Library Talks: Jesse McCreed – H-FARM International School

1) Your stories follow teenagers who discover their strength while navigating extraordinary worlds. What inspired you to write about this moment of life, when everything feels possible and uncertain at the same time?

I think I have been drawn to writing about the preteen and teen years because that is when life takes a big shift. At least when I was young, everyone was keen to tell you how your hormones and your body would change, but for me, that wasn’t the biggest shift. The biggest shift was in my mind. It was how the simplicity of childhood and the (very often) one-dimensional explanations one receives for various aspects of life no longer fit.

It happens at different times for each of us, but I remember being around ten years of age, and feeling completely bewildered by the actions of others, and the incongruity between espoused values and actions. This observation opened a door for me, so to speak, where I grew increasingly curious about what was actually real, what matters, what is honest. And also, how does one face challenges and remain kind and strong and intelligent without becoming trampled or, alternatively, a bully?

As teen years went on, these questions grew increasingly important to me. I didn’t really realize it at the time, but it was through reading that my quest for these answers was not just permitted, but encouraged. In stories, you understand the unique plight of the characters, of the challenges they face, and of the repercussions that follow from their choices. At least in my experience, I never really had that kind of honest clarity when speaking to human beings in real time. Only in books do you gain that kind of insight. Books provide this magic key, not just to other worlds, but to the moral and psychological permutations in those worlds.

For the entire interview, click the button below!

I spent a morning inside Gelateria Artigiano Palladiano (dal 1994) watching Chanti and Michela turn crates of Italian fruit and local milk into silky scoops—no additives, just craft. From the 10-minute mix/churn rhythm to flavor classics like fresh Sicilian strawberry … or to complete originals like gorgonzola with honey and walnuts, it’s a masterclass in patience, pace, and joy (the same ingredients I chase in my stories). If you love behind-the-scenes process pieces—or just need an excuse to book a ticket—this one’s for you.

Prego!

Link to the full article on my travel journal on TongaTime: https://tongatime.com/discovering-the-bottega-storica-dal-toso-vicenzas-historic-copper-shop-and-artisanal-legacy/

But these stories remain hidden without people to share them.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the honor to visit Vicenza’s historic, artisanal copper shop: The Bottega Storica Dal Toso. Here, the Dal Toso family has been making hand-made copperware since 1886. They are one of the few remaining artisanal copper-smiths in all of Italy, and their unassuming bottega would hardly suggest the impact they have made on this beautiful City of Vicenza.

The tail of Saint Mark’s lion within Piazza dei Signori would agree. And thanks to Igino Alessandro Dal Toso and his father Luigi, I have that story to share.

Find the full article here, on TongaTime.com.

The Tre Cime di Lavaredo is an iconic symbol of the Dolomites: three craggy mountains rising above the plateau. The loop hike circumnavigating around these giants is beautiful and at six miles, doable for those who, like me, are more of a walker than a hiker.

But more importantly, it reminded me how essential it is to get out in nature and just move. No music to push you along. No crowds of people to interact with. Some intermittent conversation between you and your partner, but also the comfortable silence shared. Because it is in those moments of quiet contemplation that your mind flies free.

Ideas drop in so casually you may not even notice at first. That open air invites thoughts from every direction, but the peace of your surroundings provides a natural filter, deciding which ones should get through. Snuggle in. Germinate.

That’s what walking does for me. And apparently, I’m not alone. I found a few great quotes that I’m including below. So for all of those stuck in a story, try getting out for a stroll.

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir

“Never trust a thought that didn’t come by walking.” -Friedrich Nietzsche

“The moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.” Henry David Thoreau

Want an Itinerary for the Tre Cime di Lavaredo Loop Hike?

For anyone who is interested in a non-mountaineer’s experience doing the Tre Cime di Lavaredo Loop, including the itinerary and logistics for getting there, just visit my travel site at TongaTime for the full story!

Tre Cime Hike: A Dolomites Loop Trail with Easy Access and Epic Inspiration – Tonga Time

I finally got around to sharing a short video Sam took when we brought Liberty Frye to the feet of the Grimm Brothers. I thought I’d share it here as well, and in honor of the occasion, we’re running a free promo of the kindle version from December 25-27, 2024.

