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 And the unpublished children’s books manuscripts I was going to have published with her were in limbo.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.

Anyone at any age could still enjoy a children's book!

I read children's books – but mainly because I write them! I started writing them long ago and now, in my fifties, I write them even still. 

  

But it would seem that the children's books that I will have published this year and beyond are a mix of books written years ago as well as the books I have written this year. And I'm so happy that I now have a publisher willing to accept to accept these manuscripts this year! 

 

But getting to this point took some time!

 

I wrote a children’s book in 2007 and now, 18 years later, I finally found a publisher for it.

 

That’s not to say that I spent those 18 years trying to find either an agent or a publisher for it. I did spend a long time looking for one, but not the entire 18 years.

 

No, even as I was constantly being rejected by literary agents and publishing companies, I was busy writing a lot of other things. I wrote novels, poetry books, nonfiction books and collections. I also co-authored books with a couple of people. I also continued to write more children’s books, even though I didn’t have a publisher for them. I STILL wrote those stories because I felt compelled to write them. I wrote them with the hope that someday, I will find a publisher for them. All that mattered at that time was writing them.

 

But I did not continue to look for a home for THIS particular children’s book for 18 years. I spent some time searching for one, then I stopped. I kept looking for one on and off, but it was not my main focus as a writer. My main focus as a writer was on other things – the things that WERE getting published. Like articles, essays and poems in magazines and websites.

 

I kept submitting other book manuscripts while I was doing this, sure. And I was trying to see just where I could go as an author.

 

When I did finally start getting children’s books published, I started with what was new at that time, which was The Yellow Rose. Then, I started co-authoring children’s books with my oldest, who went by the name Jennifer at that time (the name he was assigned at birth – my oldest is transgender). If that had continued in that capacity, I would have likely gotten around to submitting the book I wrote in 2007, but that didn’t happen.

 

Then I started to self-publish children’s books, among them the books I co-authored with Jennifer Wilson. That eventually stopped too, and even still, that 2007 book was not published yet!

 

I just didn’t get to it quite yet when I was self-publishing children’s books.

 

So, for a while, I didn’t have any children’s books coming out anymore, because I lost my illustrator. I also didn’t have a publisher for the children’s books, indie or otherwise.

 

But I did have publishers for other books, and it was the other books that I focused my energies on.

 

Meanwhile, that 2007 children’s book collected proverbial dust on my hard drive.

 

That was, until now.

 

My UK publisher, Baynam Books Press, recently began publishing fully-illustrated children’s books. I have seen one such book that was published and I was impressed with the quality of the art. I asked if I could start submitting one my own children’s book manuscripts and the publisher, Crystal Baynam, said yes.

 

So, I did. And held my breath!

 

Imagine my excitement when I received an acceptance on the book. Yay!

 

But it wasn’t the 2007 book I had submitted. Actually, it was a book I had written in 2009!

 

So a book I had written 16 years ago is finally going to be published. What’s interesting is that, after I self-published The Dream Forest, I made the decision to dedicate THIS book that is going to be published at the end of the month, Little Turtle Finds Friends, to my friend’s daughter. She was little at the time I had decided to dedicate this book to her and when I THOUGHT I was going to self-publish it. But my plans to self-publish it never went through and the book remained in limbo until I found a publisher who said “yes” to my inquiry about submitting children’s books manuscripts. That happened this year, and the little girl who I am dedicating the book to is now 13 years old! A little too old for children’s books, but she loves turtles, so after some back and forth with her mom, as well as input from her, I got the blessing to dedicate the book to her.

 

And as we move closer to the publication of the book, I came across that old one I wrote in 2007. I just asked Crystal if she wanted it and she said yes.

 

In fact, she told me to go ahead and send her all of my other children’s books manuscripts! How cool is that??

 

I am so thrilled and very grateful that I now have a children’s book publisher. I am especially grateful to Crystal Baynam for wanting to publish my children’s books!

 

Am I in the wrong for submitting all of them to her in one full swoop? I don’t think so. It doesn’t mean that I am no longer writing horror novels or horror story collections (and I am currently writing a middle grade horror novel!); it just means that, now that I have finally found a publisher who says “yes” to my children’s book manuscripts, I am going to send her all of them!

 

Seriously, there’s no time like the present!

 

It’s not like Crystal will publish all of them in one day. LOL I know she’ll space them out in order to build up readership and allow certain books to be published at certain times. But I am sending her everything I have at this point in time because … well, she wants them, and Baynam Books Press is a home for them.

 

Of course, when I realized that this particular children’s book was written in 2007, when my youngest was born, I was gobsmacked! But now I am feeling so much joy and gratitude that, at long last, this book will see the light of day and can be enjoyed for the little ones that it was written for. Even my youngest, who is almost 18 and is cool with having a children’s book dedicated to him no matter how old he is!

