We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful J.a. (Jen) Sweeney. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with J.a. (Jen) below.

J.a. (Jen) , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I am a children’s author and I used to live in Lahaina on Maui. During this recent tragedy I thought… what can I do as an author. I then posted on all of my author groups and to my own private social media page. I figured, I have 5.5 thousand followers, so someone will MAYBE donate “some” books.  Well, in the last week I’ve RECEIVED over 12,000 lbs of children’s books and well as different genres. And I just received notice that another 1500 lbs are being donated by august 27. I have been on local tv and another news station contacted me yesterday. I also received a call from a journalist in Massachusetts do do a story because she heard of me through a non profit group that is made of authors that is donating to me.  And the author that notified the non profit? He is an author from NORWAY.   I am also going to Oahu on September 7th and I was contacted by another author that is going to be there at the same time. So we are going up bring suitcases of books and go to the shelters that families have been relocated to and give the books and read to the children.  She lives in CANADA.  I have been contacted from authors in the UK and Australia.  And the have sent their books through Amazon instead of going through all the customs hub bub.   As of the 27th of this month, I will receive approximately 1600 more lbs of books from a local library near me and I have local bookstores donating books that I have a relationship with because they carry my books.
I have also contacted Ingram in their donation department.
I am working with a great shipping company that is giving me a 50% discount and I’ll raise the rest when it comes time to ship. My new goal… is not to get “some” books donated any longer.  My new huge goal…. To fill the library when it’s time to rebuild. And the way it has exploded, I have not one doubt in my mind that it will happen.

J.a. (Jen) , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I never meant to write children’s books, it was never a dream of mine, UNTIL I had a weird dream one night, got up and wrote it down. I thought about it CONSTANTLY for a month and then thought, this would be an adorable book. I wrote a book, and with the help of my friend Eve, (she had published many cookbooks) I found a great publisher. Then I wrote 18! The series is called Lollipop Brigade. The first book is The Wish and the second in the series is called The Gift. All of the other 16 have been written and gave contracts, it just takes time to get them out. I am so blessed to have the publisher that I have (covenant books) because I am world wide. I also do my illustrations. During covid, I found myself with time, and I had waited for illustrator for about a year. So with the help of YouTube, I started painting. I never describe my main characters, so that works for me. What I do paint is “feeling”. And I believe that with every child’s imagination, it puts them in a place that they BECOME the character. I paint everything now. Lol. Dining room table, desk, armoire, EVERYTHING. But when I finish illustrations for book, I photograph and send to my publisher. Then they do their magic. And during book signings, I bring an original painting from book and have a drawing for it. ❤️

How did you build your audience on social media?

So during covid, I believe that everyone was reaching out to EVERYONE. So I approved as many requests as I could. I, as a normal person that just had friends they knew, had 320 people on my Facebook and other platforms. I of course deleted some and focused on great wholesome people and now… I’m at over 5,000 with almost 6,000 followers. And I belong to many author groups and with that alone, has been the main reason that I have been so successful on this recent project of mine for my book drive for keiki in Maui.

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

I believe that most everyone doesn’t know what effort and work it takes to become a good artist. It takes years of practice and dedication (which they don’t see) and then it looks “Easy”. But that’s because we put in the time beforehand. Years of time. And all of the fails, they never see those either. It’s mental, it’s physical, it’s so many tears and then so much JOY!

So when people realize that, the support is overwhelming!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Ourfeettravelwhilereading
• Facebook: Jen Sweeney

Image Credits
All photos properly of j.a. Sweeney