Behind the Books

“Bookstores are lonely forts, spilling light onto the sidewalk. They civilize their neighborhoods.”  — John Updike So exiting that we can share that our books are finally starting to appear on Indigo’s website. After a long stretch of backend setup and waiting, seeing those listings populate feels like a real turning point. We chose IngramSpark intentionally for long term distribution and library access. We will link back to our earlier post explaining that decision in more detail, but the short version is that we wanted a system that supported bookstores, libraries, and print on demand rather than locking us into a single retailer. Our Ebooks Were Already There One interesting contrast is that our ebooks have actually been available on the Indigo site for some time. Because we distribute ebooks through Draft2Digital , they are automatically sent to Kobo , which powers Indigo’s ebook catalogue. That part of the system worked exactly as expected. Once the ebooks were live through Dr...

"In real open source, you have the right to control your own destiny." – Linus Torvalds When I first started preparing Bye-Bye, Boobies for IngramSpark's hardcover printing process, I quickly realized how many publishing programs come with a heavy price tag. Adobe InDesign is the most common desktop publishing software that comes up over and over, but the subscription alone can add up to hundreds of dollars a year. As an indie author, I needed another way. ISBNs in Canada (and Why I’m Using IngramSpark) That’s when I turned to Scribus . Scribus is a free, open-source book layout and typesetting program aka desktop publishing software. While the interface may not be flashy, it gives me the same control over trim size, margins, bleeds, and spine guides that paid software programs do. Once I got used to its quirks, it became a reliable part of my process. Tip: Keep all of the files that you are uploading into Scribus in one folder and save the finished file in that same fo...

  “Proofreading is a safety net — a final check for errors before publication.” — Martin, Head of Content at Reedsy There’s nothing quite like opening a box and holding a proof copy of your book for the first time. It feels so close to being finished, like the last step before it goes out into the world. But as I’ve learned, those proof copies aren’t just for the excitement they’re needed for catching things that somehow sneak past no matter how many times you’ve read the manuscript or how many editors have reviewed things. When I received my proof copy of Shelved , I thought I knew what to expect. I had gone over every page carefully in LibreOffice, everything looked right in the file, and I uploaded with confidence to IngramSpark. But when the proof arrived, I discovered the page layout had mirrored incorrectly! The page numbers and margins were flipped after the table of contents. Something I hadn’t noticed on screen became glaringly obvious in print. Then came Bye-Bye, Boobies...

“A book is a dream you hold in your hands.” — Neil Gaiman I opened the box this week and there it was: the proof copy of Bye-Bye, Boobies . A real book. With a cover, a spine, and actual pages I could turn. I’ve seen this story so many times on screen over the last six months, editing spreads, tweaking line breaks, nudging characters into place but nothing compares to holding it in my hands. There’s still a final round of checks to go before it's ready for the world, but this is the moment it all became real. I wrote this book for the families I work with, and for the quiet moments that come when we start saying goodbye to something as big and beautiful as breastfeeding. It’s soft and simple and full of love and now, it’s almost ready to meet you. Stay tuned for the official release date. We’re so close.

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” — Scott Adams Somewhere between the spreadsheets, stanzas, and storyboards... I lost count. When you're self-publishing a picture book, every page matters. Literally. I had carefully mapped out all 32 pages of Bye-Bye, Boobies , laid out each stanza, sketched each scene… and then realized I'd gone over. Not by a little. By a full two-page spread! Of course, it had to be  one of my favourite moments in the book. Soft, quiet, and full of feeling. And I had to cut it. Why? Because I forgot to count my copyright page in my original 32 pages. I hadn't even thought about it until I started the last bit of colouring that I needed to do before ordering proofs.  I even tried a workaround before I removed those pages, I added the copyright block onto my title page but that looked terrible and cramped and I had to reduce the font to such a tiny amount to get all the info in there.   Why t...