Here’s the Kindle link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0075SRW2E

Merry Christmas!

Original Post:

Nearly one month after posting about my Kindle debacle for the new release of our children’s picture book Theodore, The Sloth Who Wants to Race, I am pleased to provide you, Dear Reader, with an update and tutorial on best practices for creating a picture book through Amazon’s Kindle Create. This is of course based upon my own experience, but I think what I’ve learned should apply to most picture books published in Kindle format.

If anyone has a question after reading this, or would like further details on a specific issue, please just leave a comment and I’ll get back to you. I’m going to walk through the process step by step, from the approach of creating a Kindle picture book for the first time. Hopefully, this proves helpful and saves you the mental anguish (and weeks of time) I went through!

What NOT to do when creating your Amazon Kindle picture book, based upon my experience:

DO NOT use Amazon’s Kindle Kids’ Book Creator. Yes, I know: That is completely counter-intuitive, and I only stumbled upon the solution thanks to Sam’s research.

Why not use Kindle Kids’ Book Creator? Because it will create your book in a fixed format that is NOT zoomable. Not only will your pictures look tiny on a phone, for example, but the only hope you’ll have for text actually being read is through the “pop-out” text option that is, in my opinion, clunky and not nearly as aesthetically pleasing as being able to simply zoom in.

Also, because, in some instances, the Kindle book created with Kindle Kids’ Book Creator will have strange glitches, such as random blank pages interspersed between the intended pages. Also-also, because the layout, for some users, becomes locked in vertical, thereby squeezing the horizontal, double-page layout into a vertical screen. See previous post for the travesty mentioned.

What you’ll want to do instead is use the plain-ole Kindle Create, the same Kindle Create for those of us who have also published “normal” books that are not graphic-heavy.

For those already familiar with Amazon KDP and how to create an upload-able file of your picture book, just skip to Step 4.

What TO DO when creating your Amazon Kindle picture book:

Step 1: Create your picture book file.

By way of example, our picture book is a vertical, 8.5×11-inch picture book with double-page spreads. So even though the book itself is in vertical format, it reads horizontally because of the page spreads. Here’s what the physical book looks like:

• So, I saved each of Theodore‘s pages individually as 8.5×11-inch, vertical, in PDF high resolution format. (Each page of Theodore was made at the dimensions described above, 300 pixels/inch and saved as PDF/X-1a:2001.)
• Then I highlighted all of Theodore‘s individual PDF files and combined them into one PDF. I did not include the cover in this file as you upload the cover separately.
• Unlike an ARC (“Advance Reader Copy”) whereby you likely will have saved your picture book in a much lower resolution, you want your Kindle PDF to be high resolution. Our 40-page PDF file, for instance, is 316 Megabytes (MB)!
• Congratulations! You now have your interior picture book file, ready to be uploaded into Kindle Create.

Step 2: If you have not already done so, you’ll need to open an Amazon KDP account.

Here’s what the landing page will look like:

Step 3: Inside your Amazon KDP account, download the Kindle Create App.

You can find this in a variety of ways, but I went to the “Create a book” link and then did a search for Kindle Create. See below image.

Step 4: Once Kindle Create is installed, open the app and select “Create New.”

Step 5: Since this tutorial is specific to creating picture books, you will want to select the “Comics” option on the next page.

Then hit “Continue.” See below image.

Step 6: Enter your book details (Title, Author and Publisher) within the spaces provided.

Then hit “Continue.” See below.

Step 7: If you have double-page spreads (as most picture books do), then you’ll most likely want to choose “Landscape Page View, Facing Pages.”

For most languages (including English), you’ll select “Left to Right” Reading Direction. See below.

Step 8: Upload your book files in PDF, PNG or JPG.

(I saved the entire interior of Theodore, including front and back matter but NOT including the book cover, as a single PDF file and then uploaded it.)

Step 9: Wait for the file to import and convert.

During this process, Kindle Create will show you demos of how to work with panels within the comic creator format. See below.

I just ignored this as I did not make use of the Panel function since my book is a picture book, not a comic.

Step 10: Rejoice in your beautiful, uploaded file! Woohoo!

Step 11: Scroll down the left side panel to select how you want each of your pages to be presented.

