Have you ever held a storybook and felt its magic ripple through to the core of your being? That's the sensation Carrie Pierce and I celebrate in our heartfelt conversation, where we traverse her amazing journey from the silver screen to the cozy nook of children's literature. Together, we uncover the intrinsic value of tangible books in nurturing the young mind and heart, challenging the ever-present digital distraction. Carrie brings to light the profound impact literature has on personal growth, the preservation of intergenerational bonds, and the shaping of society's future custodians.
The narrative deepens as we acknowledge the power of stories to heal and connect, providing solace to those navigating the tender waters of parenting children with exceptional needs. The responsibility of choosing the right literary materials becomes clear, as we underscore the delicate task of filtering content that not only entertains but also enriches young, impressionable minds. Our discussion touches on my latest endeavor—a children's book designed to captivate both kids and adults—and the solace offered by "Letters from Elizabeth," a subscription service extending comfort to women in mourning.
As our dialogue winds down, Carrie and I bask in the gratitude for our shared moments and the stories stirred by our exchange. I can barely contain my excitement for the narratives waiting to be weaved into existence, with a humorous acknowledgment of the countless ideas still to be explored. We part with an invitation to our listeners to join us on this literary odyssey, as we continue to celebrate and honor the timeless craft of storytelling and its essential place in our lives.
Have you ever held a storybook and felt its magic ripple through to the core of your being? That's the sensation Carrie Pierce and I celebrate in our heartfelt conversation, where we traverse her amazing journey from the silver screen to the cozy nook of children's literature. Together, we uncover the intrinsic value of tangible books in nurturing the young mind and heart, challenging the ever-present digital distraction. Carrie brings to light the profound impact literature has on personal growth, the preservation of intergenerational bonds, and the shaping of society's future custodians.
The narrative deepens as we acknowledge the power of stories to heal and connect, providing solace to those navigating the tender waters of parenting children with exceptional needs. The responsibility of choosing the right literary materials becomes clear, as we underscore the delicate task of filtering content that not only entertains but also enriches young, impressionable minds. Our discussion touches on my latest endeavor—a children's book designed to captivate both kids and adults—and the solace offered by "Letters from Elizabeth," a subscription service extending comfort to women in mourning.
As our dialogue winds down, Carrie and I bask in the gratitude for our shared moments and the stories stirred by our exchange. I can barely contain my excitement for the narratives waiting to be weaved into existence, with a humorous acknowledgment of the countless ideas still to be explored. We part with an invitation to our listeners to join us on this literary odyssey, as we continue to celebrate and honor the timeless craft of storytelling and its essential place in our lives.
Welcome to the SJ Childs Show, where a little bit of knowledge can turn fear into understanding. Enjoy the show. Hi, welcome to the SJ Childs Show. Today it is a beautiful autumn day, even though you may be listening to this at any time of the year, so just know that if you are listening to this, just feel warm and cozy and like it's a great day, and thank you so much for joining us. And today I have Carrie Pierce with me and I'm really excited to get into this conversation and let you guys learn more about her and the value she has in the work she does. So thank you so much for being here today, carrie.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you, SJ. It is a beautiful autumn day. We've been prior to the show, rejoicing in the glorious trees, but you're absolutely right to keep things evergreen. I hope if people are listening to this in summertime, some of the coziness will still come through for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a pleasure to be with you and your listeners. Thank you so much, and you know, I just love to start out with an introduction. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what brought you here today.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh.
Speaker 2:Well, I started out in the film and TV industry where I did make up and special effects and that kind of went along and rolled along and it became a little bit of screenwriting at times. And I really enjoyed that opportunity because I had always, from a very young age, been enthralled with books and words. I always knew from an early age I wanted to write, but I didn't know the first thing about how to do it. Even before I could read. I was in love with books and so I kind of went from the film and TV genre into more of the makeup world where I started writing health and beauty articles especially geared for midlife men and women. And then I worked with burn and scar patients, helping them do a bit of restorative makeup, and wrote about that for a while.
Speaker 2:And then I got into radio. So I did a few syndicated radio shows and and that drew along a lot of my writing experience. I had to fall on that to put the shows together and you know how that goes. So it's just been a long process throughout my life along winding road of blossoming into the writer I always dreamed of being, and I'm a children's book author now and also the co director of a publishing house, morgan Pierce media and publishing. So that's in as tight a nutshell as I can make it about me.
