More. MORE. MORE! Dandelions Part 2: Excitement each spring

More. MORE. MORE! Dandelions is a book dedicated to those who don't mind a few dandelions and for the dads who are always wishing for more time with their children.

I hope you buy the book for your family or as a gift for an enthusiastic new dad or a blossoming young reader! The book is available on AMAZON. I really appreciate your support!

Each spring I was reminded of the story idea that was sparked when my daughter saw dandelions on a walk with me and said, "More. MORE. MORE!" Watching her and my other children pick dandelions and make wishes as they blew the puff balls added even "More. MORE. MORE!" fuel to my imagination.

My first journal entry was in May 2014. The next year, I added a sticky note to the page with a few additional notes about the idea. Then, in May 2016, I got serious about writing the story. I was participating in a writing challenge called NaPiBoWriWee (National Picture Book Writing Week) with the goal to write seven picture book manuscripts in seven days. I made a list of all my favorite picture book ideas and tackled one each day. On Day 3 (May 3, 2016), I wrote More. MORE! MORE! Dandelions.

More. MORE. MORE! Dandelions came out easily. It must have been ready to come out after rolling around in my head for two years. I liked it so much I typed it up, which I rarely do unless I really, really like the story. Then, the story sat in a folder with my other favorite manuscripts for over six months.

It was December 2016 and the new year was approaching. I was worrying about the upcoming new year. I have a tendency to do this. What will I accomplish next year? Will I be able to create another book? These thoughts were repeated often in my head.

On December 10, 2016, at my oldest daughter's Lego Robotics competition, I pulled out my manuscript of More. MORE. MORE! Dandelions and drew up some rough sketches. (My daughter's competition turned out to be the perfect setting to work on my story. There was plenty of down time when her team was not competing.)

This would be the beginning of a six-month project to create my seventh picture book. At this point, I knew I wanted to try to illustrate More. MORE. MORE! Dandelions in a unique style, stamping with cut erasers. I came up with this idea when I was working on a craft for my Three Ghost Friends books. A few days before working on these rough storyboard sketches I began experimenting with stamping. I was encouraged by my first attempts stamping the characters from the story and I now had a complete story that captured our love of dandelions.

Do you want to learn more about the making of this book? Read Part 3!

Did you miss Part 1 of this series? Click here.

More. MORE. MORE! Dandelions is available on Amazon: