Unleashing Imagination and Compassion: How Children's Books Ignite a Love for Pets and Promote Adoption

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Have you ever found yourself enchanted by the bond between a child and their pet, or moved by the joyous wag of a rescued dog's tail? Teresa Adamo and Jennifer Williams-Cordova, children's book authors with a knack for capturing the essence of these moments, join me for a conversation that's sure to inspire. Their tales, born from the companionship of pets like Indy, weave a tapestry of creativity and community spirit that finds a home in the hearts of families far and wide.
 
 Bakersfield, California, isn't just a backdrop for Teresa and Jennifer's stories; it's a character in itself, echoing through the pages with the historic Bakersfield Sound music. Our discussion takes a stroll through the vibrant streets of pet personalities and the melodies that define a culture, all while celebrating the power of indie publishing. This creative duo has crafted not only storybooks but an entire universe where coloring meets activity books, inviting young minds to explore and adults to reminisce.
 
 Ending on a note that's as warm as a puppy's nuzzle, we reflect on the impact stories can have on advocating for shelter animals and responsible pet ownership. The echo of a child naming their new four-legged friend after a beloved character is a testament to the reach and heart of Teresa and Jennifer's work. With a shared hope to spark even one more act of kindness, such as fostering or adopting a furry companion, this episode is a heartfelt reminder of the love and life lessons our pets bestow upon us.

To purchase books from the Indy, Oh Indy series, visit their Website. You can learn more and follow them on Instagram and Facebook. Photos of Teresa, Jen, and their dogs courtesy of Felix Adamo, you learn more via his Instagram.

As a former newspaper reporter and editor, Teresa Adamo longed to write the story of Indy’s origins in the form of a children’s book. What resulted is an ode to the sweet shelter dog as well as a tribute to Bakersfield itself. The a

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(00:27):
I hope you enjoy this episodeand I can't wait to share this
pet story with you.
Hello, my friends and fellowanimal lovers, welcome to a new
episode of the story of my petpodcast.
I'm your host, julie MartyPearson, as always, and I'm very
excited to welcome two newguests to the podcast.

(00:50):
I have Teresa Adamo andJennifer Williams Cordova with
me.
Thank you, guys, both for beinghere.
Thank you, thank you for havingus.
So I'm excited because these arelocal people to where I live in
Biggersfield, california.
They're people that I'veactually been aware of for a few
years because they writeamazing children's books about

(01:12):
pets and I heard about themthrough my family.
My nephew is a big fan.
He actually got to meet themwhen they came to his school
several years ago to present, soI've known about them.
I've now met them and I'm veryexcited to share your guys'
story with my audience so theycan learn about you as well.
Before we get into all of that,what I always like to start

(01:33):
with is so have pets always beena part of your life?
Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
I have always had pets.
My parents always had a dog ora cat though.
Yeah, it's always been a partof my life too.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
And has there been a pet in your life that you would
call whether it's a cat or a dogor even something else, that
was like your soul pet, thatchanged your life greatly in
some way?
For?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
me for sure it was Indy.
I figure that, but what aboutyou, jennifer?

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Mine would be my current dog, ben, who was the
first pet I got as an adult,instead of the family pet
growing up.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, I understand that my first pet as an adult.
They just change their liveswhen you get to be the official
fur mom for them.
I think that's our two.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
I guess we do a little.
Tell all the listeners abouteach of yourselves.
You have a varied backgroundand rather than me reading off a
boring bio, I'd rather get tosee and hear from you guys a
little bit about your backgroundand how you guys came together
to start working on theseprojects.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
So I was born and raised in Bakersfield.
I went away to school, cameback and I was an art and design
major and I started workinghere for a local graphic design
studio.
I ended up really liking it andbecoming a partner there and
growing my own business.
So I get to have a lot ofcreative freedom and I get to

(03:04):
make stuff every day as part ofmy job and through that job I
actually started working withthe company Theresa had worked
for in the marketing andcommunications department.
So that's how we initially metthrough work and we were also
living in the same neighborhood.
We had a lot of connections, andI am a mom and I'm a local
artist and I love doing allthings creative, and Theresa and

(03:28):
I both are dog lovers.
We knew that, and so when shehad this idea for a book,
because of all of ourconnections, she came to me and
asked me if I'd like to do it.
My daughter was I think she wastwo, just two at the time Very
young, and becoming a motherreally changes the way things

(03:48):
and want to do things, and itprobably would have made more
sense for me to be like this isnot a good time, but I was deep
in children's books at the time,like reading them constantly,
seeing them in a whole differentway, and that really made me
want to jump into this project,and so I said yes.
And here we are.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
That's great.
Sometimes it's all about thetiming, even if in some ways,
like you said, it's not right.
Oh, there's so many otherthings going on.
There's always a reason that ithappens when it does.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
That's for sure, and that really applies to our
collaboration, because I knewthat if Jen said yes, then we
could move it forward.
If it wasn't right for her, Idon't think we would have done
it, because I just knew that shewould have to be the person to
do the illustration.
She's always got me, and atfirst that was in a professional