Speaker 1:Well, and you really, when you do writing and this is how to reading expert come on to the show once and one thing that I'll always remember. That stuck out to me, is if you have something, a written piece of something or something you're passionate about, it's your duty to share it with the world, because your perspective is the only one that will be there and, like your piece of you know what you can share, and your talents and your ideas and experiences are so unique because they are just your own and we are so unique as individuals. I love that. He said that and just reminded me and everyone else like expression through writing children's books.
Speaker 2:I love children's books, especially to, and it's just so it's.
Speaker 1:You know it's so tangible for families, for parenting, for grandparenting. There's so many ways nieces and nephews, whatever, however you spend a preschool teacher, there's so many ways to help a person grow through books and you being not only a writer but then also public, you know doing the publishing piece, what a special place to be to bring those works from other individuals also to the world.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, you know I I love everything that you just said and it is so very true. I feel like if, if a message is put on your heart, it is absolutely up to you to stand up and speak it, and I think in today's world, now more than ever, we need brave souls and brave hearts to stand up and speak truth and speak goodness and speak Dawn. About parents and grandparents, I think is so important and, as I have done the children's books and I have been out there doing talks about the importance of story time and keeping story time safe and all of those things, I see how truly important it is for not just parents but also grandparents to really expose their young ones to the written word. I think the kiddos today have grown up plugged in and they, because of that, have suffered somewhat. They have difficulty interacting with humans on a social level, the blue light that we're constantly exposed to and to be bad for our eyes.
Speaker 2:And, I think, to have the opportunity to present an old fashioned book to a young one, there's nothing like a book that you hold it in your hands and I have some books on my man with 1870 something to somebody else to hold those books. In your hands You're holding history, and there were hands a hundred years before yours that touched some of these books, and I think that's being missed. There is a sensuousness and a passion to books that you just don't get through a device, and to have the opportunity to sit down with your little ones, whether they're your own or your grandchildren, and share a story, share the written word, that is truly magical, and those memories last forever, a lifetimes, and they're passed down generation to generation, and I feel like in today's world we're really missing that and it worries me. So that was my soapbox. I agree with everything you said.
Speaker 1:I think that it's so important because today's generation is unlike any that's ever come before us and they move in the world so differently and so we really have to be careful to kind of join them where they're at but also teach them the value of things, that it works for society and humanity.
Speaker 1:And books have always written where.
Speaker 1:It has always been that thing, and I think that the expression through all of the short video clips and things, it doesn't give the mind a way to explore, it's not exploratory, it's just like bam in your face, bam in your face, and it's so disruptive, I think, instead of being this creative exploration of ideas and images and all of the things that happens, even through audible books, even for those who may not be able to read, for a dyslexic or for someone with vision impairment, the ability to still hear that story and just be able to kind of, like I said, create that wonderful exploration of creativity in your own mind and when you're reading to someone else and theirs.
Speaker 1:That is so missed in today's TikToks and Instagram stories and yeah, it says stories, but don't be fooled. I mean I'm sorry if I'm standing on a social media like you know, protest, but no, I mean, I love social media for the purpose that it has to connect, because I am a great connector and that is one of my, like, most important things that I can offer right now in my life, and so it's it's how you go about, what is your intention. You know what is the intention behind it.
Speaker 2:So how do you bring up a really good point? I'm sorry, I just talked over you. I didn't mean to interrupt you no but you know, as you were talking about the audible books and things like that, that made me harken back to.
Speaker 2:There is a resurgence Theater and and when you're you're listening to a story unfold, it's using different parts of your brain. And when you're listening to the spoken word read aloud from a book, it's you're using different parts of your brain, as opposed to sitting down and being hammered with these little video snippets and things like that. It is a very superficial form of presenting a story or communication.
Speaker 2:I don't want to pull the the show topic down, but it does concern me. The latest stats for your 2020 Were very concerning, especially where children are concerned, in the sense that psychiatric Hospitalizations for children ages five through eleven increased by 24 percent. Then with adolescents, it was even worse it was a 31 percent increase. And now, in in where we are in today's date, looking back, you know those numbers are going to be even worse. There's going to be even more of these psychiatric Hospitalization. So those are occurring for a reason and actually for several reasons, and I think To. To have a chance to bond with a young one over the written word and not to take it is is a sad, sad Shame and it's a loss and a waste and a missed opportunity that that's just so Horribly. It just makes me breath thinking about it.
Speaker 1:So no, I couldn't agree more. And you know, in my process of writing my the children's books, that I Seven children's books about special needs and in that time frame my idea, my intent, was well, I have these children that the world won't understand, so how can I better present the information to them, especially when they are children themselves in the neighborhood and such, and Give them a better sense of who my children are and how to better support them and be understanding? And in that was so beautiful that my child, who is dyslexic and didn't get as much out of the written books, as much was an amazing artist and Said well, could I illustrate a book?
