Coming Summer 2024!!!
To Be Available in
hardcover, paperback, and eBook!
The Train Rolls On
To The County Fair
The Animal Express train races the clock to deliver rowdy farm animals to the county fairgrounds before their biggest contest of the year begins. Will the animals arrive in time to compete for the coveted "Best In Show" title? The train encounters several obstacles along the way, but...THE TRAIN ROLLS ON!
With its catchy, rhyming text, beautiful illustrations, and themes of perseverance and teamwork, this fun adventure is sure to appeal to children and adults alike!
Recommended Ages: 3-6
Publishing Update:
The Train Rolls On To The County Fair
5/1/2023
The same creative team that produced the first two books in The Train Rolls On series are now working on a third book, The Train Rolls On To The County Fair, a farm-to-fair train adventure that pays homage to my hometown of Spencer, IA, and is due out next summer (2024). Here is what we've been doing behind the scenes to create this book:
Writing: I wrote this story during the summer of 2021, right before my son, Nolan, was born. Then, it sat untended for the next year and a half or so. (What can I say...I had other things on my mind! 😊)
Self-Editing: Following the publishing of The Train Rolls On To The North Pole in October 2022, I decided it was time to bring the manuscript back out and prepare it for publishing. When I finally returned to the manuscript this past winter, I completed much more extensive editing on it than I had anticipated. (I guess it wasn't as good as I'd thought in 2021! 🤣) In January of 2023, I reached the point in the editing process where I needed professional input, so I sent the manuscript to Editor Sarah Fabiny.
Professional Editing: Together, Sarah and I spent about one month completing three rounds of revisions on the manuscript: a round of big-picture developmental edits, a round of line-level copy-editing, and a final round of proofreading.
Illustrating: Once we wrapped up the editing phase, I sent the completed manuscript to Illustrator Christina Wald, and she created a set of thumbnail illustrations for the book. Thumbnails are small, rough sketches (about the size of a business card) that don't have much detail but allow us to make sure that we're on the same page when it comes to the general content, flow, and perspective of each illustration. Here are a few examples of Christina's thumbnail sketches for Book #3:
