Chasing Childhood Dreams with Author Mikayla Ruvalcaba

Makayla, thank you for joining me today. Thanks for being on the podcast. You're a writer and you have children's books and you're a mom and you're all the things I love, so thank you for joining me today. Thank you for having me Go ahead and introduce yourself to everyone.

All right, hi everyone. I'm Makayla. I currently live in California, but I was born and raised in the Midwest, so I've been out here since after I graduated college and I have. Let's see, my husband and I have been married four and a half years and big on the halves here. We have a three and a half year old son and a one and a half year old son. So it's a busy home life and obviously I have some books out so I write, but that's kind of my side hustle. My full time pay the bills job is I run the laboratory at a winery. Ooh, fine, yeah. So I've been super busy lately. We just brought in our last fruit for this harvest yesterday, so it's been like super intense at work, obviously always busy at home. We've had family for the last two weeks here, so yeah, it's been kind of crazy.

Oh, wow, and you're like a Northern California right, like wine country area.

Yeah, yeah, we're kind of between, yeah, between Napa and Sacramento Nice.

Oh, beautiful, that's cool, that's cool. Okay, so you have two tiny little ones at home. I remember those ages. My youngest one just turned four and my oldest one's like six, six and almost six and a half, you know. So I understand and remember that age and that's, that's a lot. That's like the some people say like the newborn stages, that they could, but I think like a one and a half and three and a half, oh yeah, I think that's the thick of it, oh yeah. And you have how many books do you have? Three?

I have three like picture books out and then I actually did it's one kids dream journal, but with two cover options. So I did that as a kind of fun side project also.

Oh, cool. Okay, let's talk about your journey. Tell us, what got you into writing. Have you been a writer your whole life? How did that start?

Oh, God, I have been writing for like as long as I can remember. My my mom did web design when I was little and so she worked from home. It was really awesome. And so she made a family website and we each had our own page. So I had my Mikaela page on the family website and I'm like I don't know eight or something and I'm writing stories for my personal website and so I mean, yeah, it started when I was very small and I I was the one that I begged my mom to buy me these like blank hardcover books and I'd write my own books like in a book, and I write and illustrate and let me tell you, I definitely don't illustrate my books now because I do not have that skill but yeah, I've been writing forever. What really kind of started me on my publishing journey is when I was on maternity leave for my first son. You know I've got a month off of work and no children yet. So I'm like, wow, like I can really get back to writing because I, you know, busy at work, busy with friends, I just didn't write a whole lot for a while and I kind of did this. You know everyone's asking if your first kid are you ready, like how's this, how's that? And it was always like, oh yeah, like we've got the nursery set up, we're just waiting for baby. Yeah, like I bought my stroller and my car seat, we're just waiting for baby, and so that kind of you know everything was just waiting for the baby to arrive. And so that stemmed into my first book called Waiting for you, and it's bilingual because my husband's Mexican and we both speak English and Spanish fluently, so we're obviously raising our boys bilingual. So I thought, since it's kind of you know, a book about Waiting for my First Baby, who's going to be in a bilingual family, I wanted it to be English, spanish. So it's just kind of all the different like milestones, it's all the different milestones of pregnancy, and so it's like you know, oh, we got the first ultrasound and we told our family and we got the nursery set up the whole time we're waiting for baby. And so that I just kind of wrote it for fun and showed it to my mom and of course mom's always supportive and she's like this is so great that could be on a shelf at the store. And so I'm like, well, wait a minute. That's been like my dream for forever. So, like I just kind of started looking into what all had to happen to get to that point and it's overwhelming. So I kind of just like and then the baby was born, so that kind of went to the side for a while and then, you know, kind of got into the groove of being a new mom and and Baby snapping. So I'm like, well, like, let me look at this again and did some like critiques and got it professionally edited and Just kind of jumped in and went for it.

I love that. Your mom was like this could be on a shelf somewhere and you're like, oh, yeah, it could be, because I've always wanted to do that. Yeah, it shows the importance of encouragement from mothers. Your mother, yes you to your own kids.

Yeah, I've got my, my core group, the first people that always see any of my Stories, it's my mom, my grandma and my sister and my grandma. I Think no matter what I write, she'd always come back oh, this is great, I love it, and like just 100% support. And then my sister is the one who's like okay, well, you know some issues there, a little grammar thing there. You definitely spelled that wrong. That sounds a little funny. But like, overall, I like it. And then my mom somewhere in the middle. So I've got a very good kind of first line of like keep at it. But then I definitely have to send it to other people that are actually gonna like rip it apart and be like you need to fix this and that and there's no. There's no connection with them, right.

What an excellent critiquing group you have, though, like in your immediate family. That's amazing. When I did my first draft for my newest children book, my date, the pumpkin patch, I Didn't send it off to be like professionally edited yet, I just did my thing and I was like I am so eager to see this, I want to get my proof. It was like through KDP. So I got my hair and I swear I looked at that a thousand times and the blurb on the back and it was like perfect, right, and my my in-laws speaking, my in-laws, they were here and I showed my, my my mother-in-law she's like very good at grammar in the English language. Immediately I forgot the second P and pumpkin on the back. It's like something, and I was like man, like I want that a thousand times, not see that. It was really interesting. So, just like having Especially some people around you like immediate family people can just like show it to those Set of eyes or a third pair of eyes will catch something easily that we looked at a million times in it and see.

Oh, yeah, I still I think. So I have three books out and I think in every single one in my like launch week and I have the free ebook every single one, someone will like, pm me and be like Don't take this the wrong way, but like there's an extra space here or like there's no space between these words and thankfully it's all been like in the Like the copyright info. So I'm like okay, well, whatever, it's like right right how many people looked at that and didn't catch it and I know it's crazy.

It's crazy how he did. I think it's because we like, we look at it so often that it almost just becomes one big thing, mm-hmm. Well, yeah, and copyright you know I don't spend a lot of time on that. I'm like, okay, here's what you to put on there. Here's all the info. I don't like meticulously go over except like the ISD and number and everything. Yeah, oh, yeah, so yeah, just worked.

We're too close to it and then you know, usually it's things that are like. Your brain Just fixes it automatically. Yeah so like I don't even know how these other people catch it. I'm like how do you what? Never would have seen that.

Right, right, okay. So you told us about that book. Tell us about your other books too okay.

So that first book actually my launch day was the last day that I worked before maternity leave for my second son, so that was kind of a coming full circle yeah, published in 2022. And then I also published my seconds called when I grew up, I want to be a dinosaur and that. So I have loved dinosaurs for forever. I went on a dig actually no, like 10 years ago now or something insane. So like I went to let's see, we stayed in North Dakota but like went over the border to Montana for most of the digs and so I spent a week in the Badlands Like actually digging dinosaur bones. Oh, oh so cool. But also super awesome because I did think for a while that I was gonna be a paleontologist when I grow up, but, um, yeah, no, couldn't do it. Their field season, like it's hot and dry and like dirty and gross, and like for a week for sure, every so, every few years. I would totally do it again if I had the time, but like to do that forever, like Thanks that when you think about like to the profession, you just think, oh cool, I get to like research dinosaurs and like find them.

I can't do either. That would be too much.

