Building Social Skills Through Children's Books with Author & Therapist Rebecca Greene

It really does add up. You know, if you have 30 minutes here one day and 20 minutes there the next day, over time, if you use those chunks of time wisely, you can get your manuscript finished. You can, you know, watch some YouTube videos and learn about the publishing process. Or you can take a writing class like an online writing class.

Welcome to the Moms who Create podcast. I'm your host, kelly Hile, and I am thrilled to share a podcast that celebrates the incredible moms who are pursuing their creative passions. Are you a mom who feels like you just can't balance your creative pursuits with the demands of motherhood? Each week, I'm bringing you interviews with accomplished and talented moms who have made their creative dreams a reality. I talk to writers, artists, musicians and entrepreneurs who have successfully found a way to do what they love while raising the ones they love. Some of the writers I talk to are New York Times bestselling authors, while some are self-published first-time authors. I also share my own insights and resources to help you navigate the unique challenges of being a mom who creates. So, whether you're an early bird or a night owl, a seasoned pro or just starting out, I want you to know that you can pursue your creative passions and be an amazing mom at the same time. Grab a cup of coffee, a notebook and get ready to join our community of like-minded moms who are on a mission to live intentionally and create with purpose. This is the Moms who Create podcast, and I can't wait to share this journey with you. Hi everyone, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Moms who Create podcast, happy October. This week I'm actually on fall break with my kids, like this week. The episode is out and I am too excited. Next week is my youngest daughter's birthday and then the next day is my birthday my let's see my anniversaries in October. Halloween's in October. October is so busy for me, but it is the best month of the year. It's the most wonderful time of the year. I mean, I love Christmas, of course, but Halloween in October is just it's definitely the most wonderful time of the year. So I initially connected with today's guest because I saw that she had a children's book that had a Halloween theme. But during the episode we talked and I learned about all of the amazing mental health work that she's doing through all of her books, including her Halloween one. She really is amazing. Her name's Rebecca Green. She's a children's book, author of four picture books, a mental health therapist who works with kids and teens and, of course, she's a mom. She writes children's books with social-emotional themes, including her new Halloween book. Who Will Trick or Treat With Me? Rebecca's books help kids learn to overcome challenges, be resilient and kind, gain helpful coping skills and just explore the world around them. She lives in the Washington DC metro area with her husband, young son and two rambunctious Cornish Rex cats, who are the subject of her next book. So after our chat, we were talking about where we went to school, where we lived, and I discovered that she actually went to college like 10 minutes away from me and she used to live in some apartments across the street from where I used to live in years ago. Isn't that crazy? We connect on a Facebook group and you guys should join this group if you're a children's book author. It's really big. It's called like children's book authors and illustrators on Facebook. But anyway, out of the 77,000 members I connected with her who knew restaurants and like places in my town, so awesome, all right, you guys, if you're on fall break this week too, I hope you have the best break and amazing time if you're traveling. Enjoy today's episode. Rebecca, thank you for joining me today. You have a book that is like Halloween, themed for children, and it also ties in, like you know, mental health, and I saw it and I said, oh, I want to talk to her. This is so awesome for October and just in general, so I'm excited to talk to you about that, so it's going to be a fun chat today, so thank you so much for joining me.

Well, thank you so much for having me telling Very happy to be here.

So let's start out by having you just introduce yourself to everybody.

Sure, so my name is Rebecca Green. I am a children's book author. I have four published children's books. Three of them focus on social emotional themes. So my books are called my Perfect Cupcake a recipe for thriving with food allergies, and that one's about food allergies. My second book is called Creating Kindness and that's all about kindness. And then my third book, which is the Halloween theme book, is called who Will Trick or Treat with Me, and that one is one that's you know I'm working on doing a lot of marketing and author events and meet the author, the Halloween parties and things this month, and that one is a Halloween themed book with a social emotional skills theme. It's about making new friends and facing your fears. And then my fourth book is called Explore Virginia with Me, and I live in the state of Virginia and that one's all about learning state history and state facts with the main character who does a road trip around the state. So those are my four books that I have published, and then I have three more on the way in the next year, so I'm very excited about those. But being an author is not my full day job. So my day job is I'm a mental health therapist who mainly works with teens and kids, and I work with clients on issues including anxiety, depression, social skills issues, school problems, chronic illness, grief and loss, divorce, relationship problems just really a wide variety of issues and I love working with teens and kids, and I've been working as a mental health therapist for the last 14 years and I absolutely love my job. I love going to work every day. It's just. Being a therapist has always been my dream job and I'm just so happy to really blend both being a therapist with my writing and publishing activities, since most of my books focus on social emotional themes, which is a big part of working with kids and teens in general.