If you want a page to be displayed as a single page, select “Single Page.” If you want two pages to be displayed as a double-page spread, select “Facing Page.”

For example, Theodore has a half-title page which of course, in a traditional book, would be the very first page displayed on the right hand side as soon as you open the cover. I wanted it to be displayed by itself, so I chose Theodore‘s half title page to be displayed as a Single Page. (See black arrows in above image.)

Step 12: Choose your Panel Drawing Mode.

I wanted Theodore to be displayed in a flexible manner, so that the viewer may choose to see each page singly or to enjoy the intended double-spread layout. So I stuck to “Freeform” for all of Theodore’s pages. (See red arrow in above image.)

Step 13: Go through the rest of your pages and select the intended arrangement/layout.

As you can see, I chose double-spread “Facing Page[s]” for everything else that wasn’t back matter. (See below image.)

Step 14: Finish your backmatter in the same way.

Theodore has several educational-content pages (Thanks, Dr. Sam!) that I wanted to display individually for ease of reading, but then my last two pages are another double-spread. As you can see, you can easily switch between which pages you wish to display singly and which you want to display as double/full spreads. Easy peasy!

Step 15: Once you’ve got your layout as desired, save your file for a final time, run it through the “Preview” option (you may need to download the preview app from Amazon KDP) and then hit “Export.”

All three of these commands are found on the top right of the screen. (See red circle in above image.)

TIP: When you go to export, it will ask where you want your file saved. Browse and create a folder where you’ll know you can easily find your new Kindle file, and name it accordingly. You can also change the file name before saving. (For example, if our uploaded file was TheodoreSept24.pdf, when saving, I can change it to TheodoreOct29Tutorial or whatever best suits.) Your saved file will look something like this:

Step 16: Go to your Amazon KDP account, fill in all the information for your new book, and then upload your file!

Step 17: View your new book on your own device!

Once you’ve entered and uploaded all the required information into Amazon KDP and your file has been processed, you can see how it looks with previewers, of course, but there’s nothing quite as satisfying as seeing your fabulous new picture book on your own device. And it does a two-page spread beautifully!

And here is where it gets SO COOL–especially if you, like me, previously suffered from the heartbreak of Kindle Kids’ Book Creator formatting:

By creating your gorgeous book with regular Kindle Create’s “Comic” book selection, you can now ZOOOOOOM!

Two caveats about the picture book-making process through Kindle Create:

CAVEAT 1: DO NOT USE Kindle Comic Creator!

Is your head exploding? Hear me out. This tutorial walked you through creating a Kindle picture book through Kindle Create’s “Comic” format option. HOWEVER, there is another Kindle App found within Amazon’s KDP that is specifically called “Kindle Comic Creator.” It is a separate app that one may download and also use to create a graphic-centric book. I tried it, and it did not work as well as simply using Kindle’s mainstream Kindle Create app, then selecting the “Comic” format option as was demonstrated in Step 5 above.

CAVEAT 2: Potential Cache Issues:

If you already published your picture book through one of the other Kindle apps and are now republishing through Kindle Create, IN THEORY, any customer who has purchased your book SHOULD be able to update it and get the updated version. However, I found that a month after I’d republished Theodore through Kindle Create, some customers were still getting the old version, even though they had deleted the file from their Amazon library and then downloaded it again. This is unusual, but if it happens, have the customer reach out to Amazon’s customer service.

This is a copied portion of a chat whereby the Amazon customer service representative explained how he fixed the issue for one customer:

“I contacted our technical team and they manually updated it. Seems to be issue where the Kindle app cookies and cache is holding the older version whoever had it earlier.”

So there you have it.

Conclusion: Use Amazon’s Kindle Create for Picture Books.

Kindle Create proved a universe-apart from Kindle Kids’ Book Creator. The images are sharp, clear and 100% zoomable, making your wonderful creation easily viewed on any device. I still gaze in awe at Theodore‘s transformation from the regrettable first-run on Amazon’s Kindle Kids’ Book Creator to the extremely satisfying viewing experience on Amazon’s Kindle Create using the Comic book format option.

Whew! Was this tutorial helpful to you? Or do you have a question? Post your comment below so that we can all learn together.

