Joining us on WRCO for this segment is author Mary Thompson, author of The Adventures of Coco Mia.
Lost?
Good to have you on the phone with us.
We want to get your story.
First of all, Mary, how long have you been a writer?
Well, first of all, thanks for having me on the program, Phil.
And I've been a writer, I think, in all of my professions.
But a published author is a different story, and I was inspired to write this book about my dog after she was in a tragic accident, which happened about three years ago now.
Interesting.
Well, tell us the story about that and how that happened and how you got your dog back.
Well, it happened on a very beautiful day, not unlike this June day.
She was being walked by a family friend with her two dogs.
She and the dogs were in the crosswalk when a car basically came out of nowhere, did not stop at the stop sign and hit all of them.
So three dogs and our friend was tragic and all of them were hurt, but
Fortunately, none of them were killed, which was miraculous according to the police officers.
The dogs, two of them ran, Kokomia being one of them.
The retriever stayed by the family member, of course, right?
And Kokomia ran for probably at least two miles and nobody could find her.
There was a...
a search community-wide where friends and neighbors and strangers all came out to try to hunt for her.
They could not find her, they called off the search overnight, but social media was in play, posters were up, and the happy ending to the story is that Coco dragging her leash came to a construction site and saw
the workers they recognized her called the police and returned Kokomia.
So that was the story of her return after being lost and fortunately no broken bones badly bruised but all recovered and all are still here in the pack playing like they always did.
That is an amazing story and you know the the community really responded when that happened didn't
they?
It was an amazing
outpouring, honestly.
I've never been the recipient of something like that.
And so, as I was so grateful and feeling blessed that Kokomiya had been returned to us, I thought, it's a story that really needs to be told.
That was my inspiration.
It was her courage, the community that came out, and the kindness that everyone showed.
Yeah, that's the cool thing about the story too is that you know, we all have our disagreements and our different points of view But I think everybody can see that you know, this was pretty important your dog returning, right?
Oh my I'm as I've been out with Cocoa Mia and talking about the book and her story.
It's also Has a very good reaction people that own paths feel like me
They're family members, right?
And so it's like you lost your family member and how how that that person or in this case, our dog was returned to us with nothing short really of a miracle.
So the book, tell us about the book.
Is it a children's book?
So as I mulled over how I could tell this story, I, I thought about different angles that I could use.
And I came to the conclusion that a children's story might be the best way to tell it.
I wanted to teach lessons to not only the children, but the parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, friends reading to kids.
So that's why I chose that as my vehicle.
You, I know you were a classroom teacher in your background.
I'm guessing you appreciate the fact that somebody might read this to a child, right?
Right, right.
I've been trained as an educator.
I felt like I leveraged my background in education, learning my entire life as I walk through different professions.
And so it all culminated really with this and feeling that I continued to want to teach lessons through storytelling and then through the children's book, basically.
We wanted to get into a little bit of how you turn a true story into a book.
And I'm guessing that being said, there might be a book in all of us, right?
Well, I'm sure there is a book in all of us.
And I wasn't really, I didn't set out to write the book.
You know, this, this incident happened.
It was tragic.
It had a happy ending.
I was sitting with my mom one day just
Kind of reviewing everything that had occurred and it struck me like out of the blue.
I was supposed to write a book.
And my mom being my toughest critic.
I thought well I'm going to run this buyer right and so I. I said hey mom what do you think about this idea of writing Copa Mia story but maybe through a children's book she she sat there for a minute.
Said.
I think that's a great idea.
So I had my, I had the inspiration from, from the tragic incident that turned into a happy ending.
And now I had some encouragement because I don't think if she hadn't encouraged me, I probably wouldn't have done it.
I had no idea really where to start.
So, um, I started like any good teacher would doing some research.
Uh, trying to figure out if there were some courses I could take and I ultimately took an online class.
So that's how, that's how I started, um, to kind of figure it all out.
How did you take care of the illustrations in your book, Mary?
Well, so as I took the class and I didn't know this, probably many don't know the rubrics of a children's book.
I thought I just.
Take a minute and tell you about that.
So first of all, it's like 32 pages.
Story needs to be told with less words.
800 words are less.
And half of it's carried by the illustrator, so you raise a really good point.
So there's all of that that goes on.
So less is more in the storytelling.
The illustrations carry it.
Tell it in 32 pages.
and then try to figure out how you would publish it.
That's basically what my online class told me.
And so when I finished that, as I've done in all my work, I kind of wrote a project plan and started by drafting a story.
