We recently connected with Anita and have shared our conversation below.

Anita, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

“Kibble the Monarch Caterpillar Afraid to Get Wings” storybook with audio is meaningful to me for so many reasons. It’s always exciting to see your own creative projects take shape, but for “Kibble”, I got to collaborate with wonderfully talented, creative professionals throughout it, and that was a real treasure. I taught children for 29 years, so there’s definitely an educational element to “Kibble”, but it’s done in a fun, coming-of-age, feel good way with the story itself focusing on friendship, kindness, and what it means to be a part of a community. I have always liked to keep education interesting and fun for children. I think it allows kids a freedom to explore ideas further and hopefully extend lessons learned into other facets of their growing lives. This story teaches young readers the importance of pollinators and respect for all living things. We did this by having down-to-earth characters in heartfelt situations. Following the story, there are additional butterfly and moth fun facts, their life cycle, and some diagrams on pollination and how a chrysalis is formed which I’m very happy to have included to keep young minds curious and growing. However, I’d have to say, the most meaningful part of this project for me, though, is the opportunity it provides for the reader (and others) to take active steps to help declining pollinator habitat including Monarch Butterflies and Caterpillars like “Kibble”. Through my company (www.WestCreekMedia.com), I offer free Kibble Wildflower Seed packets to encourage individuals and communities to plant wildflower gardens. Loss of habitat is the number 1 reason pollinators are declining, and one in every three bites of food we eat is due to pollinators. Healthy habitat has been declining at an alarming rate, but together we can reverse this by planting organic, pesticide-free, non-GMO seeds. What I love about our free packets, is it also includes different types of milkweed which is what Monarch Caterpillars eat like Kibble the Caterpillar. Monarch Butterflies and Caterpillars are near extinction in my opinion. We once had millions and now there are only a few hundred thousand declining yearly. It is my hope anyone with a yard, community garden, or flower pots will plant these seeds to help Kibble and his friends.

Anita, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born in St. Marys, Pennsylvania and grew up exploring nature, camping in my treehouse, and playing piano. I received a scholarship for music to Susquehanna University and studied abroad in Vienna, Austria. While I enjoy playing the piano, I discovered rather quickly, performing the piano wasn’t something I really wanted to do as my career. I always loved performing, though, especially making stories come to life through acting, so upon graduation, with my B.A. now in Music and Theater, I headed to Los Angeles. There, I worked for Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, and Brandman Productions in both production and non-production related roles, acquiring my SAG-AFTRA membership card along the way. During one of the Writer’s strikes, when acting auditions halted, I began writing to better understand the process a writer goes through. I found it to be a wonderful, rewarding (yet challenging) experience, and lost myself into storytelling. The training I had in acting helped immensely in developing characters, but the really fun part for me was the lack of limits. In acting, you become (usually) a single character for the project, and that project has to have a bunch of things align before you ever step foot on set or stage, but in the world of writing, you are every character. There is a freedom in that I hadn’t found elsewhere and I wanted to take these stories further. I wanted to develop them into tangible books and audiobooks – to use educational subject matter, but present it in an entertaining and fun way. I also wanted to make these stories serve more people than just the reader alone, and so I started my own production and publishing company. West Creek Media is born out of all my experiences from working at major studios, to collaborating with individual creative artists. It is a place that holds space for solo work or working together, and it draws upon my love of nature. It comes with challenges (working for yourself), but I find it more rewarding. My goal with the company is to have truly entertaining products where proceeds aid education, restores habitat and preserves wildlife.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My aim is to create high-quality entertaining products with proceeds providing individuals and their communities the opportunity and resources to make environmental change in their own backyards. Ideally, a full-circle impact honoring clarity of character, kindness toward others, and respect for all living things.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think there’s a real need to have affordable live/work dwellings for creatives. One of the hardest things a creative person struggles with when starting out is the financial ups and downs because you need time to create which doesn’t always pay and paying work can be sporadic. Learning to live within your means isn’t plausible – you have to learn to live way way beneath your means (if not independently wealthy or trying to juggle a full-time paying job) in order to survive long-term. I always thought having an apartment complex with reasonable rent for creatives, or a commercial/residential building where the downstairs is store front and upstairs is the artist’s apartment with studio to work in (eliminating multiple rents) would be incredibly helpful and supportive. The creatives would have a space to sell their products (gallery, woodworking, ceramics, bookshop, etc) downstairs, while they work on their craft with a simple place to reside upstairs. What a great space for customers to go to, too, with one-of-a-kind gifts to purchase. I was fortunate to have had a landlord (who sadly passed) who loved having creatives in his building. My utilities were included and rent was incredibly reasonable for Los Angeles. As long as you paid your rent on time, he never raised your rent. It was a wonderful place to live and I met lots of other creative people. We had designers, a seamstress, Fine Art painters, a photographer, ceramicists, and several musicians. Everyone worked together and bartered with each other. It was such a peaceful, happy place to live and it felt truly special to feel supported and appreciated. We would grill together outside, talk about our projects, help each other with them, and have pot lucks. It all sadly changed once the owner died. He is greatly missed, but if ever I have the chance to do what he did for me, I will.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.AnitaGnan.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anitagnan
• Youtube: @WestCreekMediaOfficial
• Other: https://www.WestCreekMedia.com