We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cindi Goodeaux a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Cindi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?
Inspiration is everywhere, you must know how to find it! I take part in a blog activity for authors, illustrators, and teachers every January called Storystorm. Each day, someone in the business writes a guest blog that helps train our brain to find story ideas all around us, with the goal of producing thirty story ideas in thirty-one days. We learn to find the smallest nuggets of inspiration from the world, whether it be a conversation, something we saw, or something from our past. It is a wonderful way to set the tone for a creative year!
Part of my past included being a professional clown named Giggle Blossom. I graduated from a local non-profit clown school in 2010 and spent the next six or seven years entertaining at birthday parties and volunteering at charity events. My clown character was based on a child that is 6 or 7 years old. I really enjoyed seeing the world through child-like eyes and rediscovering whimsy. I found joy in just interacting with other clowns, determined to see the world as new and silly. A lot of my experience being Giggle Blossom directly inspires my writing.
For example, my book, Ishkabibble Unafraid, is about a monster afraid of children. This idea first came to me when I was a professional clown. I volunteered with a group to throw a carnival themed birthday party for a group of children living in a domestic violence shelter. After we set everything up in the little room, they asked the volunteers to wait in the kitchen to be introduced one by one. I was the last one to be introduced since my character’s presence would be a surprise. In the moments of waiting, as a person who survived domestic abuse, I thought of how I might be received. Some children and adults are afraid of clowns. I knew these children had already seen and heard things that must be very frightening and did not want to add to that. I quickly decided that Giggle Blossom would instead be the one afraid. When they called my name, I peeked out but quickly hid again. The person announcing us quickly caught on and told the children they would have to tell me it would be okay for me to come out and they wouldn’t hurt me. After a few failed attempts, the children finally talked my clown character into being brave and joining the party.
This experience stayed with me and became the thing that inspired a story idea. It turned into one of my most popular stories and my only rhyming one. Another story inspiration was a simpler one, and that was a fish I saw on a television show. It was a porcupine pufferfish that looked like it was smiling. That inspired my story, Fish Patty, about a girl that wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up that has nearly completed the illustration process and will be published in the next month. Inspiration is truly everywhere, and we can train our minds to hunt for it in big and small ways.
Cindi, 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 am a children’s book author that writes with themes of friendship, kindness, and inclusion. My WriteCute Etsy Shop sells author signed children’s books, a plush book character, and laser engraved gifts.
I call my style of writing WriteCute. In film and television, a meet cute is a scene in which the two people who will form a future romantic couple meet for the first time, typically under unusual, humorous, or cute circumstances.
My style of writing is all about cute characters with big hearts. Each story has themes of kindness, inclusion, and friendship wrapped within humor and a heartwarming situation. My books help little ones better understand big emotions. I also have a series that helps children see disabilities as a normal part of life.
I am a disability advocate, serving as the vice chair of an affinity group at work. This comes from being married to an amazing man for the last 20 years that is legally blind and uses a white tipped cane. I want to use what I have learned by his side to help others. I have taken this message into schools, talking with children about disability tools and showing one of my husband’s canes. I hope that by sharing this message with a younger audience, some bullying may be prevented through understanding.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
A company that I paid for a marketing contract with published my first children’s book. I first dreamed of being a published author when I was twelve years old, and somewhere along the way it got into my head that the only way to accomplish this was to subsidize the cost. My husband’s cousin told him about a publisher she had paid and worked with, so I trusted they would be the ones to bring my work to life. I ignored the red flags and dismissed the advice of friends, nearly losing our house. That publisher ended up getting shut down by a state department and they left me wondering if my work was any good or if the only reason they published work was because I paid them to. It was a dark valley, but thankfully a brief one. I never stopped posting on social media about my book and character. Another publisher found me on Twitter and invited me to submit my work. Having recently been burned so badly, I researched the company and found them to not only be completely legitimate, never charging authors but also of the same mind, regularly publishing anthologies that raised money for various charitable organizations. I submitted three books and have since signed nine book contracts them.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I learned about marketing when I was a professional clown selling greeting videos on Fiverr. I used those lessons to market my books as they came out. Believe in your work and talk about it at every opportunity. I started with a fan page called Jellibean Adventures and ended up creating a separate one for my author page. On my book page, I speak to an audience of children, parents, grandparents, and teachers. I post things that make me curious, such as science, art, and children that are making the world a better place. I then created an Instagram page separate from my personal one, followed by a Twitter author page, and then a TikTok page. A lot of people will tell you to just use the form of social media that has the biggest response. It is a numbers game, and I want to reach as many people that may purchase my book as possible. I have made connections through all of them that have helped me in one form or another. For example, I found a small bookstore on TikTok that became the first brick and mortar store to carry my books. It started with me reaching out and telling them about my work. Facebook helps me promote my book signing events and all of them are places I can build excitement about an upcoming book a bit at a time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://writecute.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writecute73/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jellibeanadventures
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindi-goodeaux-07a7b416/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/writecute
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC04e-qu09sLQddADJ7bzyyQ
- Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@author_cindi
Image Credits
Photo with the smiling reader across the table from me was taken by Christ’s Church Academy at their Author Extravaganza event. All other photos were taken by me.