  Thank you for being a friend. — Andrew Gold, 1978 (made famous by The Golden Girls ) What I had to start I’m so glad she did. This little sleeping pup appears on multiple pages in my book and I almost uploaded the final files with the original version. I thought he looked fine. Cute, even. But then Natasha, a talented artist and my friend, gently pointed out that the dog looked a bit plastic . Her gorgeous pen & ink image is on my parent page of my book and you can read about that and see for yourself on my other thank you post to her,  here . At first, I winced. Then I looked closer. She was right. I had drawn and coloured her with care but without much experience in digital tools like Krita, I had missed the subtleties that make illustrations feel soft, textured, and alive. I’ve never studied art formally, and Krita has a steep learning curve when you’re diving in with a full children’s book to finish. So I’m learning on the job constantly. Thanks to her feedba...

  Art is never finished, only abandoned.” – Leonardo da Vinci Today I coloured a dog. That’s it. That’s the post. Okay, not quite but that’s how it felt. This little rottie took more layers than I expected: outline, fill, collar, tongue, then soft brown markings that I repainted… more than once. Then, right when I thought it was great my son mentioned that the head was too large! I'm still learning how to use Krita. Still figuring out which brushes feel right, how to colour in a way that looks soft without smudging everything into one big blur, and it is starting to feel more comfortable to use the different features in the program. Here’s how the layers stacked up and how I've been approaching each layer in the images for my book: Starting with a simple sketch Next is the final outline Onto the colouring starting with black fill (which is really a very, very dark blue) Next came the red collar Onto the tongue which the colours hopefully work once I get a proof copy. Brown high...

"The world is but a canvas to our imagination." — Henry David Thoreau I can't believe it,  I’ve spent more than a week colouring and feel like I'm barely progressing.  To be fair, it hasn’t been just one page. I started with the child, layering section by section, and began colouring parts of the mother. Then I coloured the whole title page. Not because it was next, but because I needed something to feel finished. That helped me see the palette more clearly and gave me a sense of progress, even while the rest is still in motion. A big part of the process is switching the linework on and off. I draw everything in layers inside of Krita, and I regularly toggle the outlines to see how the colours hold up on their own. With the lines visible, the drawing feels sharper and more defined. With them off, it becomes softer and more painterly. I use both views to figure out if a colour feels too harsh or if something needs to be adjusted. Here are two views of the same page, on...

    “Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” — A. A. Milne When I first imagined Bye-Bye, Boobies , I thought it would be a board book. One of those short, simple, and sturdy books. You know, the kind of story toddlers could turn over in their hands, maybe even chew on a little. But as I began sketching, writing, and reworking the pacing, the book quietly started asking for more space. Board books are beautiful in their simplicity. Some of my own favourites, like Goodnight Moon , which lives on our shelf beside The Runaway Bunny , say so much with so few words and pages. Still, the story I was working on didn’t quite fit that format. I wanted Bye-Bye, Boobies to capture something gradual: the soft letting go that happens when a child begins to wean from breastfeeding. Not a single “last feed” moment, but a series of quiet transitions in bedrooms, at the park, and on airplanes. At the end of writing, much to my surprise, there was too much story to c...

"How does one become a butterfly?" she asked. "You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar." — Trina Paulus , Hope for the Flowers Did you know? There’s a monarch butterfly hidden on every page of Bye-Bye, Boobies . I added them quietly, almost like a secret, for little ones to find as they listen to the story. Each one is placed gently in the background or along the edge of the action, waiting to be noticed. Monarchs have always felt magical to me. Their wings are soft and bold at the same time, and their journey is incredible. They begin right here in Ontario and fly all the way to Mexico. It’s something many people don’t realise. We are so lucky to have these butterflies be a part of our summer landscape in Canada. One of my favourite things each year is visiting the local park when the monarchs are released. There’s always a group of people who have cared for them all summer, and seeing the butterflies take flight never ge...

  “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” — J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan

“Even the smallest one can change the world.” — E. B. White, Charlotte’s Web