So is that what got you on your path to writing your books? You were just a therapist and you were like, hey, I can translate this into books that will help children. Is that kind of like what started it all?

Yes, so I've been a therapist for 14 years and I in that time I also wrote books for adults. So I focused on writing self-help and parenting books. And then, when the pandemic started that first year, my son was in kindergarten at the time and his public school closed down for an entire year and we did distance learning for a whole year. So I had to resign from the job I had at the time to focus on being his distance learning helper and staying home. And while I was doing that, I decided that, since I had all this extra free time, since I wasn't working anymore at my previous job, I wanted to do a project that I had been wanting to do for a long time, which was writing and publishing my own children's book, and that's been something that for years I wanted to do. But it's a really big learning curve and I just didn't have the time to learn everything I needed to know to self publish a book. But suddenly, with the pandemic year, I had the time, so I decided that was going to be my passion project for the year. So I took a class that I found out about online that taught students everything they needed to know. Thank you in 12 weeks about how to start and publish a book, to write and publish a book. And so I set out on that path and I wrote my book. And that was my first book, called my Perfect Cupcake, and that book is about a boy who is diagnosed with a tree nut allergy and how he copes and how he learns to make the best out of not so great situation. And I had personally walked that path with my son, who has multiple food allergies, and his journey, and I decided that I wanted to write a book about food allergies because when I was looking for books for him at that time there were very few books about food allergies out there and I really wasn't seeing kind of the type of book I wanted. So I decided to write one and that became my first book. And then you know the learning curve to self-publish a book is there's a lot to know. And I spent that entire first year learning everything, taking the class that I mentioned, reading, joining different groups and in the spring of that year spring of 2020, I published my. It was the spring of 2021, I published my first book, and then that went well, so I decided to keep going with it and I published three more over the next three years. So I basically, you know, find the time to write and work on my books in the evenings or on weekends. You know I kind of fit it around my day job so you know, if I have a block of time during the day, that's when I try to get to my computer and work on one of my books or work on some marketing for my books or just something book related. So that's basically the journey of how I became an author. And it just you know, my work as a therapist just as you mentioned translated really well into focusing on social emotional themes in my books, and that's just really the area that I had the most enthusiasm for, and I just really love writing books with different social emotional themes and helping kids overcome challenges, become more resilient and just explore the world around them as well. Oh, wow.

So how many books did you say you're working on now that you want to have out soon?

So I'm currently working on three more books that I hope to publish in the next 12 months, so I will give you a little sneak peek about what those are about. So one of them is an activity book about the state of Virginia. So, as I mentioned, I live in Virginia and I'm really passionate about learning about the state and history and facts, and I decided to spend a couple months researching and writing an activity book for kids. So this book has word searches, mazes, crossword puzzles, writing prompts, coloring pages, but everything is about the state of Virginia. So I'm really excited about that book and that one should probably be published around Christmas time. And then the other book I'm working on, which is currently in illustration, is a book about intergenerational friendships. So what that means is friendships between kids and older adults, and I've always worked with older adults. Currently I have some older adults in my caseload, but before this job I worked as a geriatric, social worker and therapist, and so I've always loved working with older adults. I've worked in different assisted living communities and retirement communities, and a couple of years ago I found out about some preschools that are located in or next to retirement communities and where the kids do a lot of activities with the older adults and the residents of those communities, and I just loved that concept. I think it's so important to have intergenerational friendships and friendships with older adults, and a lot of kids don't have grandparents nearby. Their grandparents might live very far away, they might live across the country or in another country, and so I just thought about you know, how can kids get to know older adults and spend quality time with older adults? And so I just came up with this idea for a story, and it's about a boy whose class volunteers at an assisted living community and how he forms a friendship with one of the residents there, and so I just I love how the story turned out. It's currently in illustration and that book should be published, probably around May June of next year.

That sounds like such a sweet book.

It really turned out well. And this past summer, when my son was in summer camp, I was really excited because his camp actually went to an assisted living community and did a whole day of volunteering where they did activities with the residents and when he came home and told me about that I was like, oh my gosh, this is just like my book, because he's read my books and you know I really value his feedback, since you know he's a little older now than the age my books are for, but just by a year or two, and I was just really excited that his camp did that amazing, you know, event. So I'm really excited about that book. And then the final book that I'm working on that should be published probably this winter, is about a cat rescue group and I have two cats, two very unusual cats, and this book features a main character who is a hairless cat and how that cat is not accepted when he becomes a rescue at a rescue group with cats that you know have fur and tend to be more of the traditional cats, and how he copes with feeling different. And that is a theme that I think is really universal to a lot of kids and teens and even adults. You know they feel different, they feel like they don't belong, they feel like the odd one out. So that's the social emotional theme that that book explores.

