{"id":310844,"date":"2025-11-22T09:25:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T09:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/finding-inspiration-by-discovering-holes-in-the-market-the-wonder-of-words\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T09:25:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T09:25:33","slug":"finding-inspiration-by-discovering-holes-in-the-market-the-wonder-of-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=310844","title":{"rendered":"Finding inspiration by discovering holes in the market \u2013 The Wonder of Words"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hi, WONDERers! Have you missed us? We may not be blogging as much lately, but all of us here at Wonder of Words are still reading as many amazing children\u2019s books as we can. For today\u2019s interview on Finding Inspiration, I spoke to Roxanne Troup, author of the newly released picture book, MY GRANDPA, MY TREE, AND ME. Hi, Roxanne. Congrats again on your picture book release! How did you get the inspiration for your story?<\/p>\n
Roxanne: A couple years ago, I discovered a new publisher looking for agricultural books, and since I grew up in an agricultural community, I thought it might be a good fit. I set to brainstorming different stories that might work for that publisher and discovered a hole in the market\u2014pecans. I knew a little bit about pecans. They grew wild and in backyards where I grew up, and we harvested them in buckets. But I wondered how the commercial pecan industry worked. Did everyone collect pecans in buckets? So, I started researching. After running across a YouTube video of a farmer harvesting pecans by tractor (from hundreds of trees at a time), I knew I had my topic. I couldn\u2019t get the image of that farmer shaking his trees out of my head\u2014pecans fell like thundering rain!<\/p>\n
\nRaining pecans! The pure joy on the grandpa\u2019s face makes this such an endearing book<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Candice: I grew up with pecan trees in the backyard and have vivid memories of picking up pecans\u2013the pies my mom would make were definitely worth the effort! What is your favorite part of the creative process?\u00a0 Did you learn anything about your own process while you were working on this book?<\/em><\/p>\n
Roxanne: That first flush of IDEA is heady and addicting, but then I have to figure out how to make that idea work. And that, is WORK! I don\u2019t know that I discovered anything \u201cnew\u201d about my process with this story as it\u2019s not my first (even though it is my debut fiction). But every story\u2014and the way it comes to the page\u2014is different. For this particular story,\u00a0I had quite a few stop-and-start drafts, meaning I started but never finished them. But each time I started a new draft, I added some important storytelling element or figured out what wasn\u2019t working and tried a new way of fixing it. It wasn\u2019t until my fifth draft that I finally completed the story. (Does that make number five my actual \u201cfirst draft\u201d?)<\/p>\n
Candice: Haha, no way! All that hard work still counts and kudos to you on not giving up! Do you have other creative outlets or hobbies? Do they cross into your writing?<\/em><\/p>\n
Roxanne: Oooo, that\u2019s a good question. I like lots of creative things: crafting, singing, gardening, interior design. I don\u2019t know that any one of those things crosses over into my writing (though gardening might seem like it with this title), but my favorite part about each is the planning\/dreaming stage. And that definitely crosses over. I plan out\/dream through many aspects of my stories before I ever sit down to draft\u2014which might explain the whole start-and-stop habit. When I realize something isn\u2019t working according to plan, I stop; and often, don\u2019t start up again until I have puzzled my way through that obstacle.<\/p>\n
\nI love how the illustrations go so well to make this such a sweet, serene story\u2013and the ending is absolutely heartwarming!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Candice: Great answer. Do you have any tips you\u2019d like to share about finding creativity?<\/em><\/p>\n
Roxanne: I think being quiet is a huge creativity booster. <\/p>\n
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Our brains don\u2019t like being idle, so when we force our bodies to be quiet, our brains fill in that space with all kinds of things\u2014to do lists, conversation replays, dreams for tomorrow, and eventually (if we don\u2019t short-circuit the process by ending our quiet time to do all those things on our list) creative ideas.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Candice:\u00a0Can you tell us about a future book project you\u2019re working on?<\/em><\/p>\n
Roxanne: It hasn\u2019t been announced yet, but I do have another informational fiction picture book in the publishing pipeline\u2014this one, about space.<\/p>\n
\nYou almost forget you\u2019re reading an informational fiction picture book as the story and facts go hand in hand so seamlessly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Ooh, space! So exciting! We wish you the best in your writing and publishing journey. Thank you for sharing your tips on creativity and your inspiration for this book.<\/em><\/p>\n
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