Do you want to know how that went?
Yes.
I
do.
I drafted my story and I sent it to the online instructor for feedback and she wrote back and said this is very nice and you need some work and why don't you tell it, you know, from the dog perspective because I had pretty much written it as it.
occurred with a light touch to what the accident was.
So I then wrote it and then I gave it to a few people and you keep editing and editing and taking the feedback and I finally told myself, stop.
I needed to make a decision.
Was I going to self-publish?
Probably you and many of your listeners know there's a lot of self publishing now.
Amazon makes it very easy to publish your own book.
Or do I try to find a publisher that could maybe help me as I really was on this journey of learning myself as I put the book together.
And at that juncture, I decided, hmm, I'm going to see if I can find a publisher who will accept it and then maybe will help me edit it for a final product rather than, you know, keep stabbing in the dark, if you will.
So that's what I did.
I started shopping it around and I found a publisher that I really liked out of...
Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.
And he said, okay, that's all well and good.
Now, you know, if you want to work together, then submit it.
We have a council, for lack of a better word, that reviews all of the book submissions, and we will get back to you.
So that's what I did.
I submitted it to Orange Hat Publishing.
And the ratio that he gave me was probably 20% of those that are submitted.
The stories that are submitted are actually published.
And I made it through that gauntlet and then started the process of, you know, more editing, less words.
And then now back to your original question about illustration, I had been working with
an illustrator that I found through my Rotary Club.
Dylan Rogers is a Rotary Scholar and she was receiving a four-year scholarship for training to be a children's illustrator at the Milwaukee Institute of Art Design in Milwaukee.
And I'd seen some of her work and so alongside this she was
meeting Coco, she met the members that were in her pack.
She drew sketches.
We refined them and refined them and refined them and worked on that all summer.
So when it came time, when the publisher asked for the illustrator, I said, well, I have one.
And he said, well,
you're the author, do you want to use her illustrations?"
I said, I'd like to.
And he said, well, let's take one of mine and see what they do, and then we'll compare the work of that illustrator with Dylan's work.
And I'm like, fair.
So as it turns out, we went through that process and Dylan won it by a mile because she knew and caught the personality really of all the dogs.
Interesting.
So I'll just pause there and see.
Do you have any questions about that?
No, that's interesting.
But I think the, the one question that sticks out is that initial feedback of, you know, your story was nice, but, um, you know, had that not happened, this other door would not have opened, right?
Right.
And I think that what I would tell everybody is feedback is hard.
I think being open to it, and if it's given with the spirit of improving and helping, then it's something you should listen to.
At some point, though, you have to make the decision when to stop and kind of take that next step, or you could just get caught in that kind of as a doom loop.
Yeah, exactly.
And maybe a lot of people do that.
They put their story away and never visited again here.
So,
yeah.
Exactly.
Mary Thompson, the author is our guest here on WRCO's morning show.
And another reason why we're talking to you is you're going to bring your show to the Brewer Public Library in Richland Center in August, August 11th.
And tell us a little bit about what you'll be discussing that day, Mary.
It's been an interesting journey as I have been, the book has been published.
It was successfully launched in September.
And the presentations I've been making have been quite flexible and aimed at different audiences.
For example, some audiences like to hear about the rotary connection.
leverage my Rotary Connection to create my team.
And I'll get to your answer here, but the team is the illustrator, my publicist Sharon Alden is a Rotarian, and the outcome for Rotary is that I like to give back to the Rotary Club, and so $5 proceeds of the books go back to the Polio Plus Foundation.
that they really have supported me on this journey.
But then as I go into libraries or schools, the topic might be changing.
And specifically for the Brewer Library, the interest there is, well, how did I actually take the idea of the book, the inspiration, if you will, to actually
publishing the book and then on to.
The most difficult and any author they talk to most likely will say the most difficult part is the marketing and the selling of the book and being able to adapt to different audiences.
So the heart of what I'll be talking about on August 11th will be that journey.
not so much content of the book, but how, how did you get the book published?
It's awesome to teach the younger folks about actually holding a book in your hand.
You know, there
was a,
there was a while when I was a little bit worried about that, but do you think we're all right that we're always going to have books to hold in our hands?
Hmm.
Now that's an interesting question.
I think that.
Again, our adaptability, and I come from, you know, the generation where that's all we had were books in our hands.
And I've adapted to books online.
There will be books.
Definitely there will be books, but the form of them may change.
