My childhood consisted of all things Walt Disney and Dr. Seuss, so I guess it was inevitable that I would end up doing something creative in my life. My road to the inevitable, however, was a long and winding one.
Writing has always been a passion of mine. But finding a way to use my passion had always been a bit of a mystery to me. After I graduated from the University of Vermont in 1996, I decided to attend Roger Williams Law School. I passed the bar in 2001 and my legal career was off-and-running; my dream of becoming a writer, however, took a seat.
My wife and our three daughters are the inspiration for everything I do…they are the absolute joy of my life. And after the birth of my first child in 2010, a spark was lit and I decided to dust off my dream and finally pursue my goal of becoming a published children’s book author. I told myself-I can live with not succeeding, but I can’t live with not trying. Plus, I figured-How hard could it be? Well, it didn’t take long to learn the answer…very hard!
Between 2010 to 2016, I attended seminars and workshops through an organization I joined called the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrator’s. I read as many picture books as I could in order to get a feel for what agents, publishers, and the market were looking for. Every story idea that popped into my head, I would flesh out completely. Some ideas were good, others were not, but with every stroke of the pen (yes-I still use pen and paper), I was learning and shaping my craft. And then one day in 2016, as I watched my three little girls dance, laugh, and sing in front of the full length mirror in my house, an idea was born. That idea became the manuscript entitled, The Reflection in Me.
The Reflection in Me was a culmination of a six year learning curve. I loved the message of this story and I felt it was the best thing I had written at that point. I decided to send this manuscript to every agent and publisher in the world…some answered in the negative, the rest didn’t answer at all. However, I believed in this story and I realized I needed to find a different way to get my foot in the door. I decided to animate this particular manuscript and release it on YouTube with the hopes of attracting the attention of an agent or publisher…a very unorthodox plan to say the least. Little did I know, however, that this plan would end up attracting the attention of the most instrumental person in me achieving my dream: world-renowned, New York Times Best Selling author/ illustrator, Peter H. Reynolds.
There are talented people in every corner of this planet….far more talented than me and far more deserving of getting published than me. And the only difference between me and them is opportunity…an opportunity that was afforded to me by Peter. The best way to describe how Peter and I met can be summed up in one word: serendipity. Peter has lived in Dedham, Massachusetts for almost 40 years where he owns an amazing bookstore called The Blue Bunny Bookstore. My Aunt Marcia moved to Dedham, Massachusetts in 1996 and, up until December 20, 2015, had never visited this amazing bookstore. But, as fate would have it upon her entering the bookstore for that very first time, there in the lobby stood Peter H. Reynolds! And even more incredibly was the fact that my Aunt had just recently learned that I loved to write. Earlier that month, I had won a holiday short story contest held by our local newspaper, The Providence Journal, that my mom, Sharon, insisted I enter (Mom knows best!). I had shared the good news with my Aunt in a passing conversation one week prior to her visiting The Blue Bunny. So, armed with this new knowledge that her nephew loves to write, she approached Peter and asked him if he would meet me. Very graciously, Peter invited me to an event at his media company (yes-Peter also owns a media company!) called FableVision. On January 10, 2016, I met Peter for the first time. He kindly agreed to read The Reflection in Me and provided me with incredible feedback. I edited my story, sent it back to Peter, and he loved it. I asked him if FableVision did animations for the general public. A few weeks later, I contacted FableVision and hired them to animate my story. Unbelievably, Peter became aware of this project and offered to use his art for my film…game changer! The Reflection in Me was released on YouTube on June 16, 2017 and embraced by people all over the world. To date, our little film has over 1.6 million views.
From that moment on, and with Peter cheering me on from the sidelines, I inched closer to my dream. In March 2021, the biggest children’s book publisher in the world, Scholastic, Inc., made an offer for the rights to The Reflection in Me. Scholastic asked if I had been working on anything else. My agent extraordinaire, Holly McGhee of Pippin Properties, sent them another story I wrote entitled, When Things Aren’t Going Right, Go Left. In August 2021, Scholastic made an offer for the rights to When Things Aren’t Going Right, Go Left! And oh, by the way, did I mention…both books to be illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds! After 10 years of hard work, patience and perseverance, my dream of becoming a published children’s book author was finally coming true.
The best advice I can give anyone who is pursuing their dreams is simple: make a goal, not a plan. The major difference between a goal and a plan is a date. All plans have dates: dinner plans…vacation plans…all plans! But the danger of attaching a date to your goals is that, chances are, it’s never going to happen the way you think and as a result, you may give up far too soon. I began my journey in 2010. If I had attached a date to when I thought I would accomplish my dream , I never would have imagined 2021. So please, I beg of you, think big…dream bigger…and don’t ever, EVER give up.