Please welcome Dr. Rachel Koweit PhD author of Tales from Cloud Canyon
Tales from Cloud Canyon
byDr. Rachel Kowert PhD
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GENRE: Children's
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INTERVIEW
Tales From Cloud Canyon
An interview with Dr. Rachel Kowert
What or who inspired you to start writing?
The initial inspiration for Tales from Cloud Canyon came to me in 2019 when my daughter was 4 years old. I was lucky enough to pick up about a hundred different paperback books at a garage sale of a former teacher and had started reading her a new book every night before bed. After a few weeks of this, I started to notice a theme: there were very few books with female protagonists and when there were, they were pigeonholed into a damsel in distress or only successfully navigated their challenges with the use of superpowers. While there is nothing wrong with a female superhero or a knight in shining armor, I wanted something different.
After a bit of digging, I realized there was a dramatic lack of representation in children’s literature. The Nielson 2018 book scan report found that of the top 100 best-selling children’s books, 1 in 5 did not feature a single female character, only 2 out of the top 100 featured a black, Asian, or minority ethnic character in a central role ( with 70% of the black, Asian, or ethnic characters were in non-speaking roles) and only 1 out of the top 100 featured a disabled child but they did not speak or have a key role.
Fueled with discontent, I called my friend who runs a small micro press and told her she needed to write or commission some books with strong female characters at the heart of them. She told me I should write them. At the time, this made me audibly laugh! However, after sitting with her words and fueled by her encouragement, I decided to open up my notes section in my phone and give it a try. In less than two weeks I had written what ended up becoming the first collection in the Tales from Cloud Canyon Universe: the 26 stories of Pragmatic Princess. In 2019, I successfully kickstarted these stories as the collection Pragmatic Princess: 26 Superb Stories of Self-Sufficiency and raised more than $25,000 in 30 days and earned an INDIES award for educational children’s picture books. So I guess I can write children’s books.
Over the last few years, I have continued to write and expand the Cloud Canyon universe and am excited to announce that I am launching a second Kickstarter June 4 for a BRAND NEW collection of three topical short stories: Here, There, & Everywhere, Invisible Friends, and The Secret to Success. These stories were the ones that I felt were still missing from my children’s library.
What elements are necessary components for this genre?
Something fun, entertaining and inclusive. Children’s literature provides such an opportunity to be silly and light-hearted, but there is no reason we can’t also learn a thing or two along the way.
What expertise did you bring to your writing?
As a mom and a psychologist, I feel like I had a unique perspective to bring when it came to crafting the actual building blocks of the stories. The fictional characters in childhood stories are some of our earliest teachers. We learn a range of things through the observation of these symbolic models, such as what is right and wrong, desirable and undesirable behavior, gender roles, norms, stereotypes, and more. The role of models is particularly influential in childhood as it can have a long lasting impact on intellectual, social, emotional and moral development. Knowing this, I incorporated what we know from the science of writing and learning in to the stories themselves through the story narratives, the cast of diverse characters, and the use of a rhyming scheme.
For example, all of the stories from Tales from Cloud Canyon are written in rhyme. That was a strategic decision, not only because reading books that rhyme are more fun for the reader (as a mom of three I can absolutely attest to that) but research has found that books that rhyme are easier to memorize for younger children, helping them to transition into the pre-reading stage of development. This is an important milestone as it helps build confidence for reading and interest to further engage with reading. Rhyming is also an important part of reading success and it has been found to encourage the development of rhyming skills.
What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?
I am a huge fan of college football (Hook ‘Em) and everything to do with The Witcher (the books, the games the television show).
As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
I hope to continue to expand the male-centered stories to add to the Cloud Canyon universe and publish a collection of 26 male-centered stories as a companion volume to Pragmatic Princess sometime soon!
If you could be one of the characters from this book, who would it be and why?
Winnie the Wise always has a good piece of advice to give her friends, no matter the situation. I would love to be that person for my friends, so I would have to choose her!
Can you give us a sneak peek into this book?
One of the books in this new collection is Here, There, & Everywhere, which tells the story of Eli and Ophelia. discussing what happens after someone passess away. Ophenia notices Eli isn’t at school one day only to find he is at home mourning the loss of his grandmother. This is a story about death, dying, and grief told in a child appropriate way from a faith-agnostic perspective. Meaning, it would be just as appropriate in a religious home as it would be in a non religious home.
This book was written to tackle one of the biggest questions that children ask when losing a loved one: what happens when we die?
In the words of Ophelia:
“Well, that is a really big, difficult question,
There are a lot of ideas, superstition.
Some say you go up in to Heaven in the sky,
And reunite with everyone who passed you by.
Others say you come back here as something different,
A bird or butterfly, something significant.”
“But whatever happens, a part of them stays here,
Inside of all the people they’ve met and held dear.
We hold pieces of everyone we’ve loved, embraced,
Those who are still here and those in a different place.”
“Though she’s not here, your grandma is a part of you,
Who you are and the things that you think, say, and do.
The way your hair springs up, your encouraging gaze.
Those are just two of the many possible ways.
So really you two will always be together,
In your heart and your mind, today and forever.”
When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?
My friend Lizzie was the first to encourage me to dive head in and try to write on paper all of these ideas that were swirling in my head. All it really took was that one piece of encouragement to set me on the path that I am today.
What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)
The best advice was just keep trying. I have received a lot of rejection letters in my day, and while they are discouraging I never let it stop me completely. When you have a passion and desire, you can’t let anyones discouragement stop you from doing everything you can to attain your dreams. In this case, publishing my work.
Do you outline your books or just start writing?
I start with a general idea of the topic of the book. For instance, I knew I wanted to write a book about death, dying, and grief. I then decided which characters would lead the story and based on that, the story organically grows out of how I think these two characters may interact. No real outline, just rough ideas.