#KindleCreate, #Picturebooks, #makingakindlepicturebook #kidsbooks #amazonkindlecreate #kindlekidsbookcreator

Turns out, several people have been having issues with Theodore’s Kindle version created through Amazon’s Kindle Kids Book Creator. At first, we thought the reported issues were an anomaly. Maybe the person’s phone/reader was just misbehaving?

Because when we created the Kindle ebook a few months ago and previewed it on all the Kindle Previewer platforms, it looked great! Fantastic! A sight to behold!

But apparently, the Kindle previewer and the actual end product itself are not quite in sync.

The main problems reported thus far are that:

1. Despite the fact that the Previewer (and yes, we used the latest Previewer version) shows the ebook expanded to the proper horizontal layout on all screen types, for the actual end product, on phones at least, the view is locked in vertical so that the pages and fonts are tiny, and
2. Because Kindle Kids Book Creator is image-centric, it produces the pages in fixed format so that the font is not reflowable (i.e., not able to be enlarged), and thus very difficult to read, and
3. Presumably for the same reasons stated above, the book is not zoomable, either, so you’re stuck with a vertical screen of a two-page spread intended to be viewed horizontally, with tiny font and no way to make it bigger UNLESS
4. Your device actually does what Kindle Kids Book Creator says it will do, which is to allow the reader to double-tap the text, which should then pop into an enlarged text box. In theory, you can then scroll from enlarged text block to enlarged text block using the page navigation arrow. BUT
5. Even if you are able to enjoy this promised feature in Point 4 above, you’re still stuck with a tiny layout because it is locked in vertical position. (And yes, when we created the ebook, the horizontal position was definitely selected.)

Ugh. We also discovered another issue from one reader (we hope this has only happened once!?), which included a bunch of blank pages in between the intended pages. Take a look. Maybe weep a little for us.

NONE of this showed up on the previewer, of course. I might post more on that later.

Back to the Dreaded Goodreads Kindle Giveaway Problem:

So, with no way to put the breaks on the Giveaway (yes, we did try to find some way to mitigate), we’ve feverishly been trying to sort out how to fix the Kindle problem. Has anyone else had this happen?

It seems, after many, many hours of trial and error, the solution to our Kindle Children’s Picture Book problem might be this:

Don’t use Amazon’s Kindle Kids Book Creator. What? Yeah. That’s what we said, too.

Instead, use Amazon’s mainstream Kindle Create platform, then select the Comic Book layout to create your picture ebook. The end product should result in a horizontal layout that, if viewed on a phone, can also be zoomed. Please, for the love of all that is holy, PLEASE dear vibes in the universe, allow this to work.

So, in a flurry of activity, we’ve done exactly that, but NOW, the problem of course is that Amazon is still processing this update whilst 100 Goodreaders have already received a Kindle version of Theodore.

The bad news: The possibility of 100 disgruntled Goodreads Kindle readers and all that may ensue.

The good news: Once the update is completed by Amazon (as of this post, it is still in-process) and if the recent updates have actually fixed the issue, then anyone with the Kindle version can just delete the current ebook and then redownload the updated version. If the recent update has not fixed the issue, Yours Truly shall tirelessly pursue the solution until a proper Kindle version of Theodore is produced and made available.

Feedback is MORE than welcome, and any insight would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE: Using Kindle Create DID fix the issue, and I’ve posted a full tutorial on the whole process here: How to make a Picture Book with Kindle Create Tutorial. I also include something I learned from Amazon’s IT department regarding a cache glitch for those of you who are republishing your kindle picture book after having published a previous kindle version.

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3XoPWEI

It is hard to believe that waaaay back in 2008, my husband Sam (he’s the “Dr.” part of this equation) and I sat down on our couch one post-hurricane-disaster evening and started writing what is now Theodore: The Sloth Who Wants to Race.

The premise?

A two-toed sloth who … well, wants to race. As a champion (tree) sprinter, to be more specific.

Our story sat on the back burner over many years while life was going on, but more recently, I’ve had the time to sit down and illustrate Theodore and his world. Finally! Here is he is! (He isn’t published yet, but scheduled for release later this year.)

So, be the sloth. Sometimes slow is the way to go.

And we love him.