(04:40):
capacity because we workedbetween our two professional
roles.
We just became friends and wehad a lot of things in common,
and so I had a feeling she wouldget what I was hoping to do,
and I did think it could goeither way.
Because she had a two-year-old.
I thought the same thing.
I thought she might not haveany time to do this, but then

(05:01):
the other side of me thought butwouldn't that be great, because
she's totally in that world now.
She would understand where I'mcoming from as a mom Also, at
that time, by then my two boyswere grown and gone, and so that
was a big part for me.
I needed to find something elseto put my heart and soul in, and

(05:26):
of course, indy completelyinfluenced me to go ahead and do
that.
But I had thought about itpretty much ever since adopting
her, and I adopted her in 2008.
But we didn't come out with thefirst book until 2018.
We had no guarantee going in.
We had Jen and I like to sharethat we did have some advantages
, just because of what we do inour professional lives somewhat

(05:48):
related.
We knew the world of publishingand I come from a journalism
background.
That's what I started out doingand I was a journalism major
and worked at newspapers andmagazines as a writer and editor
and then went into themarketing communications world
and Jen with her designbackground.
We just decided we knew wecould make something that we
would really like and if that'sall it was going to be, that's

(06:11):
all it was going to be.
But we were helping people withConnect with it and they really
did.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
That's great.
So before we get into the booksthemselves, can you talk a
little bit about the story ofyou adopting Indy and how that
came to be?

Speaker 2 (06:29):
That was a true meant to be moment.
I saw Indy's ad, if you will,from the Kern County Animal
Shelter.
She was like a pet of the weekand I still remember her name
was Bree and her description wasa terrier mix and that she
loved to be loved.
That was her description.

(06:50):
So she caught my eye and Iwanted to look into the
possibility of adopting her.
We were, my family and I, weretalking about getting a dog and
I went up to go look at her atthe county shelter back when it
was off of Mount Vernon wherethe city shelter is now.
My family couldn't make it.
I think the boys were in school, my husband was at work, but I

(07:11):
went and looked at her anywayand walked her around and really
liked her, took her picturewith my phone and then when I
brought her back in, of coursethey're like wanting to sign me
up and adopt her and I said Ihave to talk to my family about
it and I really can't adopt herif they're not here and they're
like okay, and I didn't leaveany name or contact information.

(07:33):
That was just the end of that.
And just a couple of days laterI was working for my job.
At the time we were, we hadsponsored a pet event at a dog
park and I got there early and Iwas helping to set up and I
knew that the county shelter wascoming but it's supposed to be
just for rabies shots.
And so we were told they, theirbooth space or whatever, was

(07:55):
relatively small.
And then I saw them arrivingand they had their giant trailer
and I thought one.
I'm like I don't know wherewe're going to put them, because
that's not what it says on thechart Two.
I'm like why did I need thisgiant rig just for rabies shots?
Turns out they decided, since itwas a dog park and they figured

(08:16):
families would be coming tothis event, they decided to
bring some dogs and cats.
And that's what the man told mewhen he got out of the truck
and I said by any chance, didyou bring this dog?
And I had the picture still onmy phone and I showed it to him
and he said, yes, I have her inthe back.
And I literally got chills andI said can I see her?

(08:38):
And so he brought her out, puther on a leash for me and I
walked her around again andeverybody said, oh, is that your
dog?
Is that your dog?
What a cute dog.
I knew she was gonna getadopted, so I called home.
Nobody answered and I thought,oh my goodness, she's gonna get
adopted.
So I said I'm just gonna do itand I filled out the paperwork
and paid the $75 for the bestthing that ever happened to me.

(09:03):
And so I ended up doing exactlywhat I said I wouldn't do
because my family wasn't with me, but I just knew in my heart
she was the right dog for us andI brought her home and I just
opened the door and said we gota dog.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
That's amazing.
I always say the pets that weremeant to have find us.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
She found me for sure she was even on TV, so the
chances of people coming to gether, I think, could have been
pie.
In fact, I was told later thatthe groomer who had volunteered
to make her spruced up came tothe event later that day after I
had left with Indy and came tosee her because she didn't need

(09:47):
another dog.
But she'd been such a good dogwhen she groomed her that this
groomer was willing to adopt herif nobody else had gotten her.
And they told her no, somebodyhad adopted her.
She got a good home and I wastold that the groomer was very
happy about that.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
And back then.
The shelters are very differentnow, unfortunately for a lot of
reasons.
But even smaller dogs weren'tas common in shelters and they
weren't as overcrowded.
So a lot of times if there wasa great dog or a very cute dog
they would go pretty fast ifpeople knew about them.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Indy was there, for it breaks my heart to think
about it including myself.
I left her there for an extratwo, three days, and she was
there for a total, though, forover a month.
How old was she when youadopted her?
They estimated they tried Juliesaying that she was two years
old, but I knew enough aboutdogs, I knew she was older than
that, but that wasn't a negativeto me.

(10:38):
I thought, okay, she's throughthe puppy-ness and somebody had
trained her.
She was already housebroken.
I discovered she could sit, shewould lay down, she could shake
for a treat, she could dance,so somebody loved her.
She had been a pet.
She had been a pet to somebodyand I don't know the
circumstances.
2008 was also the height of theforeclosures, so maybe that had

(11:02):
something to do with that.
The shelter, and they said thatpeople leave dogs at parks,
unfortunately, thinking somebodywill take her.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah, unfortunately that all still happens, but
definitely that makes sense.
When I was young gosh I don'tremember how old I was Five or
six my dad got us a dog from thethen the county shelter and she
they didn't know for sure Oneor two-year-old golden retriever
, and she was fully trained too.
Somebody lost an amazing dog.

