Walking on a Rainbow: How I Became a Children´s Book Author

I used to think writing children´s books was boring. Writing for those demanding, whining creatures? Are you kidding? Not for me. No thanks.

That was a few years ago.

Now, nothing fills me with more joy and excitement than writing a picture book or a novel for tweens. Writing for children is like stepping into a fresh, magical, innocent, marvelous world of color and words. Writing for children is, in fact, like walking on a rainbow.

So how did the change happen?

Easy. I had children.

I recently read an interesting post by another children´s author about how in order to write good children´s stories, one must know children. Of course, as always, there are exceptions to the rule, but in general, I find this observation to be true. This doesn´t necessarily mean that one must have children in order to write great children´s stories, but it does mean that one must interact with them, know their fears, fantasies, dreams. In sum, one must have a clear idea of what goes on inside their little heads and hearts.

In my case, having children brought out a tender, gentler part of me to the surface, a part I didn´t know I had. Suddenly, as I read to my little daughter every night, picture books, with their beautiful and evocative illustrations, began to appear very appealing to me. I don´t remember when the exact moment hapenned, the moment when I thought, ´I want to write a children´s book.´ But I do know I went from extreme to extreme: from chilling horror to sweet picture books. Two very different worlds, but I´m able to switch from one to the other without much problem. On the contrary, each one serves as a refreshing break from the other. So I may work on a lovable children´s story in the morning, and dive into a disturbing werewolf scene in the afternoon. It´s fun, like having split personalities, without the crazy element (or at least, I hope so!).

So far, I´ve written four picture books. Two have already been published: The Magic Violin and CRASH! The other two are in the illustrating stages and will be released next year. I also have a finished tween novel in the editing stages and another one in progress.

The world of children´s book publishing is extremely competitive, to say the least. It takes hard work, dedication, perseverance and commitment to become a published author. I know the stakes, but once you step into that magical rainbow, there´s no turning back.