The New Podcast in Town

I’m a huge fan of podcasts and their wealth of free content available at just the tap of the screen. Last November I even wrote a post about the plethora of podcasts that are available to the KidLit community. You can find that here. I had no idea at the time that I would soon be contributing to that list by co-hosting a brand new podcast with my friend and fellow picture book author, Kirsti Call.

Since the first question we ask our guests is, “Where did the inspiration for this book come from?” I thought I’d share the inspiration behind the podcast for today’s post.

As we all know the world stopped in March. For me, it was impossible to get myself into a creative headspace to write anything new or revise anything old. I struggled. I struggled hard. I tried to give myself grace though, knowing these were unprecedented times and surely I wasn’t the only one who was feeling this way.

Then, in May, I attended an all-day online conference called RISE, hosted by one of my favorite people, Rachel Hollis. The theme: Courage. How does one show courage in times of crisis? How can you have courage to rise above all of the unknowns and continue to work toward your goals? How can you find the courage to pivot in the current climate?  BOOM. PIVOT. That was everything I didn’t know I needed to hear. I wrote a blog post about that too because I thought it might be true for some of you too.

Before the RISE conference was over, a way to pivot popped into my head. Kirsti Call also attended the conference and we’d been texting back and forth throughout the sessions. Just before 6:00pm this text exchange happened:

And there it was. A way to pivot. If I couldn’t get to a place to write, I could find a way to keep myself involved in the KidLit world that I love so much. I could find a new way to be involved and serve the community.

From there, we hit the ground running and only questioned what we’d gotten ourselves into a handful of times. 🙂 From title and format, to episode length and cheesy intros, it’s been a collaboration of passion for kidlit, a little editing magic, and of course, courage.

Our first three episodes are available for you to subscribe and listen to now via the podcast app of your choice, online at https://picturebooklook.libsyn.com, or you can kindly ask Alexa to “Play Picture Book Look podcast.” One new episode drops every Tuesday. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter for episode updates and behind the scenes pics.

Kirsti and I hope that you’ll tune in to learn from the amazingly talented authors, illustrators, and editors. And who knows…maybe something you hear might help you pivot in your own writing. Happy listening!