(11:29):
She was the sweetest, she knewhow to do everything.
She let us climb all over her.
So sometimes there's reasonsthey end up there and then they
find their true forever homes,which just sounds like what
happened with Indy.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
And that's what we put into the book, because
pretty much literally from thatmoment, I would often wonder
what her story was and where shecame from and where she went
and maybe what type of owner shehad.
And that's what led to thechildren's book and I thought it
could be a way that I could doa story and take her through
Bakersfield and Kern County.

(12:01):
And that's what I brought whenI had a story.
That's what I brought to Jenand told her what I was hoping
to accomplish.
And I still remember that, jen,it's like you got it from like
the very first second when I wastrying to say what I wanted it
to do.
And then we just startedfeeding off of each other's
creativity completely.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
I love that you started with a point, with a
story, but you also with all ofthem, and especially the newest
one.
You guys really celebrateBakersfield, your hometown, my
hometown, in a way that anybodycan read it.
There's a lot of greatinformation in it, but the
illustrations, I would saydefinitely, jen, bring the story
to life.
When you see little Indy on thecover, you can just imagine the

(12:45):
personality.
I had a little cocker terriermix and a lot of Indy
personality comes from the booksreminds me of him, and so can
you guys talk a little bit, jen,for you hearing, teresa, I
assume you probably met, evenmet, indy in person or through
pictures.
How did you bring Indy to lifein terms of the illustration?

Speaker 3 (13:10):
So I did know Indy.
I knew her from in person andthen also through Teresa, and
our pets have personality andthen humans magnify those when
we like speak for them and talkabout them and give them their
own characteristics and likeassociate things with them
ourselves.
And that's what we did with Indyand we knew that she was gonna

(13:32):
be the main character of thisbook and she was such a special
dog and so we just startedplanning on what are her key
features, how can we bring herto life?
And it became book Indy.
In real life Indy and reallybook Indy just became the
imagination, personality, hersweetness, the way she would act

(13:54):
we even have had conversationsabout Indy would be like this,
or Indy would be concerned aboutthis.
So we have to draw it like thisbecause this would make Indy
sad.
She wouldn't wanna hurt herfriends, feelings or things like
that.
So we know Indy's personalityand then book Indy is that
personality from the dogmagnified, and that's where the
imagination comes in and shegets to do all of the things

(14:15):
that real life dog Indy wouldn'thave been able to do Drive a
car and things like that.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, we had fun extrapolating what she could do,
but the personality-wise it wasbased on reality and then what
we added on what we felt like weeven said on Indy brand.
If it was on Indy brand, itworked.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
In our books there's certain things that just didn't
feel like what she would do orwhat she would endorse, so
that's so great Because it'strue, our pets all have their
own unique personalities andthat's why I always say when
people try to get, say I have tohave a certain breed, I'm like
it's not really about the breed,it's about the individual pet's
personality.
We have three cats right nowand they all have three very

(14:59):
distinct personalities, Eventhough people sometimes in cats
even don't have them.
But it's so true of cats anddogs.
Even we have two tortoises andthey do have two different
personalities.
It's so important to embodythat, and I've spoken to a few
people more recently aboutwriting about pets and the great
thing about writing.
Like you guys said, they get todo things they would never get
to do in real life, but it'sstill only stuff that you could

(15:22):
imagine them really doing andtruly who they are.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
There was even in the first book.
Jen illustrated something thatactually happened with India
that I had told her about, whereshe had stolen some Easter
candy that I had bought for mycoworkers and she still I think
most of her life still had thatshelter dog mentality sometimes,
where I've got to takesomething and put it away for

(15:48):
rainy day and she ended upburying the treats.
But I didn't know that untilmonths later she dug them up and
there they were peeps Easterpeeps and they were still in the
package.
She didn't even eat them oranything.
Yeah, she hid them away, and sothat's actually in the first

(16:08):
book.
There's a pay and I told Jenthat story and she thought it
was fun and worked it into thebook.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
For the first book.
What was when you talked aboutthe story and kind of the
purpose?
What was really your mind interms of what you wanted to get
across to anyone who might readit?

Speaker 2 (16:27):
I wanted to, in a way , tell Indie's story, and I also
felt like anybody who adopts ashelter dog probably has some of
those same thoughts.
You do wonder where did theycome from, what was their
situation, where did they live,what type of family did they
have, that kind of thing and soI knew that could be common.

