A couple weeks ago, I launched my debut children’s book, “What’s at the End of Your Nose?” starring Sidney Snail.

This week, I launched “Dr. Guinea Pig George,” my second children’s book.

Dr. Guinea Pig George, live on Amazon!

I wrote the Sidney Snail story almost two years ago. The writing part of it was comprised of those rare inspirational moments that took me through the first draft in the space of a couple hours. The doing-everything-else-with-it part, ah, that took more work, time, dedication, and gumption—not all of which I had at any one time.

A lot of life got in the way, too. It was only when I’d set a goal for myself to publish in the first quarter of 2017, one way or another, that being an author finally fit.

But the second book I published was actually written first. George and his peculiar adventure happened in 1999. At least, that’s the year on the manuscript I dug up.

I was always going to do something with my writing. Looking back, I never stopped the actual writing part, be it fully-realized stories such as George, or fragments scribbled on receipts, envelopes, and napkins.

It’s only recently that I’ve actually used official, bound journals and notebooks, with lined paper even, to record all the thunderbolt ideas, titles, first lines, and paragraphs.

I’m not saying that these recent materials I use to write are what have catapulted me into the author realm, but I can’t deny that a more organized process has helped!

So here I’d been carrying George around with me, from house to house and job to job, through personal epoch here and challenge there. I always intended to publish him—somehow.

Yet it took an entirely different creature, that delightful Sidney Snail, to bring George out of solitude and into the world. Sidney owes his legacy to George, too; I’d never forgotten George, and writing about animals just feels natural to me. When Sidney came along, George came with him.

One doubles as a coloring book; the other has full-color illustrations. Both of them will always mean so much to me for making my dream a reality.

With thanks to the lovely Qdmerit@Fiverr.com for editing and Kelly Cline for illustrating.