It’s here! The official launch day for The Dog Who Wanted to Be a Butterfly! Saying that brings me so much joy and excitement.
There are so many ways to tell the story of how this book came to be. If we go way back, my childhood Self wanted to be a writer and had, even then, a dream of writing a kids book. If we fast-forward to June of 2023, I was sitting in my room and felt a desire to write something. I had no plan. I did have a constraint: to choose three items from around my room and include them in a story.
The first three things I saw were: a photo of Franklin (a dog who lives down the street who I met in 2021 via the Wag app and have been walking regularly ever since), a butterfly magnet a former colleague had given me, and a ceramic pink pineapple candle I had found on the street a day or two before.
I jotted down these items and started to write.
As I did, it became clear that this was a story about Franklin’s dream to become a butterfly. The rest of the details came fast–as if he had been whispering this story to me for our entire relationship and showing me clues along the way–including his constant stops to smell flowers and why he has such a strong desire to eat chicken bones on the street. Since Franklin and I live in the same neighborhood Daphne the Dachshund (another neighborhood pup) also made her way into the narrative.
I emailed the story right away to Franklin’s mom who loved it. This encouraged me to keep going.
More friends read it, and liked it…
I started dreaming of it becoming an illustrated book and immediately knew who to ask: my friend Gérome Barry. Gérome is a filmmaker who had done some drawing to incorporate into his feature film Swing-Rendezvous. We met years before, at a dance at Brooklyn Swings, when he was making the film and something in me just knew he was the perfect fit for this story.
He and I had a call and, I asked if he was interested. As it turned out, Gérome had just bought a new drawing table and wanted to draw more. After he read the story, and figured out if he could draw a dog, he agreed! And, I must say, I love all of his hand-drawn artwork that brings the story alive on the pages of this book. It’s truly special!
Fast-forward again, through all of the stages of editing with the amazing Deanna McFadden, copyediting by Nina Varano and Pollyanna Macchiano, my learning how to use InDesign and text design to lay out the words with Gérome’s art, trouble-shooting and receiving help from James Leonard with some late-in-the game design issues, then figuring out digital marketing with Emily Ritter, and publishing strategy, printing, and distribution and here we are! (And thank you all of these wonderful humans and to many others for all of the support along the way!).
To me The Dog Who Wanted to Be a Butterfly is a new fairy tale that weaves its magic in many ways. It’s a story that helps kids (and grownups) know that multiple dreams can come true and that sometimes the unexpected is an even better dream than you could have imagined!
That this book exists in the world is already a dream come true for me! Another is that people will get a copy to read and, I hope, find ways to live out their own dreams.
The Dog Who Wanted to Be a Butterfly is available wherever books are sold. Some links of where to purchase your copy are below:
Buy the Book:
Amazon: US, CA, UK, DE, FR, ES, IT, JP, AU, NL, SE, PL
Barnes & Noble (US)
Booksamillion (US)
Bookshop.org (US)
Foyles (UK)
Hatchards (UK)
Indigo Books & Music (CA)
McNally Robinson (CA)
Powell’s Books (US)
Walmart (US)
Waterstones (UK)
Buy directly from the printer.
Find an Independent Book Store Near You (CA)
Bookstores in Brooklyn, NY & NYC:
Books are Magic
The Center for Fiction
Greenlight Bookstore
McNally Jackson
The Strand
Majestic Wisdom Publishing 