(16:48):
But I wanted to take her shoe,our community, and highlight
some things about our area thatwould be specific and I thought
that this would be a way that wecould do that, so that we would
have the common story withpeople who've adopted a dog, but
then we would have theuniqueness of showing her going

(17:08):
through our county and in a waythat people could be proud of
where we are.
I've always felt I'm not aBakersfield native, julie, but I
came here in 1989 and havelived here ever since and raised
my family here, and I love itand I just think there's so much
about it that can be celebratedand I think that there's a lot

(17:29):
of people, even natives, thatmay not realize some of the
historical background on somefamous things, either places or
people or movements that startedhere, and I thought the book
could possibly open up thatconversation.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
No, that's great.
I think I'm third generation onmy mom's side, born and raised
here in Bakersfield.
My grandmother went to what?
Used to be and her and herfamily lived across the street
from it.
Oh my goodness and we had thathouse in the family when I was
still a young kid, so I get that, and a lot of people who don't
live here sometimes haveassumptions about this area from

(18:08):
ways in which we are portrayedor made fun of in movies and TV
and no place is perfect.
But there is a lot of historyhere in a lot of different ways
and one of the ways is the music, which is what you guys really
focus on in the most recent bookthat just came out, so can you
talk a little bit about that?
So the newest book is IndioIndeed, learning the Bakersfield

(18:30):
Sound.
Why was it important to the twoof you to have that as a focus
for this book?

Speaker 3 (18:37):
Why was it important for us to talk about the
Bakersfield Sound?
Theresa, do you wanna take thisone?
Because you are really thedriving force behind this.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
I was but Jen hinted at it several times in our books
and I actually recalled thisfor somebody very recently.
It's represented in the firstbook with, actually, jen's dog,
ben, is playing the Bukkowansguitar and Indi is playing the
harmonica and she's actuallywearing it's on her, she's

(19:11):
wearing a hat with a littleflout, oh yeah, and she's got a
little.
This is when they were on thetrain and so to us the train
represented Merle Haggard, but Iwas worried it maybe didn't
represent Merle enough, perhaps.
And if you made me choosebetween Buck and Merle, if you
made me choose, I would probablychoose Merle.

(19:33):
And knowing that, jen added onemore little feature that we
like to we only tell a selectgroup of people this on Indie's
knapsack, because she looks likeshe's a trained hobo.
On her knapsack is a little pinand it's a pair of silver wings
, and that's one of my veryfavorite Merle Haggard songs is

(19:54):
Silver Wings.
So he's represented there aswell as Buck in the first book,
and then he comes back around,or the sound the Bakersfield
sound comes back around in thealphabet book.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
It's definitely been, because our goal the entire
time was to showcase where we'refrom and to create community
pride, because there's not a lotof that here, especially for
young kids that are readingthese books, and it's the
mentality to grow up here andjust diss it and hate on it.
But there's a lot of good thatcan come from being proud of

(20:30):
where you're from, especiallygoing away and learning and
bringing back all of your newknowledge and skills to your
community.
We hope that happens, and sowe've always weaved it
throughout the book, because wewanted to show the things that
are special about Bakersfield,and that's one of the things
that is obviously special aboutBakersfield.
There's a whole genre of musicthat was created here and I'll

(20:54):
be honest, I don't I didn't knowa lot about the Bakersfield
sound when we started.
I'm not very musical.
I didn't grow up listening tocountry music.
So I learned a lot through thisbook because of Teresa's
writing and it's really fun toget that perspective of okay,
I'm a good focus group, whatwill the kids learn, because I
had to learn everything for thebook as well.

(21:16):
But then we always weave thosespecial details into the story
and so it was really fun to getto focus on that country
aesthetic for a whole book forme Because even though I didn't
really listen to the music andthings like that, I really enjoy
the style and the aestheticthat comes with, like that
country sound and the charactersand the outfits they got to

(21:39):
wear and things like that.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
No, I think that's so great.
So many of the things you said.
Yes, growing up here there'salways that point we go through
where we're like we'd like todiss our town.
There's reason, especially asteenagers.
But yeah, I've never been acountry music person, like to
listen to it a lot.
But I knew about a lot of itbecause my dad was involved in
radio and TV Before I was born.
When I was younger we had afamily furniture store and he

(22:04):
did all the radio and TV ads forit and he knew a lot of the
country people and he was veryproud of all of that.
So I knew the names, even if Ididn't know the songs.
And then my husband worked atthe Bakersfield Museum for a
long time and so he worked onthe moral Haggard train car home
.
So it's, it is.
I've been born and raised here.

(22:25):
But there's all these littlepieces that come to me First of
all.
When I read it I thought, oh, Iwish my dad was still here,
because he would think this isso great.
He would love how you guys havebrought the history and the
music into life in a way thatkids can learn about it and it's
fun.
So I just have to say that itmade me really happy to read it.
I love the way you approach itand even the activity book and

(22:47):
all of that too.
It's just such a great and funway, because a lot of the people
that do have that firsthandexperience of those people and
the Bakersfield town aren't hereanymore.
So I think it is such a greatway, especially for all the kids
growing up here, to really geta piece of that.
So I think that's just so greatthat you guys really focused on
that in this one.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Thank you so much.
That's exactly what we'retrying to do, because otherwise
things get lost and we don'thave any problem with kids
wanting to aspire to gosomewhere else.
It'd be great if we always wesay this in our school
assemblies we think it's great.
If they want to go away, that'swonderful.
We just want them to rememberwhere they came from and have

(23:28):
good memories about that andhave a base of knowledge of what
was accomplished here and theschool assemblies.
Julie, that we do that yournephew went to.
That was a happy accident.
I wish I could tell you thatwas part of our, but it really
wasn't right.
Jenna, the first time we wereasked we were like school
assembly, huh, and we thoughtthat might be good.

