On the Way to the Outhouse
March 30, 2023
Hannah Rowland - Featured Columnist
Between the age of 1 and 2, our first daughter loved sitting in my lap while I read to her. We read “Go Dog Go,” “Are you My Mother?” stories from the Bible, Mother Goose rhymes, “Baby Talk,” and many other books. This time of reading stories together was not only a time for us to have fun together, but it was also a chance to learn. Reading children’s books will help her to read, but it will also teach her about how to live as well.
As I read each book, I observed the different storylines, various styles of writing, what the overall message - or purpose - was, and looked over the illustrations. Some rhymed, others didn’t rhyme at all, and some only had one word on each page.
Some of them are all about early reading and use only up to 3 or 4-letter words so the children can learn to read it easily, others were more about creating a story that would interest young children and teach them a lesson. Some of the stories were classic that were re-told, others were original stories that were new, fun, and exciting.
In the midst of reading all these fun children’s books, I decided I wanted to write a children’s book as well. Throughout my years growing up, I liked to write short stories that I had come up with, but I never felt like the story was unique and well-written enough to get approved by a publisher. As I read a children’s book one day about a child trying to get the moon to be a full moon, I decided I wanted to try writing my own story again, and this time I would send it to a publisher.
So I sat down and came up with a fun poem I titled, “On the Way to the Outhouse.” The poem was fun and filled with rhymes. It was about how scary walking to the outhouse in the dark can be. I tried to think like a young child and used things that are true, but then added characteristics to them that made them scary. When I finished the poem, I liked it, I thought it was original, but I felt like it needed a narrative to go along with it in order to make it a better story.
As I began to form the story around the poem, I not only wanted it to be a fun story, but I also wanted it to teach values and lessons. Since the poem talked about the scary things in the dark outside, I decided that it would be a story that can help children to overcome their fears that they have because they tend to exaggerate reality and make up the scary part.
When I was little, I used to get nightmares from movies that had creepy characters, and sometimes I Imagined them coming out at me when I swimming in the pool, walking in the dark, etc... The story and the message was not only an issue I dealt with when I was little, but it eventually was something that I had to overcome when I got older.
As I wrote about how to overcome those fears, I looked to the greatest source that helped me to overcome my own fears: the Bible and my relationship with God.
Knowing the Truth of God’s protection and control in my life helped me to not be afraid, also knowing that He is with me wherever I go, helped me to trust in His protection.
Our Sunday sermon we received that week from Philippians helped me find the verses I wanted to use to help describe how we can overcome fears that are made up by our own imagination. I then ended the story with a second poem about how the fears were overcome on the way to the outhouse and what the walk was really like.
After I finished the story I looked up a couple of Christian publishers online and called a couple of them. One publisher would publish anything you sent to them for a cost, and another publisher also had a cost involved, but they also required that your story be approved for publishing. I was intrigued to see if my story would get approved by a publisher, so I sent it to the second one in hopes of getting approved.
A few weeks later I was called and notified that my story was approved for publishing and I was very excited. It still cost me some money, but I had some savings set aside, so I decided to go for it. Throughout the editing and publishing process, I also decided to illustrate the book myself. The illustrations have been a learning process, and after going through page design, I understand how to do them better for layout next time.
Finally, the book was complete and ready to print. It is for sale on many online book retail websites, Christian Book Store, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc... Some of my friends and family purchased a copy, but I needed to learn more and reach out more in order to attract a broader audience. Last summer, an experienced writer gave me some advice on making the book more readable by spacing out the words more on some pages.
I was able to re-publish the book and edit the spacing, as well as add a few more illustrations. This year I am looking to also try and sell the book through local stores in Alaska as well as sell them personally. I hope to gain enough interest that I will be able to publish a second book soon. Below is the summary of the book. I hope you can share this fun children’s book with a child you love.
“Robert and his Family are going camping in the mountains by a lake. Robert was told that he is old enough to go to the outhouse on his own at night, but he doesn’t want to. He is afraid that something scary will happen on his way to the outhouse in the middle of the night. Will he be able to persuade his parents to go with him? Will he be able to overcome his fears? What happens on his way to the outhouse?”