Patience, Perseverance and Passion

W is for Wonderkid 
Find the Superhero in You
by Linda Daugherty and Sandra Koch

Wow!  Our book is finally published.  It has been such a lengthy process and the reward now sits on our tables, and on Amazon.com!  The journey has been bumpy, exciting, engaging, frustrating, worrisome, creative...all that it should be, I suppose.

Approximately 10 years ago we sat down over coffee at our neighborhood Big Boy and began crafting a children's book, one which would engage young students, and help parents, grandparents, caregivers, and teachers teach children social skills, decision-making skills, skills to help them be citizens in this huge and complex world.  We wanted children to develop their own powers to help confront all sorts of situations they might find themselves in, especially bullying.  10 years.  And that problem is still an issue in our schools, and society.

Initially we wrote everything on notepads, putting it in the computer later.  We could meet weekly, or more often as necessary.  The amount of coffee consumed kept coffee growers in business!  The plot of a children's story turned into an A-B-C book.  The journey continued.

We even managed to keep our writing schedule around work commitments, as well as rehearsal schedules for a community theatre production of The Sound of Music!

And then.... Linda picked up and moved across country.  Okay, she fell in love and got married and moved across country.  Sometimes there are excellent reasons for a creative project to take the path less traveled.

Going Away Dinner

A brief interlude, and then working out a plan to continue our writing, and complete our project.  Now there were numerous phone calls - and I finally learned how to use the "speaker" feature on my iPhone!  We came up with a schedule for phone conferencing.

We also had to work around travel schedules.  Multiple phone calls, texts and emails.

Then there was the trip to visit Linda, where we were able to discuss our strategies and ideas face-to-face.  What a welcome opportunity THAT was!

As the book came together and we decided to illustrate with photographs, there was a flurry of picture-taking, on our own part and through networking with other people who are trying to raise Wonderkids of their own. Then organizing and editing and preparing photographs for publishing requirements.

And when it was completed to the best of our abilities, and it had been proof-read, edited, rewritten, tweaked, etc., time to contact the publishers.  OF COURSE one would fall in love with our baby, rising it to the top of any children's best seller list.  If not THAT publisher, then THIS one.  And again and again, with comments such as "great concept but not right for our company," and "the use of photographs will date your book," or no comments at all.  One of the most frustrating parts of this journey were the time-tables publishing companies have.  Some want you to submit to them, but no one else, with a reply time of 6 months to a year.  So there were a few years we played the waiting game.  Again and again.

During this time we researched what other writers were doing, and a number of published writers of a high caliber were moving to self-publishing in order to gain full control of their books.  The more we read the more we talked about that possibility ourselves.  Continued research produced a number of options we could pursue...and this idea continued to grow.

And while we researched and waited and researched some more, we were field testing the book in area schools and getting feedback from teachers and parents and students and counselors - all in support of the message we wanted to put out there, in the format we had grown to love.

Today this book sits on our tables and orders are being submitted and we are feeling the satisfaction of a job well done.

And we hope you enjoy having one more way to help children learn that they have the power to be superheroes in this world.  After all, they will be our future leaders!

Woo hoo!  On to the next project (after a bit of a break).