Yeah, so it's fun for a week, but, yeah, definitely learned that that will not be for me. Yeah. But you know, I still love dinos and I did a lot of you know, reading before and after, and I Don't know if I was Watching a documentary or something, and and I wish I could remember which paleontologist it was, but someone. The interviewer asked him you know, did you always want to be a paleontologist, like when you were little? And he said, no, I wanted to be a T-rex. And I was like, oh my god, like that just sounds like it would be a really awesome book. And so then that just thought kind of stayed in the back of my mind for years and years and years. And then, you know, my son's born and I love dinos, he loves dinos. It was bound to happen. And that thought just kind of resurfaced and so I said, hmm, I'm gonna do something with this I'm really into, so I run the winery lab. I loved science classes growing up, so really into STEM and especially girls in STEM, because you know, there's, I mean, my college graduating class in the chemistry department was Like 10 girls in one guy, but that is so not the norm, yeah. So I really wanted to kind of Show kids early on that girls can do, you know, nerdy science stuff, and that's okay. So I've got this main character girl who wants to be a dinosaur. It finds out she can't for obvious reasons, and so kind of pivots and decides, well, I'm gonna be a paleontologist instead, and so it's all about like what you would do as a paleontologist, and so that's kind of a Simple yeah, like highlighting STEM careers. And I've actually got the manuscript for the next one in the series about aliens and Astronomy, and so that one is hopefully going to the illustrator later this month and and so hopefully coming out next year.

That's so cool and that's such an original idea, like there's dinosaur books but a Plot of a little girl is like I'm gonna be dinosaur. Oh, I can do this job, or I can do Because I can't be a dinosaur.

So it gives me. Thanks, yeah, and it gives me an opportunity to kind of put in facts about dinosaurs, because what especially kids? They all love Dinos. So like facts about the dinosaurs but then also about the profession. So it's kind of a fun, silly way to introduce, you know, a potential career without being like. You know.

There are some when I grow up, books, but they're like less fun, I don't know more focused on just kind of not just educating but giving you facts, and here's this is about this. In that sort of way, that's less like fun and less engaging children.

So I'm hoping to turn it into a series. That's all. When I grow up, I want to be a, and then something that's like totally impossible, like so alien is the next one I've got ideas for, like robot or mermaid, just all these like fun things that kids connect to, but then, you know, correlate it to some kind of STEM career. That that is actually possible.

And I was also intrigued by your journal you're talking about. Tell us about the journal too. I.

Okay, so my third book is called how Many Sleeps and that is like a countdown book to visiting grandparents, specifically, but guests, and so it's kind of like what can you do while you're counting down the days, and that's. We used to count the sleeps when I was little and so I'm doing all this writing about how many sleeps to this and how many sleeps and what can we do today and how many sleeps and how many sleeps, and so I just kind of got thinking about sleeping, dreaming. Oh, a dream journal, that sounds like something I want for myself. But I was like, well, I have kids books like I'll do a kid version. So there's a little bit in the beginning about like what our dreams and why do we dream, and then each page is one side has a place where you can like write about your dream. You can like color in whatever face, if it was a happy dream or a sad dream and then the other side is kind of like a blank comic book page so you can draw your dream. So for younger kids that can't write yet, and then it's just, you know, a bunch of blank spreads for you to record all your dreams.

So cool.

You are fun.

You are such a fun person.

That was such a fun little project for me because I did all of it myself. I did all the formatting, so I didn't have an editor or an illustrator or anything, and so it was like all 100% me, which was kind of cool to be like, yeah, I wrote that book, but like this one was literally 100% me.

That's incredible. What a good feeling. It's like, that's like your baby, it's like you had a baby, but it was just you. You were the one. Yeah, so you've really done all of this with tiny little people at home.

And that's a lot.

So we talk about balance on the podcast a lot. You know how do you be fully present in your motherhood but also fully present in your other Part? Of you you know, because you are a mom, but you're also Kayla, you know, and I'm also Kelly. So tell me how you found that balance, how you found the time to create these books and still be mommy. Tell me about that.

