by Ellen Gillette
I was watching a teaching video at church when I got the germ of the idea for my new children’s book, She-Bear in the Beautiful Garden.
I don’t remember anything about the speaker or the video except that a reference was made to the Garden of Eden. In the Genesis account in the Bible, God banished Adam and Eve from Eden because of their disobedience and clothed them with animal skins.
My mind took a detour at that moment. Where did the skins come from? I was intrigued by the idea of an animal laying down its life voluntarily to provide for the outcasts.
We Do Children a Disservice When We Dumb-Down Difficult Stories
There are many happy-happy, sweetness-and-light books about Adam and Eve but I wanted to go deeper.
Or maybe I didn’t consciously decide that beforehand, but as I wrote, that was the direction it took.
I think we do children a disservice when we dumb-down difficult stories. Loss, sacrifice, betrayal, loyalty – these are tough realities. When children encounter them eventually, if they’ve talked through some things earlier or can hearken back to a book they read, etc. they’re better equipped to deal with them.
I also wanted to appeal to a wider audience than just families with Judeo-Christian backgrounds, so I renamed the characters. The Creator is Heartmaker. The man and woman are named One and Other One. I’ve been told the book has a bit of a Native American feel to it.
“I Was So Discouraged, I Didn’t Think It Would Ever Happen”
The biggest challenge with She-Bear was not the writing, but the publishing.
I found a traditional publisher right away, but unfortunately, after four contracts with them expired without a book in hand. After several illustrators failed to produce, I was so discouraged, I didn’t think it would ever happen.
I remember wailing to a close friend on the phone about it – not the first time, either. He was my first newspaper editor and he’s continued to be my friend and mentor. I think he was tired of hearing it again.
“Illustrate it yourself,” he said. “You know in your head what you want it to look like. Just do it.”
So I did. Initially, I went the self-publishing route – this was ten years after I first wrote it!
Last year, I added illustrations for the 2nd edition, published by Pen It—an independent traditional publisher for whom I had written an inspirational romance.
I’m excited that She-Bear has a wider audience now.
How the Pain of My Son’s Death Came Back While Writing
The loss of a child is not something a mother ever gets over, but when I wrote She-Bear in the Beautiful Garden, my son Adam’s death was even more raw.
In the book, Heartmaker tells She-Bear, the world’s first mother bear, that she and her cub share a special destiny.
Cub gives his life to provide covering for One and Other One, to protect them from the harsh elements outside the garden.
When She-Bear’s heart breaks as she suddenly realizes what has happened, my mother’s heart broke with her.
Despite her grief and anger, she trusts Heartmaker—an important lesson for me as well.
My Biggest Emotional Triumph Related to My Book
I sent the manuscript to several “first readers” who offered valuable feedback. When a published fiction author compared She-Bear to a C.S. Lewis allegory, I was ecstatic.
She-Bear’s story had touched him that deeply? Wow!
It Was Exciting to Illustrate My Own Children’s Book
Originally, I asked a friend to do the illustrations. Andrea Cox painted the beautiful scene that is on the book’s cover but moved away before I found that first, unfortunate publisher.
When I decided to tackle it myself, I used colored pencils and pen. By the time I was working on the 2nd edition, I had learned how to go back into the jpegs and tweak them digitally. Everything’s a learning process!
I wanted She-Bear to be a durable, colorful book that would hold the interest of read-to-me aged kids, but also contain enough text to grow with them, designed to be passed down to generations.
Adults enjoy it too! They understand it at a different level than children, obviously, so hopefully it sparks communication in families. The illustrations inspire the story; the story fleshes out the illustrations.
The illustrations were in my head, just as the story had been. Seeing them come to life on paper was exciting. By then, She-Bear was real to me; I felt a responsibility to honor her story in a way that’s hard to explain.
Children Deserve the Same Level of Excellence in Their Books
Other than a book about one of my grandson’s rabbits I wrote and illustrated just for him many years ago, She-Bear in the Beautiful Garden is the only children’s book I’ve written. (My other books are for adults.)
I have had the privilege of editing and illustrating the Adventures of Carmelo series for author Fred Berri, though, and I enjoy finding the one thing that it important to convey in each picture.
Writing for children, it’s important to keep appropriate reading levels in mind, but I think they deserve the same level of excellence adults expect, especially when you get into longer books that children will read independently.
Why My Latest Book Changed My Life
My first book, Baaad Sheep – When God’s People Let You Down, was a wonderful learning experience, working with an editor and publisher, deadlines, etc., but She-Bear changed my life.
Maybe if the original publisher debacle hadn’t happened, it wouldn’t have, at least not to the same degree. I kept extending grace, believing the best, but you know what they say about doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results!
When my mentor told me, basically, to stop whining and make something happen – that was empowering.
Because of the content itself, coming as it did along my personal grief journey, I also grew emotionally. I still tear up when I read She-Bear aloud, as if it’s the first time. Now that Pen It Publications has re-released it, I get to enjoy the process again.
About My Efforts to Market My New Children’s Book
After self-publishing the 1st edition, I set up a website with a store and an exclusive Facebook page: She-Bear in the Beautiful Garden. I posted memes with bears, about the importance of reading to children, that kind of thing.
But because I now have six books with Pen It, either published or under contract, and a four-book romance series for Blushing Books under pen name Emily Sharpe, I let the website expire and have a new one—ellenandemily.com—where all the books can be viewed at once.
I wasn’t sure I would go public about Emily Sharpe’s identity, but when I “came out,” I set up a joint author page on Facebook that’s been helpful, as my friends share with theirs. And AllAuthor was tweeting my book covers, so I recently started tweeting too. Marketing is definitely the most challenging part for me.
The biggest event I’ve had resulted from a direct contact. I approached the director of a local organization that helps survivors of sexual abuse and violence called the Inner Truth Project.
Because the Emily Sharpe series was dedicated to the writers’ group I attend, which ITP used to facilitate (we switched to Zoom during COVID), I approached her about hosting a reading/signing event with the understanding that a portion of the sales would be donated back to ITP.
I had all by books there, and She-Bear was a hit, too!
Advice for a Young Writer: Love Your Story
If you see red flags in a business relationship (or elsewhere, for that matter!) pay attention. Learn to edit yourself ferociously. Be teachable. Be persistent. Believe in your story. Love it.
If you don’t love your story, why would anyone else?
* * *
Ellen Gillette is an author and illustrator in Florida. A former newspaper columnist and educator, she has raised goats and grandchildren and spent a year in India.
Publishing credits include Fully Relying on God by Shirley Veltman (as-told-to); She-Bear in the Beautiful Garden, Baaad Sheep – When God’s People Let You Down, For Such a Time, and Love in Yona Valley for Pen It Publishing; and as Emily Sharpe, the Dear Editor series.
Illustrating for other Pen It authors and the Adventures of Carmelo series by Fred Berri, she writes for the Indian River family of magazines, substitute teaches, and performs with community theaters along Florida’s Treasure Coast every chance she gets.
For more information on Ellen and her work, please see her website and Amazon author page, or connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.
She-Bear in the Beautiful Garden:
When Heartmaker tells She-Bear that she and her beloved Cub share a special destiny, she can’t imagine what it could be.
She is just a simple bear, after all. And when that destiny unfolds, it isn’t at all what she would have chosen.
But still, she trusts Heartmaker because he made her. He loves her.
Join She-Bear and her friends as they experience the joys of the Beautiful Garden, as well as its sorrows.
Available on Amazon.
Joy in Yona Valley: The stories of the four Calvert sisters continue with Book 2 in the Yona Valley series. Darcy has unfinished business from her past that threatens her new love for the valley’s veterinarian. Grace and Jack are engaged, but unsure they want to wait, while Jack’s father, a widower, decides to take a chance on love again with the valley’s most outspoken “old maid.”
The Millers have taken up residence on the Calvert’s property, but when Amanda Miller and her deaf grandson are in an accident, will her ex-daughter-in-law spoil her son’s growing affection for Ruby Calvert? And what will it take for Bob Baldwin to give up his abusive, addictive ways before he hurts someone?
Join the Calvert family and their new friends as they experience comfort, answered prayers, and find …..Joy in Yona Valley.
Available on Amazon.