(23:51):
That's actually become one ofour most favorite parts of the
adventure is being able to go toschools and talk to large
groups of kids, and we've evencome to find that the books are
helping to educate even theteachers from all ages.
But we realized some of theteachers they're going to be in
their 20s.
So some of the things that wehint at in our books are things

(24:14):
that aren't here anymore, andthese are young professional
adults that are saying I didn'tknow that the Bakersfield Arch
used to be over Union Avenue andthat kind of thing.
And how would they, unless theyencountered somebody that knew
about that before?

Speaker 1 (24:32):
And I have to say I love that.
The Bakersfield Arch.
I know it's on this currentbook, but it was on your first
book as well, because it is sucha staple here.
But, like you said, it didgrowing up.
For me it was on Union and thenit moved when they built
Buckowen's Crystal Palace, Right, but like you said, anybody
probably under 30 never saw itanywhere else.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
They never saw it there and it's just something
that and I can.
I can absolutely see how thingscan get lost in history,
because people will makeassumptions like why wouldn't
they know that?
They wouldn't know that becauseit's not there and it's not
something they're going toencounter in their regular
everyday lives that the iconicsign used to be in a different

(25:13):
place and we're very thankful.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Especially because even I know for me I was, I'm 46
, so they tells you that butBakersfield is such a different
place in terms of size andgrowth and just the number of
schools we have, compared towhen I was in school and things
like that.
My nephew, the school he goesto, is way out there, by way out
off of 178, where there'sseveral new schools now that

(25:35):
didn't exist even 10 years ago.
So, like you're saying, what agreat part of the book series
you guys are capturing is thathistory that is important to be
proud of but also to teach,because, of course, the kids,
like you said, there's a lot ofpeople, adults, that don't even
know the history If that wasnever a part of their own
family's history.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
No, and it's.
That's the one thing about withschools.
We love being able to bringsomething that they're not able
to cover in what they'reteaching, which is I totally
understand that, but it's greatthat they're open to us talking
about it and just changes thingsfrom our first.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
So did the school's assembly start with your first
book?

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yes, yeah, that's where it started Shortly after
the first book came out is whenwe started getting asked if we
would do school assemblies.
And Jen and I point to the veryfirst sale of our book.
Remember this, jen, when we didthe signing and reading at the
Boulevard had just opened and wedid our launch there.
The very first person in lineand he bought three copies was

(26:41):
an older gentleman and he boughtthem for his fully adult sons
and he said that they have allmoved away from Baker Show, that
they still loved it, but theyall moved away and they were a
big dog family.
So I remember Jen and I havingthat discussion.
I never thought that our veryfirst sale would be an older man

(27:05):
who wanted him for his threeadult sons.
It's just not where I get thevision wasn't that, and the
vision wasn't school assembly.
So I think it's our delvinginto this world.
It's a great example of youminds will just go for something
because you don't know whatit's going to take on.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
Where a lot of our surprise comes from is that we
created the first book having noidea what was going to happen.
We just knew the things weloved.
We decided to do it and I tellthis to people at the time I'm
glad we did it without a lot ofknowledge, because we might have
scared ourselves out of tryingto do it.
And now look where we ended up.
And people love dogs and theywant to be able to communicate

(27:47):
and share where they're from,and people love books, and so it
just really connected withpeople in a way that we didn't
expect.
And so now, looking back, ofcourse this was, taylor, made
for a school presentation.
It's perfect, but we justdidn't know where it was going
to go.
We didn't know, yeah, and whoour audience was, or who would

(28:11):
buy our book or who would ask usto do things, because we just
made it on a whim, really A longtime dream that we finally took
action on, because Treepe forquite a while in her head before
we actually made it.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
It was just gelling, it was marinating, and now the
difference is this latest book,learning the Bakershield Sand,
when we could focus just on thisone subject.
I remember telling Jen Ialready had visions of the
school assembly.
I have not put that programtogether yet, but I was thinking
about it even when we did thecoloring and activity book and

(28:44):
with that and you can see thatthey're really linked, where we
always had a vision for them tobe linked.
But we were looking forsomething that we could have
come out last year before theholidays and it wasn't feasible
to do a storybook by them.
But it was feasible to do thecoloring activity book and we
just figured the one thing Jenand I have learned, being

(29:06):
independently published we liketo say indie pub we can put
things out in the order that wewant to.
You may more likely see astorybook come out first and
then some sort of complimentaryproduct comes with it shortly
thereafter.
We did the reverse just becauseit was better for our timing
and I have no regrets about that.

