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First newsletter 5/17/2011 1:04:32 PM
This is my first newsletter...I hope you enjoy it. Author Hank LeGrandlll
‘Welcome to my newsletter’ Date 5/18/11
Issue # 1
________________________________________
First of all I would like to welcome you to my first monthly newsletter.
I Hope you find this Newsletter informative and enjoyable!
Please forward it to your friends you feel would be interested.
Until next time...
Best wishes,
Hank LeGrand lll
In This Issue:
• Feature Article: [My first published works]
• Recommended Resources
• Quote of the Week
• Contact the Author
1. Feature Article: [My first published children’s stories’ beginning.
I’ve been getting questions from readers wanting to know how I got started writing children’s stories. Well, after reading other authors stories and watching movies something finally clicked. It was like a surge of electricity shaking me clear to the bone.
I first thought about what kind of story would interest children—like the stories which interested me as a young boy. While daydreaming about a shallow duck pond, not far from my home, I envisioned a beaver living in the shallow muddy pond. No beavers lived there but it didn’t stop my imagination. A story about a beaver… a baby beaver. That was all I needed, but what kind of baby beaver? I knew there were lots of baby beavers born each year, but what would make my baby beaver any different from the others? I started thinking about the beaver’s special features when suddenly my imagination narrowed in on one thing…a TAIL.
A beaver’s tail is one of its most important characteristics, and without one the beaver would be in big trouble. That’s when my first published story titled, Paddle Tail—the little beaver born without a tail—began to come alive. It took me months to come up with the clothing style for the characters in the story—along with how I wanted the scenes to look. But when I finished writing Paddle Tail’s story the wording was high—over 6,000 words. It took me six years—and a couple hundred rejection letters--to find a publisher interested in such a long children’s story but, eventually, it happened. I couldn’t believe after all that time I was going to be a published author, and see one of my stories actually on a bookstore’s shelf.
It was truly a special feeling sitting in front of a bookstore talking to the various people, and signing my first book. Paddle Tail sold out on that first signing, and Paddle Tail was there in person, thanks to my mother, Catherine (Kitty) LeGrand, for making Paddle Tail come alive with the wonderful costume she made.
P.S. Thanks to my courageous wife, Barbara, for truly bringing Paddle Tail to life--by wearing it.
