We recently connected with Abbey Feldkamp and have shared our conversation below.

Abbey, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

As the pandemic swept through the world, we suddenly were seemingly living on shifting sands–our “normal” was stripped away and we began a new journey of figuring out how to navigate life as we knew it. I think the duration of it was key here. We had been quarantined and restricted for so long that we lost sight of where we were and didn’t know how to crawl out. When schools transitioned to distance learning I really began to see the impact on our kids. There was so much collective struggle evident through social media, which was essentially our only way to keep up with peers. I saw post after post about how HARD it was for everyone, but especially our children. Our lively, energetic, life-giving children were suddenly put to the test. School no longer was a place where they could socialize and be with friends, it was a corner of their home where they had a makeshift space that wasn’t quite adequate. It was struggling through learning new technologies and techniques to continue their education while their parents worked from home or bounced from kid to kid to keep them on track. These are just examples of course, but I saw it time after time. Messages of exhaustion, frustration, and desperation. When will this all end?

I saw it in my own children. Typically light-hearted, positive and uplifting spirits became quiet, melancholy and defeated. Their sense of adventure was muted. Living in Minnesota, it was tough. We were stuck indoors, at home, for most of the quarantine/distance learning period. That winter was one of the toughest periods as a parent.

It was disheartening to not only observe but also experience with them. I knew that their spark was still there, I just needed to remind them. One snowy afternoon my daughter curled up on the couch with me and told me how everything was hard. Here was a 4 year old little girl living through a global pandemic, which had trickled down into her consciousness. As insightful as that was, my eyes filled with tears. I was not about to let the world take her childhood any longer. That was the day that Wonderful, Marvelous, Magnificent You came to be.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My bio:

Abbey has a deep affection for her home state of Minnesota where she lives with her high school sweetheart and three sweet babies. She lives at Sunny Hill Flower Farm on acres of sun-drenched barley fields. When she’s not chasing children on the farm or writing books, she tends to her English roses and peonies. She has two rescued pups, chickens, and is a beekeeper. She lives to create beauty in this world with the talents that God has graciously given her.

www.abbeycreativeco.com

Wonderful, Marvelous, Magnificent You is now an International, Award-Winning and best selling book! It won the International Firebird Award for Best Children’s Board Book!

Amazon link to book: https://www.amazon.com/Wonderful-Marvelous-Magnificent-childrens-board/dp/B0BKR6T4YC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=30EB6K2E9LIU9&keywords=wonderful+marvelous+magnificent+you+book&qid=1678986771&sprefix=wonderful+ma%2Caps%2C140&sr=8-1

In my own words: I really believe life is about lifting others up and allowing them to see themselves in their best light. I try to bring that level of energy to all of my friendships and interactions, and this book is an extension of that. Children are SO amazing. They are these incredibly complex beings with grit and determination and awe-inspiring personalities. I wrote this book to help remind them that no matter who they are, and no matter what they are going through, they are good to the core NO MATTER WHAT. I wanted a feel-good, positive message to resonate throughout the world and lift people up, family by family.

My goal is to bring that golden goodness, that energy, to readers everywhere through my books. Igniting a passion for reading in children is my goal. Reading is an essential life skill. It’s so important for kids to laugh, wonder, and escape to a world that’s beyond their imagination. That’s how we learn. That’s how we grow.

Reading for pleasure correlates with:
-Positive mental imagination
-Emotional competency
-Empathy and understanding
-Simply more knowledge–including health and personal development
-More engagement in meaningful activity, which fights against loneliness, isolation and poor mental health.

I also fully believe that our children need more wholesome, simple content in their lives.

I think what sets me apart is my desire for people to be fully known and fully heard. Being known, heard, and loved is a basic human need. Writing about characters of different cultures and abilities help us to learn about our differences and that is how we come to understand each other. I set out on this writing journey to make an emotional impact on people as they read through my books. This isn’t about selling my craft, it’s about making an impact as kids grow in their formative years. It’s about having resources available to help raise children to know and love Jesus. All glory from anything these hands create goes to God.

I’m most proud of the creation of the book from start to finish. It was a long, winding process which could have been simplified or shortened by cutting corners on many occasions. But I believed in my vision and I wanted the final product to be high quality and different from other self-published books on the market. My book recently won the prestigious INTERNATIONAL Firebird Award for Best Children’s Board Book. This is especially impactful for me, because it was a self-published book that beat out not only all the mainstream/traditionally published books, but it was also a secular category, so it also beat out all the secular titles to win. This is extremely rare for a faith-based book to achieve. I am incredibly humbled by that!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Finding my illustrator was tough! I had a unique vision and storyboard and I knew it had to be perfect. My style has a vintage/retro/playful feel to it and I couldn’t quite find what I was envisioning. I had gotten in contact with countless illustrators and hadn’t found the right partner when I stumbled across Vience. She didn’t have any children characters in her portfolio, but I LOVED her style. I had been browsing for literally weeks and had never seen anything quite like it.

I reached out with a quick email and explanation of my book, which was also scary as it was faith-based, and you can’t always tell what religion people are by their online presence. Within a few minutes she responded and wanted to partner up! She had recently become a Christian and had been praying that God would lead her to work with another Christian artist. It really felt like a divine appointment, and the rest is history. She created GOLD.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.abbeycreativeco.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/abbeycreativeco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/feldkampabbey
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMYfFQyOJM0w7WE7nM32KmQ

Image Credits
Oh Hello Photo