I love those. They just hit on such important things. Oh, can you also tell us about the Halloween one too? Can you tell us the plot of that? I know a lot of people are buying Halloween books right now, so tell us about yours.

Sure, absolutely so. My Halloween book is called who Will Trick or Treat with Me, and the storyline is about a boy who moves to a new town and he Halloween is his favorite holiday and he's really worried about having nobody to trick or treat with. And you know, moving to a new town is a universal experience that many of us have experienced, you know, in a lot of kids. And also not knowing who they'll trick or treat with and worrying about, you know, will they have someone to go around the neighborhood with and trick or treat with? That's another thing that a lot of kids have anxiety about these days. So in the book he moves to a new town, he's worrying about having no one to trick or treat with, and then he comes up with the idea to invite all of his classmates to a Halloween party at his house in order to make new friends, and so the book focuses on what happens when he tries to work up the courage to invite those kids to his Halloween party. So at first he's really shy and he's, you know, kind of scared to talk to people and invite them. So it kind of goes around like how does he cope with that anxiety? And then when he you know the time for the Halloween party rolls around. What happens then, you know, does he have the kids come to his Halloween party? You know it shows the book talks about you know he's sitting and waiting as the time for the Halloween party, you know, grows closer and nobody's showing up and he's getting really anxious. And how does he cope with that anxiety and the worry that no one's going to show up to his Halloween party and he won't have anybody to trick or treat with? So the book really focuses on a couple of themes. It talks about, you know, worries that a lot of kids have about making new friends and having friends to do things with and moving to a new town and not knowing anyone, and also how to cope in a healthy way with a lot of those anxieties and worries and problem-solving. And also it touches on themes of inclusion. You know how important it is to include everybody and make sure that nobody feels left out. So the book, you know, focuses on all of those different social emotional themes with a Halloween overall theme and I thought that that makes the book unique because you know there's a lot of Halloween books out there but I didn't really see any that have a social emotional skills focus, and so I wanted to combine the two Halloween, which is one of my favorite holidays, with social emotional learning, which is, you know, one of the areas that I'm just really passionate about. So I combined the two into this book, and the illustrations are beautifully drawn by my illustrator, rebecca Sinclair, who has worked on several of my books and she's actually working on the next one right now, and so I think that readers are really going to enjoy the book, and they can find the book on Amazon, barnes, noble, their local bookstore, perhaps their local library has it and, you know, if you do end up looking for the book. I would love to hear your feedback. Feel free and reach out. I have a website at wwwrebeccagreenauthorcom, so feel free. You know, if you read the book and you love it, feel free to send me a note. I love to hear from readers.

What wonderful books you've made. Just a helpful. I feel like I could benefit from reading them too. It's all good, oh, it's just. It's great that you took your knowledge and how to talk to kids in a way of all these different themes. You know how to deal with life issues and just how your brain works and thinks and feels that. You translated it into children's books. Like it's awesome that you're using your skills and your knowledge to do that. So thank you for making those for all the kids Absolutely.

And now I'm actually branching out into chapter books. So that is a new writing challenge for me. You know, chapter books are generally about a hundred pages or so and my son, who's nine years old, is now into chapter books and middle grade books and so since I'm reading a lot of those with him, I just thought I would try a new writing challenge. So I am writing my very first chapter book and it has a kindness theme and so right now I'm kind of I've gotten through the first couple drafts and I'm just working on editing it right now. But that is a brand new writing challenge because chapter books are longer and they usually have about 10 chapters and it's a lot more, you know, to organize and keep track of. So it's been a really great writing challenge. I'm excited to see you know where that takes me with the chapter book, but I think it'll be a much longer process to edit and revise that one. So, I don't have plans to publish that anytime soon. I'm just working on you know, the first drafts right now.

So exciting and getting out three books in a 12 month period, like that's, that's a lot. I'm excited for you. You're just like busting them out. I'm that's amazing. That's amazing. You started doing this whenever, like the pandemic happened, and then your son was home, you had to do schools. You had to probably really focus on you know, time blocking or being a parent helping with school and then also writing these books and finding the time for that. So can you just hit on how you found that balance of doing all this, writing all this and working and creating your books? And then, do you have any advice for parents listening, for moms listening that want to write books and they hear you doing all of this so quickly and you're just so like good at it and so enthusiastic about it. But they just feel you know, you know, mom, life can be a lot and it can feel very tiring, like you can't become something else, you can't become an author, you can't do all these things. So how did you balance it? And then, what advice you have for moms listening who might want to do the same thing?

