Interview by: Kyle Colley and James White
Get Your Copy of Soaring with Glee Today!
1 - What do you believe the impact of your book will have on fellow kids like yourself?
Our book aims to teach younger children to utilize "words" to describe emotions! Not every day will be a wonderful day, however, having the vocabulary to express yourself at a young age is an important step in learning to manage emotions and show empathy for others and self-compassion for yourself!
2 - Do you think there will be a volume two coming soon? If so, what might it be about?
We hope so! There is so much to learn about social-emotional learning and there is certainly a need. We would love to take this concept and grow it even more. We think this is especially needed at this time. Kids are dealing with so much because of the pandemic and learning to express their emotions as well as develop coping strategies is greatly important!
3 - What made you want to write this book in the first place?
We wrote this book after discussing how the pandemic impacts kids. The lack of social interaction has taken its toll. We initially thought about writing a book for older kids but then thought, let's start at the beginning, younger kids, and work our way up to older kids!
4 - What was your writing process like?
The writing process was a lot of fun. As a family, we love to write short stories. Some of our best memories have been surrounding road trips and writing creative stories about our adventures! In this case, we sat down and just started talking, whatever came to mind. Because we were writing for "littles" we knew we wanted something that would rhyme and be creative and at times silly to catch the audience's attention. From there it just happened! Pretty organically!
5 - How can people of all ages soar with Glee?
One of the things about this book is that there are affirmations throughout the book. Everyone can develop and utilize affirmations! Affirmations are statements that are positive that can help us manage our negative thinking. This is important when we have unhelpful thinking, which we can all have at times in our lives. Affirmations help us to fight against self-sabotage.
6 - What's the best advice you have ever received on happiness?
The greatest piece of advice that I have ever received on happiness, would have to be that happiness is an inside job. It starts with your internal love moving to the external piece. Once you have learned to love yourself and find inner peace and happiness you can share it with those around you.
7 - What's the best book you have read this year so far?
The best book I have read this year is definitely Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It follows the advancement and development of science through the years and how it impacts us as humans. It's a pretty cool Sci-Fi book.
8 - Do you plan on writing more books in the future?
For sure!!! We LOVE mysteries. This is very different from our first book, however, we have been writing a children's mystery novel for a little while now that we are anxious to release it. Be on the lookout!!