Steps on how to create a children's book for me it started with my childhood memories, so I got pretty lucky but for others it's just going to be what inspires you. Something that inspired you yesterday can be just as inspiring as something that inspired you 10 years ago . My childhood memories inspired me to write Cali the carny, I grew up out on the carnival with my grandparents and my parents so to be inspired for me was rather easy. My stories come from a unique, genuine, fun loving point of view and place . I had a hard time deciding how my story was going to be written who was going to be the voice? Was it gonna be a 3rd person or 1st person narrative and I focused on Cali being the narrator of her adventures on the carnival. She has such a child like point of view such an innocent way of looking at the world and that is how I wished it to be . After I had my idea a book didn't just fly out of my mind. I had to brainstorm and I brainstormed a lot of different ideas, a lot of different titles, a lot of different memories. I kind of settled on the first book as one that introduces the carnival and the carnival lifestyle and the way of life. The words, also adding in some words that we use out on the carnival that aren't typical in your everyday conversation. so I had to introduce those words in the first book . Even after I settled on an idea for the first book it didn't just come pouring out onto the page. I still brainstormed how did I want it to go? what did I wanted to say and I actually fell into the rhyming pattern. I really really wanted this one to rhyme and there were certain points of view and things that I wanted to say which I luckily tied them all into my first Cali the Carny book . I have about 5 copies of my firat rough draft of Cali the Carny, I re-read it time after time, and I wasn't happy so I rewrote it and then I re wrote it 4 more times in this process. I'm going to say that took about 4 months because just in between reading it I had to set it down and let the work sit there until the project until I could be creative enough to finish the project. Finally I edited it into the version that I wanted to publish and I looked for illustrators. I thought this was gonna be the easiest part, you just gotta find somebody that could draw . Turns out that that's not exactly how it is, you have to find somebody that draws the style that you wish to see your book in and for me because it's a carnival and I love my characters I had to find somebody that could draw and like a caricature style. After year and a half of up's and down's and going through 4 different illustrators, I found the perfect illustrator in Sean Mooney. I can't imagine doing this project with anybody else and I'm really excited at what 2018 has in store for the Cali the Carny book . Sean and I are working on a collaboration agreement and hes working on the rough sketches for Cali the Carny. we hope to have a rough sketched completed by may 2018 and our first Cali the Carny book published before Christmas of 2018 . It's definitely been a long hard road that led to here, lots of work, lots of creativity and imagination, lots of the networking and determination, and there is still a long hard road ahead of us. Together we will enjoy it, so enjoy the Ride.
#CaliTheCarny #NoGutsNoGlory #LEDLegacy #PimpinJoy #CaliforniaCarny
Xoxo~Kayle Jo
Cali The Carny copyright 2017
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