. 

Laurie: No. 

Alva: When I take these to classrooms and then I have kids hold my books and kids hold the Budzies, and then I say, okay, well whoever held a book. You take a Budzies, they flip flip, and Danny dragon turned out great too.

Laurie: Oh yeah, they all look wonder, yeah. So a lot of others I talk to want to create and produce, you know, stuffies to go with their book and then sell them. So that’s why I was asking. But it adds 

Alva: There’s a lot of people who do merchandise with their books. I do, I do stickers. I do bookmarks, and I do pencils. And I have those out when I do my road show.

Laurie: So how do you sell that when you, you said you sell that comic book style one with pencils. Is that just when you sell in person or do you sell online with that as well? 

Alva: Um, I don’t, when if I sell, well, if they order through me, uh, through, um, Alvasachs.com, um, they, I can mail them bookmarks, pencils and stickers and I can also autograph that.

Laurie: Yeah. 

Alva: If you order off of Amazon, um, that book is just shipped from Amazon. They’re not autographed. But, um, I liked, and also when I go to classrooms, I want to go to books festivals. It’s nice to have that out, you know? And then if they don’t buy a book and they take a bookmark, they still have your website and information on that.

So that’s a really fun thing to do. And I also have on my website. But the teacher in me, um, I have PDFs, well, crossword puzzles and word searches and scrambles and coloring sheets and write your own ending. And you know, cause to me, you can always learn vertically. Now be going from second to third grade or you’re going to learn about this concept, you’re going to go from adding, to subtracting to multiplying and dividing and to fractions, and I can only go so far because math’s not my forte. 

I can go to prime numbers and multiplying and dividing fractions, but maybe a little decimals, but whatever. Um, but horizontally. Regardless of the subject. Let’s say you’re teaching the American revolution, or let’s say you’re learning about, um, inventions or whatever.

If you, you learn what’s happening at that place and then horizontally, you kind of build on that to learn more. So I can do vocabulary. It’s also good for, um, um, different types of skills with crossword puzzles and, and stuff like that. So, and coloring. Coloring is just so important, you know?

Laurie: You’re such a teacher!

Alva: Yeah, and I’m old now, so I. Just going to be that way the rest of my life, you know? And I think that, and it’s very important. I think one of the thing is, is not to talk down to children, respect where they’re coming from, and if I said that already, but, but then with these, um, and ons, if you will, that I have on, and they’re free, they’re just PDF.

You just download them and print them. And if, and if I did get some ideas from a site, I put down a website that I got the ideas from. So they know that if they like that they might want to visit that site. 

Laurie: So yeah, ethical, 

Alva: A lot of amazing stuff out there. Incredible . Yeah. Authors doing things who are not with traditional publishers, which I think has been very, very exciting.

Um, so many people have amazing talents and wonderful stories to tell and things to share. And they don’t get that opportunity. And I will say, celebrities have taken over a lot of the picture book market. 

Laurie: I hear that a lot. 

Alva: And so, and, and, and a lot of them are very good. And a lot with ghost writers and celebrities, you know, and that’s fine, but if you get, if you get a message out, that’s important, you know, if they’re reading, let’s just say, bottom line is reading and literacy is the one of the biggest issues in our country today.

Laurie: Yeah. 

Alva: The readability and the amount of children who literally come out of high school who can’t read. 

Laurie: I know my sister’s a high school teacher, so I hear that quite a bit and it’s shocking. I taught kindergarten, but it’s shocking to me to hear that. So, can you share with us maybe what the most surprising thing, like you’ve been doing it for quite a while now, so has did anything along the way really surprise you?

Alva: I don’t know, because I didn’t know what I was getting into. I went in blind, deaf and dumb. 

Laurie: Yeah, no expectations. 

Alva: And I think it’s, yeah, and I think that that’s probably the best way, because a lot of people, a lot of people go into indie authoring or indie publishing think that they’re going to make a lot of money.

I have not, I can’t pay the mortgage, which is fine. And I couldn’t do this without my husband. I didn’t go in it for the money, but a lot of people do go in it for the money, even though they might have great stories, you know, they’re looking for what am I going to get? And I think that that’s the most important thing.

It’s not what you’re going to get it’s what you’re going to give, you know, what are you giving, you know? But if you do become successful along the way, or you have that right path and that right journey, sure would I be liking to make more money? But then again, anything I make for me, I put it right back into my company.

Like I would order the Budzies. Or I do book, I do pencils, or you pay to go into, uh, to book festivals. And then I also donate to, to certain things. So I think that’s the most surprising thing is I think you need to have know what have your head on straight up. No, are you go, is this going to be your profession and your career and are you going to pay the bills?