(29:27):
I think it gave us some time togel some more ideas on what we
would do with the story I thinkthe two items together if you
were to do the coloring book,the activities in it, and then
read the storybook.
At the end of both of those,either a child or an adult, you

(29:47):
have Flink, baker Schultz, sound101.
You have a working knowledge.
That's the average.
Yeah, exactly.
And then we fully hope andexpect these days that Google
can take over from there alittle bit more.
And then maybe a click throughto a YouTube video of some old
songs and before you know it, mydream is that we've hooked them

(30:10):
.
Because that's what happened tome.
I didn't know anything aboutcountry music or the Bakersfield
Sound.
I moved here from San Jose in1989 and my dad told me there's
a famous song of Bakersfieldcalled the Streets of
Bakersfield, and I remembersaying oh really, okay, didn't
know anything about it.
And, as fate would have it, myhusband, who I met that summer

(30:35):
he was a photographer at theBakersfield, california.
He was very into country musicand it was pretty obvious if I
didn't learn something about it,I wasn't going to learn
anything about him either, andso I just started to learn about
it, became a fan myself.
And then, when we had children,when I was pregnant with my
first son, my husband said he'sgoing to play the fiddle, this

(30:56):
baby, and I'm like, okay, and hereally did.
And he started his lessons atsix years old and my youngest
son started his lessons at fiveand they're both now 30 and 25.
And they still play and they'rein a band which is portrayed in
this new book, and they're thegeneration that I feel is out
there trying to reinvigorate theBakersfield Sound.

(31:18):
And the people are out there.
They want it.
Why don't we just have an indieadventure centering on that?
I love the book and I love that, the fact that we can introduce
people.
Jen's won, won down.
She now knows the basics of it.

Speaker 3 (31:34):
Because I grew up here.
I knew who Bucco Owens was, Iknew that these things existed.
But there's so much moreknowledge in the book that
really brings it all together ina special way that I didn't
really have a knowledge ofbefore.
And even coming down to theillustrations, where three so
would be like oh, you drew thatguitar wrong.
I don't know.

(31:54):
You've got to monitor me.
I don't know these things.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
That's so true, but yeah, somebody asked me to draw
a guitar.
You think about an electricguitar versus a non and there's
so many all the different kindof, even, like you said, the
fiddle versus a violin.
Like some people wouldn't evenknow.
There's a difference.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yeah, we put that in the activity book because that's
a really common question.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
No, and it's funny you guys talked about it,
because when I you sent me boththe new book and the activity
book and I just assumed theycame out together.
But I can see how you wanted toget something out until you did
it, but it really was layingthe foundation.
Then you were able to build thestory from there.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
for the book itself.
I say the coloring activitybook was almost like our primer
and then we went from there.
It just needed to have the onIndie brand story to go with it.
And I really like how it openswith Indie and her friends
they're going to go to a concertat the Fox, right?

(32:51):
And that's the picture you'regetting.
And it even says on the marqueethat it's a Bakershield Sound
concert.
But they suddenly realized whichis funny, right, they're going
to the concert and at thatmoment they realized they don't
know what the Bakershield Soundis.
Then that was our ability tohave Telly have his moment.
And I remember telling Jen Ithink I found a way for Telly to

(33:14):
have his moment because we werereally wanting to focus on him
at some point.
And I have a Telly story that'sstill out there.
I don't know if we'll ever doanything about it with it, but
whether we do or not, telly gothis moment to teach Indie and
her friends about theBakershield Sound and therefore
teaching the reader.

(33:34):
And then, if you see, by thetime you get to the end of the
story, not only do the friendsknow about the Bakershield Sound
, but they've suddenly formed aband and they're performing and
they take a bow at the Fox.
I think that's a great exampleof how you can take something
that's a goal and find a way tomake it your own, but still say
something I still think ourbooks, even other children's

(33:55):
books, they have something tosay.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
I'm looking through it as you're talking about it
and, jen, the way you portraythe animals with their little
hats and their costumes is justso adorable and, like I said, we
have tortoises, so I reallylove the turtle character.
Yeah, I can just imagine Lowmaintenance pit Right, they are
half the year.
They are low maintenance.
They're asleep in our garagecurrently, but my husband takes

(34:20):
care of them.
He grew up with tortoises whichis something common here in
Bakershield because we have thatthe climate for them.
But one of the things I wasthinking about, especially in
the activity book Jen for you,what it was it like with respect
to creating some of the images,when you are creating them of
real people.
Was that something you had donebefore?
How was that different for youthan versus some of the animal

(34:43):
characters?

Speaker 3 (34:45):
The activity book and that's another reason we did it
first is because it could cometogether quickly.
That line drawing style issomething I do often just for my
own personal work, like onInstagram and things like that.
I like to do those kinds ofdoodles when I get into the
books, like the picture books,we're infusing that with a ton

(35:06):
of detail and layers and meaningand I work digitally.
So I draw on a tablet and thatallows Teresa and I to have that
back and forth connection,whereas if I did it with paint
or pencils it'd be like maybe Ican try to fix that, but
digitally lets us have that backand forth.
When it came time to tacklingthe people, especially for the

(35:27):
activity book which came first,I would just look at reference
photos, see poses I like, whatfacial expressions I liked, and
then try to just capture thosemain details so you can tell who
it was.
But that was actually prettyeasy for me because I do that
kind of thing a lot.
I would say the book was alittle more challenging in
getting all of the things thatwe want in there and all of the

(35:50):
meaning and the layers.
My favorite page was when theyfirst opened up into the
classroom because I put all thelittle hidden details on the
walls and things like that, andthen there's lighting and
shading and things like that.
So the activity book is prettysimple because we wanted to
leave it open for people to beable to color and do their own
thing in there, and so it's alot more open to interpretation