How do you maintain your creativity?
I find my creativity comes in waves and the key to maintaining it is dropping everything and tapping in to it when feeling inspired. This may mean not writing anything for months or writing just an idea for a book, a name and rough concept, or writing two complete stories in a single day!
Who is your favorite character in the book? Can you tell us why?
I really love the character of Yanni in The Secret to Success because despite the fact that he struggles to learn new things, he keeps trying (and encourages others to do so as well).
Are you plotting bunnies, angels or demons?
Probably bunnies. Fluffy, snuggly, fast moving bunnies.
Dr. Rachel Kowertis a research psychologist, award-winning author, and mom of three (and #CavillInfluencer). In 2019, she launched her first Kickstarter project from the Cloud Canyon universe - a collection of female centered stories entitled Pragmatic Princess: 26 stories of self sufficiencyand raised more than $25,000 in 30 days and won an INDIES award for educational children’s picture book. Dr. Kowert has been featured in various media outlets, including NPR, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and Wired.
BLURB:
THE STORIES
Tales from Cloud Canyon is a series of character driven, topical short stories celebrating the everyday child, doing everyday things, with their everyday abilities designed for children aged 3+. Developed by a research psychologist and mom of 3, these stories were developed to be entertaining, educational, and celebrate the power of the everyday within our the beautiful, diverse world.
This Kickstarter collection features three topical short stories from the Cloud Canyon Universe: Here, There, & Everywhere, The Secret to Success, and Invisible Friends. Each of these titles are fully illustrated from artist Randall Hampton and are about 25 pages long.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE WRITING
The fictional characters in childhood stories are some of our earliest teachers. We learn a range of things through the observation of these symbolic models, such as what is right and wrong, a desirable and undesirable behavior, gender roles, norms, stereotypes, and more. The role of models is particularly influential in childhood as it can have a long lasting impact on development.
Each story in this collection was developed to not only be entertaining but educational as well, with the stories' characters modeling a range of age-appropriate skills spanning four areas of human development: intellectual, social, emotional, and moral. The skills that are modeled within any particular story are displayed on the back cover of each book and explained in more detail on the last page of the book.
DIVERSITY, REPRESENTATION & INCLUSION
Tales from Cloud Canyon changes the narrative by reflecting and celebrating the beautiful and diverse reality of our world. The characters within the Cloud Canyon Universe were developed to represent a range of shapes, sizes, abilities and disabilities, and traditional and non-traditional families.
In the Cloud Canyon universe:
-More than half the characters are female
-More than half the characters come from an ethnic-minority background
-1 in 10 characters have a visible disability
-Characters come from traditional and non-traditional families
-Different body shapes are represented
-she/her, he/him, and they/them pronouns are represented
It was also equally important that these details were not the central theme of the stories themselves as our shape, level of ability, and what our family unit looks like are just some of the many parts of who we are and not necessarily the defining feature of our stories.
PRODUCTION AND RELEASE
All of the stories have been written and are currently being brought to life through the illustrative magic of Randall Hampton. The physical production of the books is expected to start in June 2022. Time from production to shipping is about 6 - 8 weeks (+/- 2-4 additional weeks due to COVID delays). Once Rachel receives the books, they will be shipped to backers. There is an expected arrival date of the books no later than November 2022.
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EXCERPT:
Here, There, & Everywhere Is the story of Eli and Ophelia. Ophelia notices Eli isn’t at school one day only to find he is at home mourning the loss of his grandmother. This is a story about death, dying, and grief told in a child appropriate way from a faith-agnostic perspective. Meaning, it would be just as appropriate in a religious home as it would be in a non religious home.
Excerpt:
“First we are kids, then grown ups, then wrinkly and old,
And life is a cycle that way, so I’ve been told.”
Eli paused and looked back up at his friend,
“But what about after? What happens in the end?”
“Well, that is a really big, difficult question,
There are a lot of ideas, superstition.
Some say you go up in to Heaven in the sky,
And reunite with everyone who passed you by.
Others say you come back here as something different,
A bird or butterfly, something significant.”
“But whatever happens, a part of them stays here,
Inside of all the people they’ve met and held dear.
We hold pieces of everyone we’ve loved, embraced,
Those who are still here and those in a different place.”
“Though she’s not here, your grandma is a part of you,
Who you are and the things that you think, say, and do.
The way your hair springs up, your encouraging gaze.
Those are just two of the many possible ways.
So really you two will always be together,
In your heart and your mind, today and forever.”
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Dr. Rachel Kowert is a research psychologist, award-winning author and mom of three. In 2019, she launched her first Kickstarter project from the Cloud Canyon universe was a collection of female centered stories entitled Pragmatic Princess: 26 stories of self sufficiencyand raised more than $25,000 in 30 days and won an INDIES award for educational children's picture book.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Randall Hampton is an author, illustrator, husband and father of 3. He is the Creator of "The Little Game Master" series of books and considers himself a story teller above all else. When he is not spending time with family and friends, Randall enjoys reading, video games, music, and table top games of all sorts.
LINKS:
Author's Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3ADr.+Rachel+Kowert+PhD&s=relevancerank&text=Dr.+Rachel+Kowert+PhD&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1
Kickstart Campaign:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pragmaticprincess/tales-from-cloud-canyon
Book video link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCTQ0ZgA14Q
RACHEL’S SOCIAL MEDIA
https://www.rkowert.com/
https://twitter.com/drkowert
https://www.facebook.com/drrachelkowert
https://www.instagram.com/drrachelkowert/
https://www.youtube.com/Psychgeist
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelkowert/
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:
Dr. Rachel Kowert PhD will be awarding a $75 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC or 1 copy each of the 3 Cloud Canyon books (available in November) to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f4212
