The Making of Luna and Floyd
When my son was around one and a half, reading a story with him suddenly became difficult. He would lose interest and squirm off my lap. Knowing how important reading is to a small child, I persevered. One day, in a desperate attempt to complete The Three Little Pigs, I tossed him back and forth on my lap to match the wolf huffing and puffing in the story. Huff, puff (toss, toss), huff, puff (toss, toss), BIG huff and puff (BIG toss)….well, you get the idea. It worked…….sort of.
I quickly noticed that The Three Little Pigs became the only story he would allow me to read. Then, one morning he came over with the book opened to one of the huff and puff pages. My first thought was “Well, isn’t this just great. Not only is this the only book I can read to him, now this is the only page of the only book that I can read to him.” Then, the light bulb turned on, and my second thought was “What I need, is a whole book like this.” I looked for a book like this and couldn’t find one. So I wrote this one.
As an aside, I am happy to say that my son is now doing well in high school honors English. If you are encountering the same problem that I had with my son, have faith. It can all turn out OK.
You may be wondering how my son went from The Three Little Pigs to high school honors English. Yes, many years have passed. I tried, briefly, to get my unillustrated story published, without success. I had three children under the age of six and had very little time or sanity to devote to this endeavor. In the year 2000 I filed my book away, intending to have it published at some undefined time in the future. Life went on. My kids moved from preschool, to elementary, to middle school, to high school, and to college. I earned my master’s degree and went back to teaching. I completely forgot about my book.
On the side, I became interested in Reiki, and other holistic healing modalities. I frequented a place called Eye of the Hawk, in Rye, NH. In October, 2010, I was ‘coincidently’, the only one to attend a Sunday afternoon seminar. This gave me a chance to have a private conversation with JCat, a highly intuitive man who runs Eye of the Hawk. Out of the blue, JCat told me I would be a successful author. Since I wasn’t writing anything, I had no idea what he was talking about. He said “a children’s author”, and I still didn’t get it. Finally he said “for small children who don’t know their two plus twos yet”, and then I remembered my book, stored in my basement for over ten years. (JCat knew nothing about the book.) Within two weeks I was connected to Eric, the perfect illustrator for Luna and Floyd. And the adventure continues.