And so I’m fortunate that I can still do this and love to do this. And not expect it. And you also, I think that is surprising if I really concentrate on that question, is a lot of people do. The book covers are not the time and attention to them, I think need to be focused on, I think the fonts, I think the, the, the feel of the paper.

Um, and how it’s laid out. And the most important is many authors, whether they’re even submitting for a traditional publisher or they’re doing it on their own, they neglect the editing process. They think they know where the periods and the commas and the question marks go.  But it’s way more than that, don’t you think?

Laurie: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I was just interviewing an author last night and she said, I thought my story was pretty good. And then the editors got ahold of it. And so it’s just a reminder, you need to be open to that feedback because they’re only there to improve the story. They’re not trying to insult you, but it is a really important part of the process if you want the book to do well, right. 

Alva: Very much so. And but not only that the editor might have a different take on your story. I have an amazing editor I’ve used for 12 years, and once or twice a few times she suggested things that really weren’t relevant or she didn’t have that connection to it. 

And then on other times she said, well, you really don’t need to do this because it’s here, or that’s an extra thing and it helps you to eliminate. You know those things that aren’t necessary.

Laurie: Right. You don’t have to do every thing that they say.  

Alva: Yeah. And, and there’s a lot of books out there that. Well, and it’s, I think it’s great because indie publishers are really making a mark in our world for books, for children as well as for you know. And I think a lot of that’s come from YA readers, the young adults and the tweens, which is so critical.

But I think you really have to have your book the best that it can be, and you’re going to have to probably pay. I, I pay my editor. 

Laurie: Yeah. They don’t work for free.  

Alva: A lot of people think that, Oh, I’ll have my friend read it and they’ll let me know or I’ll have so and so read it. And that’s the other really important thing is if other people read it, you know, uh, before you go to print, you know, and get ideas and get things like that and so on, so that you get a, an unbiased, you know, view of what you’re doing because you’re in that book.

Laurie: Yeah. 

Alva: That’s you, it’s an extension of you and what you wanted to say and what you want to share. And that’s really important to have out there. 

Laurie: Yes, I agree. I think that’s universal. um, okay, so you’ve given us lots of advice, but is there anything, any last words of wisdom for you from you? 

Alva: What words, you have to enjoy what you’re doing. I think you just have to take it from your heart, you know, and realize, you know, what is your purpose? What is your mission? Um, if it’s, if it’s just to sell books and make money, you know, uh, or just write a book for your family. A lot of people do that because they want to share something special and there’s a whole lot of different levels for why people write.

You know, I was very fortunate, um. I set my book off to the small press department in, uh, New York to Barnes and Noble. That was my wish. My wish was just, I was Pinocchio looking up at Geppetto saying I want to be a real boy. I want to be a real book.  And so I spent many hours at bookstores in Barnes and Nobles.

And when I meet with, and I consult now also, and when I meet with people, I say, do a field trip to a bookstore. Sit down, get a bunch of books in your genre, look at them, feel them, touch them, read them. Be immersed in that, and then you can take what you’ve learned from that. So it’s, it’s a hands on field trip.

And I just told, I met with a woman, she’s, I think in her sixties and she, I met with her last week. She had the most amazing story. And I don’t publish anybody else’s story cause I don’t think I’m at that level, but I do consult and I give them places to go or to look up ideas. I have, just like what we’re talking about now.

And it’s been incredible. I’ve helped three people get their picture books, you know, into fruition. And they have all self published and they’re, and they’re amazing, but they, they took the time to make it. So like if you’re going to wrap a package, put that bowl on top and make sure that it’s just perfect, but you know what, it’s gotta be the best you could be. And, and, and, and just know that you put up everything into it. 

Laurie: Yeah. 

Alva: But it’s important to, I think, doing the field trip and doing stuff like that and asking questions. And like I said, there’s, there’s no, like I said to you that the internet is around like the earth. There’s no edge. You click on one thing and you go to another thing.

Exactly. Frog on a Lily pad jumped to that pad, and there’s another one waiting for you over there and keep your mind open to learning because we all have something to learn and nobody knows everything. 

Laurie: Yeah. 

Alva: That’s what’s so great about it. And then when you go out with your books. And you read them and you share them, and you see the look on the faces of the kids. If it’s children’s books that you’re doing, and I know other authors who got gets letters from YA readers, you know, which is so amazing. If you can reach that four to sixth grade group. That’s seven to eighth grade group and that high school group, I wish I could do that. It’s just, it’s just not me.

Which is fine because there’s somebody else who can take that on. And if you can reach a kid who was having a hard time, relating to something, and if your story can take them on that journey, or they can see themselves in that story. And if you can make one small difference in that reader’s life big or small. That’s it. It worth a million bucks. 