Speaker 1:And I said, of course, so. Right behind me, back here, we have Anna's ABC book, illustrated by her when she was eight years old. Oh, my word, yeah, and such a powerful, like you said connection tool to use. Because, yes, it's great, like kids want attention. People think, but really kids want connection. The connection Versus attention is a huge.
Speaker 2:It's a huge thing, huge difference.
Speaker 2:And there's, you know, Even though, with dyslexia, books, we're still reaching her heart, and that's a precious story that that, although she couldn't maybe process the language in the book, she could still have a huge impact and she spoke a language in a book through her beautiful art and and what an amazing thing. And I do feel that children's books especially Bring with them a great, a great opportunity for healing. I mean a, a children's book that is carefully crafted and that is written from a place of a heart that is saying to a young person. I've been there and and and the childhood is a magical, wonderful time, but it's also very difficult and scary and overwhelming, and I think we need to acknowledge that.
Speaker 2:And there are children out there that are neuro diverse and and that face different challenges, and not all children are alike and not all children are cookie cutter stamps of the idea of what society thinks a child or childhood should be, and it's it's, I think, so important to find a way to give them messages of hope and comfort and overcoming and and strength. And you know, in in my children's books, I purposely make them technologically obsolete for a reason, and, and Some of that is so they are more timeless, but I also Want the child Hearing my story to have to ask their parent or grandparent you know what? What is that thing? She's talking about? What?
Speaker 2:is a rotary phone, and and how did it work? And did you have one? And so my stories are are crafted in such a way that it triggers these conversations, and I also use bigger words because I want I want the reader to have to stop and, and, and, if it's being read aloud to them, ask what is, what does that mean? And and if they're reading it on their own, to have to either go look it up online or go find a dictionary, which is getting harder to find Old-fashioned dictionaries. But I I feel it is so important that we find ways to start Triggering conversations with our young ones, for the very reasons you just spoke of earlier.
Speaker 1:So now the conversations, the discussions with them are Like second, like it read the book, have the discussion.
Speaker 1:It's like the way, the way it has to be. And in you know, in my other children's books I did the same thing discussions in the back where you can learn about what autism really is, what dyslexia really Looks like or how do you get help for dyslexia, how do you understand someone with Down syndrome and be more compassionate and learn that in a scientific way you can learn about chromosomes that way you know, and kind of try to like Integrate science and and things like that into the learning as well. And it's, I love, to the access that it gives each child because they all have different ways they want to learn or interest they they have. And when you have a multitude of Conditions or Try, certain things that you can showcase to children, such a better influence they have in their life to take it to the next grade, to the next school, to the next family reunion, church gathering, whatever this information that they can bring. And children's books really do that. They help them see the world that might be harder, in a softer, easier way to comprehend it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very well said.
Speaker 2:And you know, as you're speaking, I am thinking of the astronomical rates of autism now, and my mother, who passed away about a year and a half ago now, was my best friend and we used to volunteer at a camp for developmentally delayed young adults and we would go for their Halloween carnivals and we would dress up and do different things throughout the year with these, these developmentally delayed children and young adults, and it doesn't work just one way. We received so many gifts from those precious souls. They taught us to see life differently. They exposed layers of magic to life that maybe I had never seen before, had forgotten in the adult angst and shuffle of the world, and I am grateful for those opportunities and for those little ones, because I feel like they actually have made my writing better, because I understand more of how their minds and their hearts work and there is a guilelessness to some of them and their hearts are so pure and this world needs that and needs them so much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting you say that too, because I mean, we haven't spoke prior to this at all and you couldn't have better explained my child in a whole beautiful way he was. He was reading at one Do you remember that your baby couldn't read program?
Speaker 2:commercials for that. Yes, I do.
Speaker 1:Flash cards and I was 33, my first child, kind of older and so I had settled into this. I'm going to be like super educated mom, you know, and I got these books, not knowing that my baby at the time had, and will continue to have, a photograph. I had a photographic memory for his life and so I started him on the reading path extremely early and he was writing it to and by three he was showing us his photographic memory by writing words that he'd seen on the drive. You know all the store names or the license plates, the street names, all of these things.
