Once Upon a Dream Forest

 

“Where do you get your story ideas?” It’s one of the most common questions writers and authors are asked. The stock answer is “everywhere,” but sometimes there are certain things which give us an exact story idea.

 

Many times, I have thought “This could be a good story!” after witnessing or reading about some thing or another. But there are some things which could inspire a particular story idea.

 

For my children’s book, The Dream Forest, it was a poster at my youngest son’s preschool that said “The forest belongs to every living thing.” That inspired an idea for a story about a raccoon that literally escapes to a magical forest that is invisible to the real world.

 

Then, I read about how adult turtles will lay their eggs then wander off. They never interact with or have any influence over the life of their babies that will eventually hatch and leave the nest. This grabbed my curiosity and I knew I wanted to write a story about a baby turtle searching for its mother after birth. It took some time, some research about turtles, and when I wrote the story, I ended up placing this orphaned baby turtle into the exact same forest that was in The Dream Forest.

 

That’s when an idea struck: Why not make The Dream Forest a series? All of a sudden, I had more ideas of stories to write about animals in the Dream Forest.

 

That was when the Dream Forest series was born.

 

But first, I had to fix The Dream Forest book to reflect this change. I revised the story, unpublished The Dream Forest, and got busy looking for a cover designer to create the book’s new cover. Oh, and I needed a logo for this series too.

 

Fortunately, at this point, I knew quite a few cover designers. However, I had a feeling that of the cover designers I knew, Abigail Griglack (AKA Silvermilk) was the right person for the job. It was just a gut feeling.

 

So I worked with Abi to get the new cover made, as well as the logo. And Abi did not disappoint. The new cover and the series logo were beautiful. Exactly what I had in mind.

 

 

Next, I had to get the interior files for my book formatted. Yes, I was self-publishing this series. I wanted to keep the original artwork that was done for The Dream Forest and put it in the new book. No publisher would agree to this, because that particular artwork had been done by my son when he was twenty years old, and it was not of professional quality. So, self-publishing it was.

 

Fortunately, Desiree Horton came to my aid and got the interior files for the book formatted.

 

At this point, the second book in the series is currently having illustrations done by my new illustrator, who is also designing the covers for the books in the series from now on. The cover for the second book is already done, and because the second book is sized at 8.5 x 8.5, I wanted the new first book to be the same size.

 

So, everything was set, and I made the ebook available for pre-order. Because the print book is smaller than the full cover art which Abi created for me, I was only able to use it for the ebook.

 

And now the print book has been released today. Little Raccoon Finds the Dream Forest, the new revised version of what used to be The Dream Forest, is now available for purchase as a print and ebook through Amazon.

 

Unfortunately, this new size and the color for the pages meant the price of the book would go up. I am a staunch advocate for making books affordable, especially books for children, but I had no control over this pricing system employed by KDP (which is what I chose to self-publish with). Even so, I plan to make the print books available at a lower cost in some way in the very near future – most likely at readings.

 

And in case anyone is curious, yes, I have the origin story of the Dream Forest, but I won’t put it out there unless readers want it. Meanwhile, I’ll be releasing more Dream Forest stories for this series, each book featuring an animal in the Dream Forest. The next Dream Forest book, the one with the turtle, is slated for release in September. The third book, which has a rabbit, is slated for release in February. 

 

Thank you, Abigail Griglack and Desiree Horton, for your amazing skills in helping me get this new book out there.

 

I hope readers will enjoy this book – and I also hope that future books in this series can be available at a more affordable price!

 

Here is the book’s blurb:

 

A raccoon named Rigby and his friends were captured by Animal Control one night and thrown into cages. He was very frightened and didn't know where he was or what would happen to him! But Rigby manages to escape and run away to a forest that he dreamed about. This wonderful forest gives Rigby everything he needs to be happy and safe, but Rigby doesn't want to share anything with the other animals! Then a special boy appears to teach Rigby a very important lesson about life in the woods, and give Rigby his new name.

 

This book is available in print and ebook on Amazon at this link.

Dawn Wilson Writing as Dawn Wilson

 

“Writes as Dawn Colclasure.” For a while, this is what I put on all of my profiles that had the name “Dawn Wilson.” (Wilson is my married name.) I was published under the name of Dawn Colclasure before I got married, and after marriage, I didn’t want to change that. I would have to start all over again and I didn’t want to. So I kept getting published with my maiden name, even though it bothered my husband at first. These days, he understands.

 

After I got involved in publishing, I used my married name. I was happy I could FINALLY have something going on with this name! And, of course, my married name was used when I worked jobs outside of the home.

 

So, for a while, I was Dawn Wilson the editor and Dawn Colclasure the freelance writer, columnist, book reviewer and author.

 

Then came the opportunity to have my children’s books published. Until that time, I published children’s books under the name Dawn Colclasure. This was before I started writing horror. Then I started getting published under that name in the horror genre. When I had a publisher interested in my children’s books, I expressed my concern about being published under the name of a writer of horror. What if the parents of kids who read my children’s books saw that and didn’t want their kids to read my books? So my publisher suggested that I use the Wilson name for my children’s books.

 

Then that publisher shut down before the books were published. And the unpublished children’s books manuscripts I was going to have published with her were in limbo.

 

After that happened, I decided to self-publish these books instead. In fact, I have a whole series that I had an illustrator for and I didn’t have much faith in finding a publisher for these books – or my other children’s books, either.

 

After making this decision, I changed my mind about using the Wilson name for these books, figuring that I could be the kind of author who writes children’s books AND horror. I mean, I’ve been doing that all along, right?

 

A few days ago, I was looking at the children's books page on my author site. I noticed there were not many books. Well, that’s going to change after I get my series published! Once I realized that, I thought of something else: Why not use the Wilson name for these books? After all, “Wilson” would be easier for kids to remember, as well as pronounce, than the last name “Colclasure.” I mean, I should keep my audience in mind for this, right? Wilson is an easier name for kids.

 

Once I decided on this, I made the decision that, yes, I will go ahead and use the Wilson name for my children’s books. It’s not like I have a TON of children's books to change the cover or interior files for this! There’s just a few of them. That’s not too much.

 

And it’s not like I’m known for writing children’s books under my maiden name, anyway. Really, I’m not. None of those books are bestsellers, or anything. So this name change won’t affect sales at all.

 

When I first entertained the idea of using the Wilson name as an author, I had one concern: What if this difference in name was being dishonest? Like I was trying to hide who was REALLY writing those books, or something? It’s not that way at all. I am not trying to hide – just make it easier for kids to remember and pronounce my dang last name! I would never hide my identity from people; I’m proud of my identity and got no problem with saying that, YES, I DO write horror in addition to stories for children. I am flexible like that.

 

But then I realized that using my married name for these books is not a form of dishonesty, but a form of rebranding. Authors rebrand themselves lots of times! Nothing wrong with it.

 

So, that set my mind at ease. And, anyway, I have the name “Dawn Colclasure Wilson” for my emails and some of my social media accounts. (I had to add my married name after I took on the position as editor, as well as proofreader.) Both names are there to let people know that I am one and the same person. I’m one person with two names. Ha. I will answer to either or both names. And both names will still be in those children’s books, on the copyright and “About the Author” pages. Just not as the author listed on the cover.