Sure, well, right now. So you know, I have my nine to five day job and then I work some a few evenings a week as well, and what I do is I time block. I think that's an incredibly useful time management strategy. So what that means is in my calendar, if I have a free hour or two or, you know, after my son goes to bed A couple hours in the evening, I will block off in my calendar specific time for writing and working on my books. And I find that that is the most effective way to make sure that I have that time blocked off, because when I wasn't doing that Sometimes I just wouldn't get around to it to working on my books or household chores and tasks would just fill up that time. But if I block off the time in my calendar it's more likely that I'll sit down at the computer and actually get that done without, you know, all the other to do list items, kind of building up. So time blocking I find incredibly useful and also I just try to make use of any little piece of downtime that I have during the day. So if I have, you know, an unexpected client cancellation and I've got an hour free, I use that time to work on my books. Or if I have 30 minutes before pickup time and I don't have time scheduled, I'll try to fit in a 30 minute writing session. So basically any little spare time I have that you know comes up in the day, I try to prioritize and work on my books in that time and then I save all of the cleaning and the laundry and the household tasks and the dishes. I save that for the times when I have less energy, like kind of later at night, when you know I'm just kind of done for the day and I just kind of want to put on a show and do some cleaning and vacuuming and get the laundry done and clean up the kitchen. So I save kind of more of the household tasks for the time when I, you know, kind of more mentally exhausted at that point, because those can be fit in during that time. So basically my advice for busy moms who are trying to juggle a lot of different things is to find whatever small pieces of time, little bite size chunks that you have during the day, whether it's nap time or maybe you know when you're in the drop-off or the pickup line and you're waiting there to pick up from preschool or elementary school or you know. You just have some little pieces of downtime. Use that time really Productively, because it really does add up. You know, if you have 30 minutes here one day and 20 minutes there the next day, over time, if you use those chunks of time wisely, you can get your manuscript finished. You can, you know, watch some YouTube videos and learn about the publishing process, or you can take a writing class like an online writing class. So I my advice would be to just use those small chunks of time wisely, because they really do add up. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I had a guess on here once that said kind of like that and they said you don't have to wait until you have this huge chunk of time to sit down at your desk to write, because you might not get that for a long time, especially if you have little kids. So when you're in the pickup line, when you have 20 minutes here or there, use that time. You know, don't wait until you have an hour or two hours Because you don't need that, just sit downtime. You can find all these small pockets of time during the day and then that also just breaks it up and makes it feel easier too. So totally excellent advice. Thank you, rebecca.

And also, you know I mean a lot of parents are driving their kids to after-school activities or even things during the day. You know, while you're sitting and waiting for your child if your child is old enough for you know A drop-off activity like if you're sitting and waiting for them to be done with swim class or Soccer or another activity use that waiting time to work on your passion project. You know you can Bring some your manuscript to edit, you can read a book about, you know, whatever your you know writing skills, or you could, you know, work on some book marketing ideas. So that's also really good time to take advantage of is when you're waiting for your kids to get done with an activity, or if you're even in the car and you're waiting for them. You know there's a lot of kind of time that maybe you might spend, you know, scrolling on your phone or on social media, you know, and maybe that time could be put to better use toward your Achieving your you know, your writing project or your other creative projects. So my other advice would be to just take advantage of that kind of time also, because that also adds up as well. Awesome.

Well, rebecca, thank you so much for talking to me today. Thanks for sharing about your books and this excellent advice for moms listening that want to also start writing a book or just, you know, work on that passion project that they have. In the show notes of this episode I will put links to your website and your books and everything so people can go there and find maybe they want to get that Halloween book for October this month and all your other ones. They sound absolutely phenomenal, so I will link everything on there and on the mom2cratecom website. So again, thank you for joining me today Giving the advice. It's been really wonderful talking to you.

Well, thank you so much for having me, kelly, and I wish everybody, all the listeners and readers out there, a very happy fall and a very happy Halloween.

Don't forget to connect with the podcast on Facebook and Instagram at mom's to create podcast. And also don't forget I have my new book out, my date, the pumpkin patch on Amazon and all the places. I would love if you would get it for your children, students, or your neighbor, your dog, anybody. Happy Halloween everyone. I'll see you next week, you.