Speaker 1:It was just like you said this, like effortless beauty that also came with not being able to toilet, not being able to tie shoes, not being able to communicate with other people and you know, adults and children around him. First down now, even then. So, but in those difficulties we also have this like better understanding through those magical gifts and moments that we can be like, ok, it's OK that it took seven years to go to the bathroom, it's OK because you know he has his whole life to do it, thank goodness. And also like he has, there's so many things and amazing opportunities he could have, but like how to get there is a tricky path and what I'm not going to be able to get it if I'm not reading and keeping up on education and things like that. So I love that we're it's kind of taking this interesting turn, because I think that other reading is so important Children's books, amazing but when you really when you need information, where do you go to get it?
Speaker 1:Well, if you are someone that's like me or someone that likes more than one piece of information, you read, read, read, read and read, and you research and you go to several places and you do a lot of reading, not just a few idea, but one idea, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, I think I think the smart, the very smart people do that and you know, for a while I think we become. We became a very kind of lazy, complacent society and we allowed ourselves to be spoon fed things. But I think that is changing now and I'm very glad about it. And I think I think the smart ones are out there and they realize they must think for themselves and they must dig and be diligent. And you know, there are a lot of children's books out there that contain themes that I find, as a 60 year old person and someone that loves children, concerning there's a lot of black magic themes, there's a lot of hyper sexualized themes out there, there's a lot of themes around drug use and abuse and and I feel like it is our job to be the gatekeeper for our young ones and and if you're going to read a child's book to your child, I think in today's world it is certainly smart to read it first yourself, and I am always honored when parents and grandparents buy my books for their little ones, but they read them first. And then I have gotten some some very humbling, heartfelt emails from parents and grandparents and and some of them have even said I was just reading this to make sure it was safe for my child and I wasn't expecting the message to resonate with me so much, and I just feel like as as society as a whole and humans as a whole, we are all leveling to the same level, in the sense that our hearts are hungry, and our hearts and our spirits are hungry for gentility and sweetness and kindness and innocence. Again, I think we have been through so much in the last several years that we're all kind of meeting on that plane of civility and humanity and we may all be different in how our hearts resonate or the pains that we carry or how our minds work or how how we handle language or don't, but we're meeting on a heart level now, I think, more than we have been a very long time, and I I see that as hopeful and encouraging. I hope it is the time of healing For little ones and and for adults.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think you said something that really resonated with me, and that was that, even in this, making these connections and being able to pass these messages along to people in a form that makes them happy in the grocery store, on their drives, when they're jogging, sitting at work on a break, to be able to listen to a podcast that brings you joy and inspiration, hope, ideas, all of those things I mean. What an amazing. I wish I would have been doing this for like 20 years. What an amazing journey. I obviously wouldn't have been able to do it until I did, because that's the right time and everything you know. Right time is now, so I'm really grateful for that. And what do you have next on the horizon? What are you working on that?
Speaker 2:Well, and I'm writing down what you just said. The right time is now. I love that question. I needed that today, so I thank you.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 2:Well, actually I am working on a new children's book, and my books are long. They are written not only for the children, but they are written for the person that is reading aloud to the child. It's very important to me where my books are concerned that adults enjoy them every bit as much as the children do and that they're not dreading having to read for 20 minutes. So I write for the adults as well, and my last children's book that's out there now is the Tale of Tommy Tomlinson's Tennis Shoes, and it's almost 40,000 words long. It's 12 chapters and an epilogue, and so I'm working. I'm just now beginning another book that I will shall remain title list title list but it's going to be probably even longer than that one.
Speaker 2:But, as the publishing house co-director, we are launching something that we are very excited about and it's a unique project and it's called Letters from Elizabeth, and what it is is a letter subscription service and it's two letters mailed to your home every month for a year and it's written mainly for grieving women age 50 and above, and it's written I'm the main writer and it's a compilation character.
Speaker 2:Elizabeth is a compilation character of myself and a friend I met in a grief group after my mom died, and it's to help women find themselves again, because a lot of women out there have either been married most of their lives or they've been recently widowed after being married most of their lives, or they have been recently divorced after being married most of their lives and for the first time in their lives, at midlife and beyond, they are starting to have to live life alone, and it can be an extremely daunting, scary thing, and so we wanted to become a friend in their mailbox every month to walk with them and kind of ruminate about the grief process and the growing and the blessings that are there if we dig for them, and sometimes, unfortunately, we do have to really dig to find the blessings and things.
Speaker 2:So that is something we are right now launching at Morgan Pierce Media Publishing and we're just really excited about it. The letters took a year to write. They're very carefully crafted. They're anywhere from six to 10 or 11 pages long, so they've got a tremendous amount of heart in them and a lot of love in them, and they're becoming very well received because people are wanting to give them as gifts for their mothers and their grandmothers and their aunts who are going through grief. So unrelated to children's books. That's the project that Morgan Pierce Media and Publishing is in the middle of releasing now.