Well, back when my older one napped you know the magical time when they would both nap, like that's like all right, let's do something. That pretty much doesn't exist anymore. So my husband is very supportive and if I tell him like I need to get some book stuff done, like I'm off to Starbucks for two hours, the boys are on you. You know he says, great, go for it. And so I'll go, get out of the house and do a little bit of you know, whatever I need to do Most of the editing for how many sleeps I did at my Starbucks around the corner just because I like I needed to get out of the house. That was a rhyming book, so my first ever rhyming book. So like I really had to, like it was intense, like it was hard to write it because I've never written rhyming and then to edit it when I'm like trying to learn rhyming better. So I just had to, like I needed absolutely no distractions. So I left the house for a couple hours, like I have like a running thing in my calendar Saturdays at two is is book time and it doesn't. It rarely actually happens that way, but like it's there to remind me like hey, you take time for yourself, like you need to do it. No one's like I'm I make it hard, like I'm the one that makes it the hardest. My husband, if I tell him, he says, yeah, go my boys, they don't care if I'm gone for an hour or two. But I'm the one that always feels bad, like oh, I'm leaving them, oh I'm not going to spend the time with them, and so like I'm my own hardest critic, I guess, in taking that time. So what I've done recently is I'm much more of a morning person, so I'll get up at normally the alarm goes off at six to get me and the boys ready for daycare and work but I'll get up at five and then I have like an entire hour to drink my coffee and then do whatever book stuff needs to needs to get done, and so that's really been kind of what works the best for me, because then even if I just get one thing checked off my list and there are definitely mornings where I read because I'm just not feeling anything else but then in the evening, like I know I've done something today and so I can put the phone away, play Legos on the floor with the boys. You know we're going to. We did dino egg rice crispy treats the other day so we can just like do something with them and so just getting even one thing done in the morning while everyone else is asleep, I don't feel bad because I'm not taking away my time from the boys, I'm not leaving the house, like if they need me. You know we had an accident the other day. Well, that's fine, I'm here, let's deal with it. So yeah, that really helped. But then also just kind of, you know, recognizing that I am a mom and so there are days that I won't be able to do that. So, like, the goal is always 5am and get an hour of book stuff done. But you know, a couple weeks ago my son was up all night coughing, so I didn't sleep, he didn't sleep, nobody slept. So you know, two in the morning rolls around and I'm like, okay, turn off that five o'clock alarm. I'm taking that extra hour of sleep. So you know, planning for it, but then being forgiving when it inevitably it's not going to work.

Every day I've done the same thing. I tell myself to get up early, but if something happens or I just get on this like creative roll at night and the next thing I know it's like 1230am. I'm like, okay, well, I go to my phone, turn off that five am alarm because I found it at night and said you know exactly I need the sleep because if I decide to get up at five after I go to bed at 1230am, that won't be a good morning.

I'm going to feel terrible all day.

I'm going to be a pretty bad mom that day, you know you have to purposely make the time but then also be like is this realistic, Can I? Do it this way, or can I just do it all? Start again tomorrow?

Yeah, yeah, so like the last ooh, probably month and a half, I've maybe gotten up like three or four times at five because we have family here right now and it's like harvest just finished up, so I'm working six days a week and so like I'm just exhausted from my day job, and then, you know, one of the boys was sick a couple weeks ago and it's just, you know, we just potty trained my oldest, so yay. But then there's the occasional accident and so it's like there's, you know, life to deal with and you know this is kind of like I've got a lot of third or fourth down the list. You know I've got my family and I've got my job that pays the bills. Maybe this will pay some bills one day, but not right now. And so you know, this kind of comes further down the list, and so this is the first thing. You know if something's got to go, this is what's going.

You sound like you. You kind of got to handle on it. You have a pretty good routine or like a rhythm going on with creating your books. Do you have some advice to mom's listening, like a singular piece of advice or just kind of like what you were saying about finding that time during the day? Would that be what you would tell some mom, or some mom's listening, or what would you tell mom's listening if they're like I want to write books, I want to do this, but I'm not a morning person, or I like to stay up late, or I just love sleeping, and hey, we all love sleeping. but if you want it bad enough, you're going to lose an hour sleep. You're going to figure it out anyway. What would you tell someone asking you that so?