(36:14):
versus the book itself, wherewe're world building essentially
no that makes so much sense.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
I'm glad I asked that , because I wouldn't have really
thought about that way and youjust said that.
So I'm looking at the picturesof the classroom and I realized
how much is in the background.
It's the indie book covers,it's the letters from the A to Z
and all that stuff that youreally are Like you said, you're
layering and there's so muchmore to it than just the
characters, and so you've reallycreated a world.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Exactly.
That's one of the bestcompliments we can get,
specifically for Jen.
When people say every time Iread it, I see something else.
I think of something elsebecause it's going to be details
that maybe they didn't see thefirst time.
And I promise you that Jen andI talk about those details like

(37:06):
ad nauseam.
In fact, julie, one of thethings that we identified when
we made the first book at theend of the book and now we get
it.
But at the end of the book, whenwe were done with the process
and it had been sent to print, Isaid to Jen I'm like this is
really strange, it's a strangefeeling.
I have this feeling, almost forlack of a better term.
At the time I was like it'salmost like sadness, and she

(37:29):
said I know, I feel that way too.
So, basically, what we figuredwas the creative process, just
as two people that have thatmindset and love to do what we
do and this is our passionproject it was a moment of oh,
it's over, or at least thatportion of it was over, and so
we felt that, because we didn'tknow we were going to make more

(37:53):
books, we didn't know if it wasgoing to be successful.
So in some ways the best partwas over.
What we thought was the bestpart was over.
And now that we've identifiedthat when we make a new book, I
just I personally tried toreally be immersed in it,
because it's the part that Ireally enjoy.
And now that I know thatsomething, I just know that

(38:17):
something cool will come out ofit, that maybe that just even
adds to the experience.
But I love even the writing.
When I get stuck.
That can be hard sometimes,because I took that road of
making them rhyming books andI'm glad, like Jen said, I'm
glad I didn't do research onthat, because you'll find a lot
of people say that you shouldn'tdo that.

(38:38):
Basically, that whole Dr Seussdid it and no one's going to do
it any better and all that greatstuff and you could get
discouraged if you let yourselfand if you know too much.
We didn't know enough for that.
So I knew that my kidsresponded to rhyming books and I
always envisioned that it wouldrhyme.
Even when I get stuck, I stilltry to remember that the best

(39:00):
part of it is the creating andfinding a solution.
I think Jen and I have donethat with each other.
If I'm stuck on the words and Itell her this is what I'm
trying to get to.
Or if she's stuck on anillustration, what do you think
you were envisioning at thistime?
Or what do you think if I gothis direction, we just build
from there and we the back andforth.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
A lot of times in picture book making you have the
author that sends it to theillustrator, that sends it to
the designer, the publisher, andwe're just working together
back and forth.
And a lot of times Theresagives me input and I ask for
input on what she's picturingwhen I make the illustration.
Sometimes I'm like, oh, I knowexactly what I'm going to do.
And then there is that rareoccasion where it goes the

(39:44):
opposite way, where I'm like,can we maybe?
And I'll talk through some ofthe words and make changes.
I don't think it happens thatway as often, because the words
come first and I'm really hereto carry out the vision of what
the writing is.
But we've had that once in awhile, so we really get to
collaborate and be a partnershipinstead of just drawing what he

(40:08):
asks for.
Vice versa.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
We at the first year we had the book.
Jen and I actually joined anorganization for children's book
authors and illustratorsbecause we wanted to learn a
little bit more and just figureout where we might take what we
were doing.
And we joined it and they had aconference event that we went
to and it was so enlighteningfor us.

(40:33):
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
But at the same time it taughtme and, turns out, jen too that
what we learned from that isthat we didn't want to go the
traditional route.
We just they had speakers wholiterally had waited 18 years to
get published and also nevercollaborated with their

(40:54):
illustrator.
The process is verybusiness-like, which I
understand.
In the end it's a business, butI could not envision that ever.
Like I told you, thecollaboration was the best part.
Under those rules, we wouldhave never been able to create
the way that we created.

(41:14):
In fact, I think it was Jenthat gave it a name.
We called it the Indie Magic.
We could tell when we were inthe zone of the Indie, magic
would come.
And I think if we'd gone thetraditional route which honestly
the traditional route justwasn't right for what we were
doing and our goals but if thathad been an option.
I just don't think it wouldhave ever been the same we

(41:38):
learned that we don't want to doit that way.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
I was thinking earlier when you were talking
that I know that a lot of timesit's the story and the story
gets sent to someone to createwhat the story is about.
But you guys are reallycreating both parts of the story
the images and the wordstogether, and back and forth.
I'm sure that makes it a muchmore powerful product in the end
, not to say, the otherchildren's books that are

(42:01):
created the other way aren'tgreat, but for you guys it
really was about thecollaboration that fueled the
creativity.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
Exactly.
I think our books have apurpose that's a lot different
than a traditional publishingroute would take, where it's
really become a vessel forcommunity and change and
educating people about thesepets and how special it is to
have a shelter pet and to takepride in your community.
If you love where you live,you'll want to help these

(42:32):
abandoned dogs, you'll want tohelp these shelters, and so it
all cycles around back to ourgoal and being this platform
that we've developed forourselves, and so we just do it
a little differently, becauseit's more than just a book for
us, right?

