Days with No Words

A series of days in which I connect with my son and the community with no spoken words

Welcome to Fidgets and Fries!

Mostly free. Somewhat not.

If you’d like to honor my writings with a monetary contribution, thank you. If you already have, thank you. Your support allows me to invest in my writing in a way I hadn’t thought possible as well as pay for my son’s communication lessons. And if you are still an unpaid subscriber, thank you. Cause in a world where everyone wants their eyes on their work, you still chose to put your gaze on mine.

This newsletter rests at the intersection of the unserious ramblings of a woman full of buttered rice and dad jokes and the somewhat sophisticated stories and essays of someone who knows just enough “smart” words to sound super intelligent and insightful.

What will today’s newsletter be? Hmm

…

My debut book was nothing like I expected it to be. It was nothing that I wanted it to be. I didn’t even want to write it! 

However, after several editors and a couple publishers told me that they wanted a children’s book from me, I finally decided to give in and maybe see what they were seeing in me. That bit of myself that screamed “pic book writer.”

I spent several months after signing my first book deal, not writing a damn thing. I wrote ADWNW in two rushed weeks and it was a disaster. Headaches every single day, me throwing papers all over the place, screaming into pillows, you name it. I did it.

First, that fuggin’ word count.

If anyone tells you that writing a picture book is easy. Seek better company. It ain’t. For starters, you have a horrendously short word count. Mine was 600 words. Though I know there are picture books with around 1200 words or so. My next one has 900-something. 

Second, you have to pack a damn lesson in them 600-1200 words. 

Plus make it entertaining, engaging, and all that shiny shit kids need to stay interested.

Third, know your age range, cause 3 year olds ain’t working with the same vocabulary as a 6-year-old and the 6-year-old ain’t wielding the words that a 9-year-old is using and yet the Book People (whoever/whomever they may be) will be stuffing our books into age categories that sometimes don’t make no sense: 3-6 years old. 6-9 years old. Some are 3-9 years old and I am like come the fark on!

My 6 year old was getting homework and at 3 years old he was licking rocks that he wrote on in chalk cause he thought licking them up meant he was absorbing the words, therefore, reading them.

And it’s not just vocabulary you have to look out for, it’s how the story is told. What is engaging to a toddler/pre-k child isn’t all that engaging to someone who is in the last year of their single digits. 

To rhyme or not rhyme? Many picture books rhyme. My first one did, my second one only has a little bit of rhyme with it largely being non-rhyming. 

I don’t care for rhymes but my son loves songs and it reminded me of a song and so I wrote the book in rhyme. And that was a chore. I had so many tabs of Rhymezone open on my computer. I literally forgot words so I needed the extra help. Couldn’t just choose any ol’ word, had to make sure it fit. Seriously I spent two days trying to figure out if I should keep “anxiety” within my book cause I was like, “the toddler ain’t gonna know what anxiety is.”

I ended up keeping it. That’s what ya parents is there for, they gotta teach the littles new words.

Tell a story but teach a lesson. Picture books educate children. Stories are our best teachers. And you gotta write a book with point, message, lesson…

Now, you gotta do ALLLLLLLLL that within 600-1200 words. 

And most don’t have the luxury of knowing their illustrator beforehand so you are writing a book not knowing what parts of the story you want the art to tell more of or when you need the words to. 

You just wingin it. 

So, after going through all of that and possibly scaring you away from writing picture books, I wanted to say that I love writing them now. Don’t wanna stop. Got a second one coming out with Bloomsbury in early 2027 and I’m co-authoring one with my youngest right now. 

But because I want to keep the love I have for my first book alive and popping, I decided to write a post series and share them as newsletters. They will be extensions of the relationship I have with my son in A ay with no words. 

I will most likely place this behind a paywall. I’m still sorting out how often I will sharing these short stories. 

So, the adventures of Aidan and Mama haven’t stopped. They just keep going and going. 

Days with No Words. 

Coming soon. Like tomorrow or something.

And it’ll be for paid subs only.

Deuces, Taters.