I think that's definitely up there. You know, find the time that works for you and go for it. But but also, you know, be forgiving of yourself if it doesn't always work. But also get out of your comfort zone. And maybe that is getting up an hour early, maybe that is way out of your comfort zone. I'm fine with it. Like great works for me as long as I can get to bed at a reasonable time. No issues here. But you know you're going to have to. Like when I first started, I've always had this dream of writing a book, and I don't think many people knew that. And so, to kind of hold myself accountable, I went on Facebook and said, hey, facebook friends, like I'm going to write a kid's book and just put it out there. And it was so terrifying like I was shaking as I was typing this message out. But like all of the support that came back Was like I mean, I like wanted to cry. Just everyone is so supportive and so like I never would have realized how Large my circle really is without putting that out there. And then, just throughout the whole process, like you know, we've got a local bookstore in town and I'm so not one to like Just walk in and toot my own horn. Actually, I went in with my friend and she's like Walt is up to the counter and she's all this is my friend, she's an author, you should get her book, and so she was like doing it for me that day. But now I will like go into a bookstore and be like hey, like I'm a local author, would you be interested in carrying my books? And like still, I'm like so nervous going up there, but like I've got I think there's three local stores that carry my books. Now I did an event. The winery I work at they do like a vendor fair twice a year and so I did one earlier this year and then I'm doing another one again in like two weeks and so totally so nervous for the first one, but like I sold some books and I met some people and sold to some people that probably never would have Heard of me otherwise, and so now I'm going again and I know that I have to get out of my comfort zone further and actually, like you know, call people as they're walking by instead of just sitting there and waiting for them to come to me. But you know, just Doing little things that are out of your comfort zone, are gonna open doors that maybe wouldn't otherwise open or would open you know way down the road. And so, yeah, yeah, suck it up and and go for it right?

Send the email, ask the question, go to the place.

You're like well, I haven't sold enough yet to be an author, or I don't. You know, it's not in this store, so I'm not an author. But like no, it's done, it's out there.

You're an author, yeah and it's amazing and it's something that not a lot of people do. You might think when you connect into the writing community, like on Instagram and everything, and when you're really engaged and you have all these friends online in the writing community, you can think to yourself, wow, everybody's a writer. Why is everyone are? No, you're in the community of people all over America, all over the world, in one little spot here talking about being writer. But when you look back into someone, like to someone else, that's not in the writing community. They don't know any writers. They don't know right authors. So you're like you're like really big to them in their eyes, right, yeah, you're like, you're cool, you know you, you've, yeah, amazing. That seems unattainable to most people. So you have to remember that and know you're not just a little fish in the pond, even though it feels like it, like I'm something amazing. And if you want to make a book, but you haven't, that's already the first step To doing something amazing. You just have to keep on keeping on, because it's completely, completely doable. Wow, mikaela, thank you for talking today. Tell us about your books, your journey to discovering yourself as an actual Like, put it on paper, publish it, have people buy it. Author, because that's an amazing step you took to get to all your books and your ones coming out on top of your full-time job, on top.

Like well, it's no fun to be bored, so no, here I know.

So thank you for joining me. Let everyone know where they can go online to like connect with you on social media by your book website. Tell us all of that information.

So my Instagram is at Mikaela, our underscore author, and Actually definitely check that out, because this month I'm doing I'm planning to go all out for dino November and I've got like dino jokes and dino Crafts and snacks like the dino egg rice crispy treats, so I'm hoping to just fill the month with dino. So, yeah, definitely check me out there on Instagram. And then Facebook is Mikaela Rivalcaba, author, and then I actually just Like made live my shopping cart on my own website, so trying to cut out Amazon. So the books are all available on Amazon but also on my website, mikaela Rivalcabacom and my mom's, my web designer. So Nice little perk there. But yeah, so Amazon is definitely an option, but also my personal website and yeah, so if you want anything signed, go to the website.