How I Became a Fast Reader

Hi, my name is Kelsey Clark, and I am the author of the Animal Tour Guide book series. I am a full-time author because I want to create stories and books that will excite children to want to read and want to travel around the world. I want to create that book, which when a parent asks their kids ‘what do you want to read?’, then they instantly say one of our books in our series. I absolutely love when I get text messages, emails, reviews, or posts from parents telling me just how much their child loves the books and how they have read it 5 times in the last week and are acting out scenes from the books. I write these stories about different parts of the world because I want children to dream about exploring these places and I want the children that live there to be excited that they live in such an amazing place with so much to offer! I love being able to use my travel experiences and mix it with my imagination.

Please share a little bit about your cultural journey.

I was born and raised in Orlando, FL, which is known for bringing in a lot of people from all around the world. At my high school, I participated in international programs and had the opportunity to travel to other countries. Also, I got the opportunity through the program to talk with children that were my age to discuss each other’s cultures and viewpoints. I have even created lifelong friends through some of these experiences! I also worked at City Walk at Universal Studios and a lot of summers we would get international students that would come and work abroad for a couple months.

It was great to get to know them and make more friends from around the world. As I got older though, I found myself moving to Washington D.C. where I worked for a few years. I would always make it a point to go every year to the Embassy Open House events in May and any other international events in the summer, such as the Folklife Festivals. Overall, it was great living in DC because it was such an international hub. Then my husband and I got the opportunity to move to Italy, where we stayed for a few years!

The first year and half we found ourselves traveling all over Europe. However, COVID hit during our second half of our time there and we found ourselves grounded for a lot of our next 2 years, but we took this as an opportunity to get to know Italy. I always say that living in a country is so different than vacationing. We really got to understand a lot and found an appreciation for a lot of what Italy has to offer. I think, if given the opportunity, more people should live in another country, so that we might better understand each other.

My husband and I for the longest time wanted to live in Europe and we were able to make that dream come true! We are now currently living back in Florida to be closer to family! Now, I am taking everything I have learned in my travels and making books come to life through my experiences, with the help of my amazing and talented friend and illustrator.

How did you come to do the work you do?

Growing up, I always had a big imagination, so I love that I get to use that when writing my books. With a topic like travel, there is just so much to explore and so many amazing places in the world to write about and highlight. For this reason, I am so excited to be an author and that I get the chance to make my dream come true. I always wanted to be a children’s book author, but I didn’t have the inspiration for my book series until I traveled. While on one trip, I met a cute cat that walked alongside us, meowing and stopping at all of the scenic lookouts. I thought ‘what a cute animal tour guide’! I knew this would be a great way to introduce children to the world as well, through the eyes of a cute animal friend. Each book introduces a new location and a new animal tour guide friend. We also feature one character from a previous book in each new story, to showcase that these are real places and that we can all learn from one another.

Please share a life-changing moment and how you overcame the struggle.

Growing up, I started out as not the best or quickest reader. I found myself falling behind and when my teacher approached my mom about it, my mom was shocked because we always read books together. However, the teacher asked her, ‘do you always read the same books?’

My mom answered yes, and the teacher told her that I was memorizing the story and that was how I was reading it. My parents spent a lot of time trying to help me. I found myself crying to my mom because I felt like I was not good enough and that I just wasn’t as smart as the other kids. My parents were always there to reassure me that I could do it. I kept trying to read and would watch other students’ techniques to try and do the same thing to get better. I was still a lot slower though with reading. Then Harry Potter came out. My mom and I first started reading it together, sharing the books back and forth.

Then I started to get faster because I wanted to know what happened in the book! My mom and I made it a competition and if one of us put down the book, then the other would get it and start reading where they left off and the other had to wait for the book again. This competition and the story really helped me. After that, I started reading a lot more and found myself writing poetry, writing play scripts with my friends, and writing stories.

This made me want to eventually write my own books one day. However, I kept that close to my heart for a lot of years because I knew I still had a lot to learn in school and again I just didn’t have the inspiration for my stories yet. I wanted to write stories for children because I struggled with reading growing up and, just as Harry Potter was the book series that helped me want to read more, I am hoping that my books will be the same catalyst for other children starting out to read!

What topics do you write about? Why do you write about these topics?

In terms of writing, this is a long process within itself and everything I write is constantly looked over multiple times. I start out by thinking of three things: what is my character (or animal tour guide) going to be, what location do I want to feature, and what is the story going to be. Once I understand that, then I make a layout of all the places I want to highlight in my location, whether it is an island, town, or an entire country.

I use pictures and stories which I’ve gathered from my own travels and then I do research on the animals and locations which make that location unique, and I compile them in a document. Then I start writing. Once I am done with the story, then I stop and think about which words from my text I could convert to the language of that country or area. I try to pick words that I feel would be helpful for children to learn before they go to visit that country. For example, ‘thank you’ or ‘hi’ are always important words to learn. Then I research and listen multiple times on how to say the word in that language and I write the phonetics for what I think I hear.

For each book, I send my recordings and phonetics to a local from that area or someone that speaks that language. I ask them to make any edits they feel need to be made and they will correct me if they feel like I need to improve on the word. We often go back and forth many times to get the pronunciation just right! I take this information seriously because I know that when I go into schools to read my book, then I want to be as authentic as I can be when teaching the children to pronounce these words. I want them to feel comfortable saying the words, so they can use them when they travel to these countries.

Then I give what usually turns out to be over 100 pages of text and images to my illustrator to look over and draw inspiration from. We talk about the feel and look of each book and try and make it feel and have the same tones and colors as the area we are portraying. We are very deliberate with our choices for the colors in each book, and each book features a different color palette. Every area is beautiful and has its own personality, which we try and convey as best as we can.

Please share a little about your journey as an author etc. What tips would you give to someone starting in this field?

Before the first book was published and before I started posting on social media, I made a business plan for myself. I did this to help me focus and keep me cognizant of where I started and where I want to go. I also wanted to always make sure that I stay on topic of why I am doing this to begin with. I wrote out my mission statement and my vision for the series. This helped me look into what I wanted to get across on social media and with my marketing strategy.

I decided to self-publish for a couple reasons: I wanted to have creative control, and I wanted to be able to use my own talented friend and illustrator. I did a lot of personal research, video research, online research, and discussion research trying to figure out how to best go about putting this series together. When I first shared my idea for a children’s book series with one of my childhood friends, and told her about wanting to open up the world through stories and to get children excited to travel, she instantly was onboard and wanted to illustrate it! She also loves to travel and this helped us both, and we have ended up putting a lot of ourselves into each story and page of the book.

My tip for other authors is to understand starting out that there is no one-size-fits-all approach for every author.

Each author is going through their own journey and experience. What could work for one author might not work for you. Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to other authors and ask for feedback, but just understand that this is a slow process and there will be a lot you will learn each day. I am still learning and as my mom says “we all are always lifelong learners”. Be sure to have a good family, friend, and author support group. There will be times when you might need to lean on them when things aren’t going your way or when it is not going as quickly as you might want it to be going. This will take time and a lot of patience.

Just be aware that a lot of the authors in the community you make have been in your boat. Also, I would say to be sure to celebrate every accomplishment. Make sure, before starting out, that you make a list of realistic goals you want to accomplish for the year and go out and accomplish them. It can be as simple as writing, ‘I want to go and do an author visit at 5 locations’ or ‘I want to get 500-1000 followers this year.’ These milestones you pass can also be a good motivator.

Lastly, be sure from start to finish that you always believe in your product and understand why you are an author. This will resonate with others and they will be more inclined to want to share your journey with you.