 

And that’s the beauty of children’s books. They can be enjoyed by people young and old, as well as by the young at heart.

When Creativity and Parenthood Clash

 

Several years ago, I wrote a blog post in which I shared my negative comments about a band’s songs on their latest album. I had been encouraged to check them out by fans who were just crazy about the band and their music. My comments about the songs were negative because A LOT of those songs were about sex and also viewing females as sex objects. At that time, I was the mother of a young daughter, so I naturally felt compelled to speak out against it. When I reread the blog post many years later, I wanted to kick myself.

 

Yes, I posted my opinions about the CD on my blog for the benefit of all those people who encouraged me to check them out. But WHY IN THE WORLD did I have to put it on my blog?? I could have just made my comments to them in private.

 

I know my blogs do not have a huge readership, but they are still in the public domain. Unless I change otherwise, anyone can read them. Including members of that band.

 

Of course, my reaction to those songs was understandable, given that I was reacting to them as the mother of a girl and not as some teen fan or whatever. But nowadays, I see things like that, and you know what? I DON’T CARE. It doesn’t bother me as much as it used to, because EVERYBODY has the right to express themselves in their own way, use their creativity in their own way, and share their gifts in their own way. That includes every single musician, songwriter, dancer, artist, writer, filmmaker and anyone else who creates art or some form of entertainment for the public.

 

Here's the thing: When it comes to creativity, there are no bounds. There are no limits and there are no taboos. It can be ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. And if a band chooses to sing songs about sex or sexualizing girls, they have a right to do that. It's not a good thing, but they did make that choice to put out that kind of material. We can take from it what we will but, in the meantime, we can't start demonizing the band or making them out to be "sick" or "bad people" for having those perceptions about girls. It is what it is. They are how they are.

 

We, the listeners of that kind of music, can either like it or not like it. That’s ok! Not liking it doesn’t make it “bad.” It’s just an opinion! But I feel that opinion shouldn’t be put onto a blog. WHY put it onto a blog? I mean, it’s not like I was paid to review it, or anything. It only makes that band look bad.

 

But even so, as a parent, I had to think about just how I would respond to things like this, because my kids would see and hear things like this. I was concerned that that kind of music would encourage impressionable young girls to have sex, thereby escalating the rate of teen pregnancy. Or that they might influence my own kids in a negative way. Well, instead of worrying that something like how a SONG would have that kind of impact on a young girl, why not talk to our kids about teen pregnancy instead? Why not let them know the burdens and expenses of teen pregnancy, and all the things early motherhood would make them sacrifice? It’s not a song’s responsibility to make sure teen girls don’t get pregnant; it’s up to us parents to make sure our teen daughters don’t get pregnant.

 

And, you know, that’s my whole point. It’s up to us parents to do everything we can to guide and lead and protect our children. There are always going to be songs, dance performances, artwork, books, movies, plays, videos and sculptures, etc., promoting sex. There’s no way to get rid of any of that stuff! What we can do is use our kids’ exposure to those kinds of things as a teachable moment. We can use those things as a reminder to check in with our kids on how they felt about that, any questions they might have, and just talk with them about that particular issue. Open those lines of communication with your kids, because if you don’t, they’ll likely get their answers from someone else or the Internet or start thinking about what they were exposed to in the wrong way.

 

We have to make sure that the music our kids listen to, the movies they watch and the books they read do not have a negative or dangerous influence on our kids, because they CAN. But it’s not the source of that material’s responsibility to make sure our kids our okay; it’s our job as parents to make sure our kids are okay. We the parents have to make sure our kids will not be influenced in ways that are harmful or immoral. It’s not the musician’s responsibility; it’s our responsibility. The musicians, artists, writers and filmmakers are all going to put out the kind of work that they want to. We, the parents, can take care of the kids who are exposed to all of that.

 

We cannot stifle creative expression. Every single creative out there has the right to put out any kind of work that they want to. They are not babysitters, teachers, preachers, mentors or “big brother/sister” to our kids. They are entertainers. Maybe their kind of entertainment is not appropriate for our kids, but entertainment is meant to be for all kinds of people, and that’s the kind of audience their work is meant for. If we want to ensure that our kids stay on the right path in life, then it’s our job to talk to them about the things that they are exposed to. It’s our job. Nobody else can do it; it's all on us. We’re the parents, and part of being a parent is to protect our kids, guide our kids, and educate them about the things that are in our world. It’s up to us, not the entertainers.

 

The entertainers are all going to do their own thing and put out their own work. We may like it, we may not. But no matter what our opinion is, they still have the right to their own forms of creative expression. That includes something that might be sexual. In that event, should our kids be exposed to it, then we the parents can take things from there and have an honest conversation with our kids about it.