And I think that as we adapt to, you know, the future, that I'm hopeful that those books will be
Available both ways to be in our hands either in a book form like we know it today or Through a digital form
What is the most common question you get Mary when you're you're out and you're speaking to groups of people?
I think the most common question is how is Coco Mia?
Yeah,
I think there's a there's a real attachment to our pupper as I like to call her
I take her with us as often as I can when the venue allows it.
And there's an instant connection with those that love dogs.
They just can relate.
I might share the first time when the story was read.
So I asked for help, obviously along the way, a reading specialist.
read the story to a class of first graders when the book hadn't even been in print yet.
We were still working off of the draft form in like a mock-up, if you will, copy.
And to see the kid's expressions when Kokomia was struck by the car and the fact that she was lost, that there was a lot of worry and angst about what would happen next.
And then, of course, the ending where she's found, reunited, her injuries are minor, and she's back home with her pack, gives that sense of relief.
So I think it really, the most often asked question centers around Kokomia.
The other question that some of our listeners may be curious about is what type of dog is Kokomia?
Yes, I should start with, I should have started with that.
So Kokomia is a 15-pound Shih Tzu poodle.
She is very smart.
She has the poodle sense in her and the Shih Tzu is definitely affectionate and a lap dog.
In fact, she's sitting on my lap right now and she's...
I guess she's sleeping.
Doesn't get embarrassed when you talk about her, I guess.
Oh, in fact, she likes people.
She likes the attention.
She loves children.
Uh, we are walking outside, um, yesterday before the storms and a neighbor boy said, Coco, Mia, can I come and see you?
And her and his mother actually read the book as a mystery reader to his class not long ago.
So those are the stories that are very heartwarming and unexpected when you think, well, you know, is anybody really enjoying it or thinking about Kokomi and the answer is yes.
And it comes from the most unexpected places sometimes.
What about your future than Mary?
Is there another book?
Is there another adventure for Coco Mia?
Well, I have a million storylines the the thing that I would say to those listening that may be interested in in writing your own book I Would and if you want to promote it, so there's several people that I've
talk to that want to be an author, self-publishing works, they don't care if they sell it.
But for those people that want to get the word out, I would not underestimate the business side of writing a book.
My background provided that, but you're running a small business.
There are inventories, there's, you know, inventory management, sales.
How do you market it?
How do you promote it?
How much do you want to get out there and tell the story?
How busy do you want to be?
All of that.
So as I think through for the next book, I want to accomplish the goals of my first book to make sure that I have it in enough reader's hands.
And then I've started the storyline multiple times, and it changes because events change.
Most recently, I would like to tell you that she's had to have knee surgery.
This was unexpected.
Now, nobody will tell us for sure, because I don't think anybody really knows, but her knee went out.
But it's on the same leg that she was also hit by the car.
So my feeling is that, yes, it's all related.
but there's a happy ending they can fix it and she had pins put in her in her knee and it's another story about recovery and so maybe that's a storyline but I have like name a topic with with Kokomi and I could write a story about it.
There are many adventures she takes us on.
Well, I can see that the whole knee surgery thing and recovery, especially again, for maybe a young person that has to face a surgery, you know, that
might be
helpful in that regard, wouldn't
it?
Exactly, because I don't think that the prep or the recovery might be much different.
I mean, you prepare the same way.
In fact, where she had the surgery was run as a hospital that we would go to.
It's very similar the way they
They did it all new to me.
That's for sure.
So you're going to be enriched on center on Tuesday, August 11th at the Brewer public library and you're hoping to reach a lot of folks that may have an idea.
You know, is that you're going to be there to try and encourage people if there
might be people and talk about talk about it and talk about the reality of it as well.
And the several decision points that I find found along the way that
I would have been helpful maybe if I knew them in advance.
Everybody will take their own path, of course, but maybe they can learn from mine.
And yours is based on a true story.
You know,
some
people might have some ideas about a fiction book as well,
right?
Exactly.
Of course.
Everybody needs an inspiration, right?
And then I think the rest comes.
Wonderful.
Well, great to meet you today.
We appreciate you being a guest on our show, Mary.
And maybe when you come to Richland Center, we'll get a chance to cross paths, but all the best to you this summer and to Coco Mia as well.
Yes.
And if you're interested in finding the book, it's on the, on the website.
That's another piece of the business plan or her website is adventures of Coco Mia.com.
and that way you will get an autographed version from me shipped right from our house.
Otherwise, she is available on Amazon and she's also in several indie bookstores in the area.
Wonderful.
Mary Thompson, our guest on this portion of The Morning Show.
