Adventures in volunteering — also marketing, conferences, courses and small rabbits

July 10, 2024 — I donated a couple copies of my book to the University of Michigan Mott Children’s Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) book shelf for parents and other caregivers to read to the babies. Families can borrow the books and select two to take home with them, if they wish. One of the volunteer coordinators was excited and interested to learn about my book and mentioned that they have an annual reading event and would I be willing to donate 60 books for their Babies With Books Read-A-Thon? Sixty is the number of babies in a full UM NICU.

As authors, we’re able to buy what are called “author copies” at a discount, basically what it costs to print them. It didn’t take me long to consider the donation and say yes. I haven’t come anywhere close to breaking even with the expenses involved in publishing the book. I’m unsure whether or not that will happen. But, as I’ve said before, I’m not in this for the money, but to share my creativity, connect with children, and if our book is loved by families (especially children), gets smiles or laughter, there’s nothing else I could hope for. Of course, the more the book sells or however it finds its way into the world, the more connections are made. So I’m certainly not opposed to a sales increase.

The BWB Read-a-thon is September 9 – 19. The Read-a-thon description calls it a friendly reading competition between NICUs across the country, to encourage reading with NICU babies for its many benefits to babies and families. I may be invited to be a guest reader during their event, which would be a lot of fun. Stay tuned on that. 

The story behind the story is that we recently began volunteering in the UM NICU. Our youngest spent his first month in a NICU in San Antonio, Texas when we lived near there. Ever since, we thought a NICU would be a nice place to volunteer, maybe when we retired and had more time. Well, that someday is here. We’re loving it. We’re there for all the tasks that help out behind the scenes, of course. But it’s no surprise that our favorite part is when we are privileged to hold and interact with the babies and/or their families and the special NICU healthcare workers. Volunteering in a NICU and helping in any small way is a warm and fuzzy feeling of giving back to a community that saved our son’s life and was extremely supportive of us during a difficult time, bringing us full circle.

Marketing cap

With my marketing cap atop my head, recently, I’ve been emailing Michigan bookstores to inquire about carrying my picture book. I’m even including a couple of shops that initially said no. I figured now that I have some national awards, am in several area stores and libraries, that it might help get me in the door. 

I’m happy to say that I’m now included in Schuler Books (formerly Nicola’s Books) in the Westgate Shopping Center on the west side of Ann Arbor. I just missed their major grand opening event. Their new children’s section is enormous and beautiful. They’ve expanded into an area that opened up next door. If you have any plans to purchase my book for a gift or anything, they will be monitoring how well my book sells these next few months to see if they will continue to stock it. So, perhaps while you’re checking out their newly expanded store, you could pick up a copy (or two). I appreciate every bit of support that comes my way. 

How Happy Is a Lark will also be carried in The Vault of Midnight on Main Street, Ann Arbor. They were planning to add it to this week’s book order so it might take a week or more to get it on their shelves. Known for their comic books, manga, graphic novels, games and more, they have a small children’s book section that I’ll be happy to be included in soon. 

Booksweet, which had recently started carrying my book, has just changed owners. Soon, I may hear if they’d like to continue to carry Lark in the store. The first two copies they ordered sold fairly quickly (if you’re one of the buyers, a big thanks!). The previous owners had plans to expand their local children’s author section and so I’m hoping that carries over. Oh, I just heard today that Milan Public Library will carry my book! I’m delighted whenever my book becomes more available. 

I haven’t yet heard back from any others I’ve contacted, but these efforts take time. Everyone is busy, of course. I recently left a postcard about my book at a cool shop, Quest Books in Wheaton, Illinois, where we were visiting family. I thought my book might fit the bill there among their spiritual/zen type items, especially with the book’s upbeat nature and the final little story about the wise owl has a somewhat spiritual angle. I think my positive attitude finds itself woven into the fabric of the stories. 

I’ll plan to do more of this bookstore marketing as I travel and when I’m in other cities. 

SCBWI summer conference, podcast and course

I’ve signed up for this summer’s virtual conference by the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, August 1 - August 4. There’s a keynote address by famed children’s author Kate DiCamillo that I really look forward to hearing. “Choose from 50 jam-packed sessions on the craft and business of children’s book creation,” their website says. “All attendees have access to the content of all sessions for up to one month after the conference concludes.” Interested folks who aren’t members can sign up for the event, but at a higher price. 

This week I listened to an episode of On Being in which Krista Tippett interviewed Kate DiCamillo. If you’re interested, you can go to the On Being podcast and search for Kate DiCamillo or On Nurturing Capacious Hearts, the name of the episode. It’s really wonderful. They talk about keeping our childlike sense of wonder, how to write truthfully for children in ways that help them realize they can handle difficult things in their young lives, the mystery of where stories come from, why children identify so well with mice (what do you think?), and much more. A couple of her books that I’ve read (and loved) are The Tale of Despereaux (a brave mouse) and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (a much loved, then lost, fine china rabbit). 

Krista quotes a profound section of the speech that Kate gave when she won her second Newberry Medal:

“We have been given this sacred task of making hearts large through story. We are working to make hearts that are capable of containing much joy and much sorrow. Hearts capacious enough to contain the complexities and mysteries of ourselves and of each other.”

Kate DiCamillo

This quote is beautiful and powerful and reminds me of the rare privilege it is to write for children. What a great word — capacious — yes, I looked it up to be sure of its meaning.

Another experience I signed up for recently, but have yet to start listening to, is the BBC Maestro course Writing Children’s Picture Books with Julia Donaldson. The course description includes this: “Julia’s books have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, won too many awards to list and been adapted into eight award-winning animated films. And she’s a former Children’s Laureate to boot.” Her most well-known book is The Gruffalo.

In other news, while in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, visiting family last week, we helped rescue a baby rabbit that had accidentally fallen/jumped into a deep window well and was trapped there. My sister-in-law found the rabbit prior to our visit and called me for advice, knowing about my upcoming book, Into the Thicket, and the research I’d done for it. This made me happy and I helped connect her to a wildlife rehabber for expert advice. The situation was somewhat unusual. Keirstie of Outback Wildlife Rehabilitation initially suggested putting wet clover and dandelions down in the well for the rabbit to help it get food and water. They weren’t able to get the suggested live trap over the holiday.

Someone else suggested capturing it gently with a butterfly net to let it loose in her yard. MaryAnn had already put cucumber and carrot slices, and lettuce (and more) in the well. She took such good care of the little rabbit that the first time my niece caught it in the net, it escaped the net quickly and we thought — but it was dark outside so weren’t sure — it bolted right back down into the well! The following morning, I could see the sweetheart (that could have easily fit in the palm of my hand) through a basement window munching on a chunk of cucumber. Somewhat ironically (I realized as I read this again), it was Independence Day but rather than setting the rabbit free to deal with the loud fireworks that were inevitably coming, we waited until the following day. It had a little space under the outer rim of the window well where it could hide. 

By the following morning, it was clambering against the window trying to get the heck out of its little cell block, despite the excellent munchies. Bunny wanderlust was kicking in! My husband scooped the rabbit up with the net and it quickly jumped out near the window well. He was able to chase it away from the area, to prevent it from returning to the well, and into the yard. We made sure to remove all the treats aka temptations. Since then, they’ve spotted small rabbits around their yard and we’re hoping that it’s our little friend out in the wide world living its best life.