Laurie: I love that. A lot of what you talk about, you know, always circles back to your purpose and your mission and you know, at the, at the bottom, the bottom line of what you’re doing, why are you doing it? And it’s always for the children. So I really love that. And then it comes through in your work. And 

Alva: I wrote an article called, um, “I took the fork in the road” then that’s why I became an indie publisher. 

Laurie: Oh, okay. 

Alva: I wanted to maintain my intellectual property. And I wrote an article for a magazine. “I took the fork in the road” and, and it, and it was interesting cause there was a self-reflection at that time for me, you know, because I didn’t know what I was doing and why I was doing.

And I, and I think many times we need to take that time to look in to ourselves. And like you said, you’re doing it for the children and for the reading. 

Laurie: Yeah. Yeah. 

Alva: And what you’re doing is incredible. You’re offering such an amazing service to reach out to people and to share what others are doing, you know?

And what you’re doing your teaching and your writing, and you have the same heart. We all share the same heart. 

Laurie: Well, I think it’s, it comes back to being teachers at heart, right? And so everything we learned, we want to share. And, um, after I published, I was very similar to you. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I just had to get it out there.

Alva: Um, 

Laurie: But after you release that into the world, people start coming back to you. So how do you do it? How did it tell you how to do it? And they say 80% of people want to write a book, and. 

Alva: Oh yeah, 

Laurie: And I want to talk to them all, right? True. 

Alva: They’ll stop you and say, Oh, you wrote a book. I want to write a book. I have a story. 

Laurie: Yeah.

Alva: Yeah. And you’ve, and you’ve got that with your three kids and your teaching and everything that you’re doing, which, which, you know, you have the doors open all the time, you know, and, and we also know how to, how that person feels when they approach us. Because you had that same feeling as well, and you’re empathetic and you’re relatable and, and that that’s what, that’s what it’s really all about. Yeah. Be good humans. 

Laurie: Yeah. Yes. Which is so important. Well thank you so much. It’s really been a pleasure talking to you. You said your website is Alvasachs.com so I’ll link to that.

Alva: I’m on Amazon.

Laurie: Right

Alva: and I’m on Twitter and Facebook and all that jazz. And President of Reading is Fundamental in Southern California. And, um, I’m working on my sixth manuscript.

Laurie: Excellent. 

Alva: It’s a pirate story. 

Laurie: Oh, everybody loves a pirate story! 

Alva: So it’s, it’s really, it’s really kind of fun. I just got to save money to, ya know, to get it going. But, the manuscript, I would say 90% done. Are you working on anything right now? 

Laurie: Um, so I have started publishing for other people, and I’ve just published the second book for my first author. It’s called “The Memory of Play”. It’s a beautiful, beautiful book. So that’s very exciting 

Alva: I just wrote a thing about play on my Facebook ya uh, huh? 

Laurie: Yeah. Yep. And, uh, there’s always something, but I, these days it seems like I do more of the podcast and more marketing and business type stuff than writing and publishing my own work. But, you know, it ebbs and flows, right? 

Alva: But you’re helping, you’re helping other people. I’ve never published anyone’s work. I don’t know if I’m qualified to do that. 

Laurie: Well, you know, I wasn’t sure I, it was sort of just something that, you know, you have it inside you and you think, I have to do this.

Um, and so it was kind of like that. And I had a consulting call with an author and we really, really, um, clicked, yeah. And she said, you know, the truth is I don’t want to do it myself. She has very little children and works. 

And I said, the truth is that I was thinking about publishing other people. So, you know, we sorta took a chance on each other and so far so good.

Alva: We’ll have to talk about that sometime. 

Laurie: Yeah. Yeah. 

Alva: So I don’t know if I’m that qualified to publish somebody else. It’s scary because 

Laurie: It’s scary. It’s so much harder when you’re doing it for somebody else. It’s somebody else’s dream. She calls me the stork of dreams, but um, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s a lot different to do it for other people for sure.

Because your own self, you know, I’m taking a chance and. I know, you know, like I know I’m going to win or lose and it’s just me that I’m accountable to you, but, right.

Alva:  Right. And that’s a tough thing to be responsible for that, but it’s great to given people that opportunity, otherwise they wouldn’t have done it. So you’re, you’re providing something that they couldn’t attain on their own and you’re there, you’re, you’re that safety net for them. 

Laurie: Yeah. 

Alva: Yeah. And you’re learning more, learning more each time. 

Laurie: Every time. Still learning. Always. 

Alva: Oh, that’s wonderful. 

Laurie: Well, thank you. Thank you. This is so fun. So we’ll say goodbye and I’ll be sure to share all your info. 

Alva: Thanks for having me. 

Laurie: You’re welcome. Bye bye. 

Alva: Bye bye.