Speaker 1:And thank you for being so vulnerable in your own life to bring that forth to heal other women. I think that's just made me a little emotional. I think it's so beautiful and, yeah, what a great way to give and to show up for as a light of intention and of love. So, vance, yeah, well, thank you for that.
Speaker 2:I spent so much time curled up in the fetal position crying in my living room floor, and then I would drag myself to my grief meeting at Hospice. And then I was encountering and listening to these amazing stories of other women.
Speaker 2:I mean, some of these women were 90 years old, they'd been married their entire adult lives and they were sitting in their houses in the fetal position on their floor crying and so, and then I met my friend and she was spending most of her time doing that and I just feel like in terms of being human and real you know, and as children's book authors I'm sure you love the Belvedere rabbit just as much as I do. It's one of my favorite books I feel like in today's world we're called, especially as writers, we're called upon to be real and human, and it is part of the mission in a writer, and a writer's life is a different life than other professions or other people. We spend a great deal of time alone and we spend a great deal of time carefully picking each word that we write and stringing them together in carefully crafted ways, and I think we feel differently, and just like I think we're neurodiversive too. I think to be a writer is a hard calling, but it's a special calling and it's filled with blessings. But in order to do it well, we have to live a different way. We have to be lonely at times and we have to sit with feelings and be willing to feel them instead of run from them or hide from them, and that can be overwhelming and painful, just like having autism can make your nervous system very sensitive.
Speaker 2:Being a writer, kind of, is a shame.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can envision, and you know it's interesting. You say that because when you are the person going through it it really doesn't seem to be a process if you will, and then you kind of look back or you have someone like Osmond that says, oh, you just lose yourself. Let us know when you're going to so we can plan on three weeks of not talking to you and seeing you and everything. I mean I kind of joke that it literally takes me, because it's like poetry basically, and it takes me maybe 15 minutes. So that's the shortest book that I've ever read, or written, rather. But it takes so long to create the right pictures or the right just you know the way like you say it. So there's so much crafting that goes into it. And you know there's books still that I have unwritten seven to 10, probably.
Speaker 2:Oh, mommy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so lots of, lots of nuggets to be uncovered, discovered and brought out to the world that whatever point, is right for them to come out.
Speaker 2:So Well, and the timing is always there. I know it becomes very frustrating. We become so impatient Look, can we just get this done? Why is this taking so long? And but invariably, when you look back, it always was perfect timing and that is so hard to to surrender to and to just make peace with. But you know, you bring up a very good point when you write, especially when you write professionally.
Speaker 2:That book becomes your child and you are releasing it out into the world and it is. It's like taking your kid out to kindergarten. The first day You're, you're publishing it and you're sending it out into the big wide world and you with love and I know that sounds like a silly analogy to people that don't write or don't get it, but you do. You put so much of your heart and your soul and to have a story idea. I don't think a good writer just thinks, oh, that'll be a good plot, I'll write this book. It is a mission. I feel it is a, it is a calling and it has to be done in obedience and it has to be done in a highly disciplined manner and there is a tremendous amount of blood, sweat and tears that go into a really good book and it's. It's always gratifying when it resonates and you get, even if it's just one, email from someone saying your story touched me. That is is it's oxygen to a writer.
Speaker 1:I love that. Where can people go to find more information about the books and the publishing company?
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for that opportunity. I probably have three different places to send them. The publishing company is Morgan Pierce Media Publishingcom, and there you can read all about the services that we offer and who we are. Our bios are there my business partner Sandra Morgan and I, and we also release little videos and things like that kind of little short snippets about editing and certain little tidbits about writing. So we have some things scattered about social media and YouTube as well. Letters from Elizabeth is the subscription letter service for grieving women, and that is letters from Elizabethcom. And then my 2 children's books that are out there now Abby apple tree and the tale of Tommy Tomlinson's tennis shoes. They're both on Amazon, but if you want an autographed copy and I sign them all by hand, so that's not a stamp, I've signed them by hand you can order that copy through Morgan Pierce Media Publishingcom. But I've really loved our time, sarah, it's been precious to visit with you and I thank you for this opportunity.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much and the same, and I'd love to catch up with you in the future when the next book is ready and let's have you back on to talk about it and what other interesting things might be happening. So we'll definitely stay in touch.
Speaker 2:I would love that. I would welcome that, and I wish you all the best with yours and the 7 to 10 that you still have inside you.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, Good luck to that. Thank you so much and thanks for the listeners. Have a great day.