Speaker 1 (42:48):
No, I think what you said is so important.
That's why I do this podcast isfor people to understand why
rescue and fostering an adoptionis important, but also the
impact it can have on youpersonally when you actually get
to do it yourself and have thatexperience.
You're also educating kidsabout what that means in terms

(43:09):
of what does it mean to adopt apet, what does it mean to what
is a shelter and all of thosethings.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Every assembly we have a section in the
presentation that talks thatclearly identifies that Indie
was a shelter dog, and I stilluse her adoption papers from the
shelter and show her photo andin her photo she looks scared.
She doesn't even really looklike the same dog.
And so my messaging to the kidswhich honestly, that's who

(43:40):
we've got to get to We've got toget to the kids to learn what
responsible pet ownership lookslike, and we always tell them
adopt, don't shop.
And there's great animals.
And then when they see Indieand the real life pictures of
her and a really fun video ofher that we play at the end, I
know that they're walking awaywith whatever perception they

(44:04):
may have had about shelteranimals.
I know for a fact we've changedit and the ripple effects of
that.
The one time I do remembersomebody sent me a text with a
photo of a dog that they adoptedfrom the SPCA and on the way
home the mom asked the littleboy, what do you want to name
the dog?
And he said Indie, like thebooks, and I basically told her

(44:29):
I'm like we could just stopright now and be done, like we
could just drop everything andI'd feel good, and so that was
just one little ripple effectthat someone took the time to
tell us about.
Who knows what else could beout there or will come because
of that, and to me that's whatit's about.
It's one animal life at a time.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
It's so funny.
I had another author onrecently who talked about how
she had sent her book, which wasabout dogs writing letters to
their grandmother.
And she attended to thepublisher and the publisher
basic the person she got itbasically said I don't really
like these kind of books.
I'll give it a shot.
And they went through theprocess and before it had even

(45:11):
been published, he emails herand says this is the dog I just
adopted because of you, becauseof going reading your book and
going through this process andlearning about the rescue dog in
it.
And one dog's life, oneanimal's life saved, like you
said, is worth it.
That's the whole purpose ofwhat we're doing and I think
it's so important.
What you said it's the kids.

(45:32):
It's the kids that need theeducation, because a lot of
times kids are going to educatetheir parents and their
grandparents and it's a real weknow that to be true.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
We just figure and there's such a captive audience.
The other thing I think that welove about the assemblies is
they're coming in.
My husband always jokes to hisheck, yeah, they're going to
like you guys, like they'regetting out of class,
everything's great.
And then they just love.
They love the stories and thepresentation and they're
learning something.
And then there's fun photos ofIndie and they see Jen's process

(46:03):
.
She takes them through to showthem how a sketch turns into a
real drawing, and we have apandering section that we call
our pandering section, where shepresents some real life cartoon
dogs and their identifyingcharacter.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
What is it like you to get to be for the school
assemblies?
To get to talk to the kidsabout drawing and illustrating,
creating, maybe sparking theirinterest in doing something like
that themselves?

Speaker 3 (46:31):
I love that aspect of it because that phrase if you
can see it, you can be it andmost kids don't really.
They absorb all of this contentconstantly.
They're seeing things that aredesigned, they're watching
movies, they're reading books,but you don't really have that
bridge to understand that's anactual job that somebody can do.
And so here I am, coming in andsaying, oh yeah, this is my job

(46:53):
, this is what I get to do.
I get to do art and design andthe books are really more of a
passion project.
But we get to make the booksbecause my job was already art
and design related.
So I think it's really cool tohelp kids understand that this
is a career they can have andit's valuable and they can
pursue that if they'd like to.
And I'm always on a soapboxabout artistic careers being

(47:16):
valuable and worthwhile ifthat's what people want to
pursue.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
So it's really exciting for me to get to this
with young children especially,yeah, I'm sure especially as a
mom, because you're getting toteach other kids like yours.
But yeah, when I was little, Iloved drawing, and I'm sure if
something like that had beenpresented at my school, it may
have inspired me to do more ofit.
And, like you said, though,especially in our world where

(47:40):
they're constantly seeing imagesin different ways, that it's
really easy for them to have noidea that someone had to create
that image in a process.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
And I think that I know or when I have people say,
oh, my kid's really into art andwants a job.
They think animation they thinkthey have to work for Pixar,
they think they have to getdiscovered and become a big name
, like work for big publishers.
But it's much broader than thatand it's funny too, because we

(48:11):
go into these schools and it'slike they might have a
perception of us that's biggerthan it actually is, but really
we're just people that live hereand work here and these get to
be our jobs to be creative andto do things like this.
So I think that's valuablemessaging too, that you don't
have to be a big, famous artistor work for a huge company.

(48:34):
There's all kinds of differentcreative careers that you could
get into.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
Yeah, no, I love having people who are.
I've had people on the podcastthat do pet portraits, which I
think are amazing, and evenmyself, being in podcasting the
last two years, I've realizedhow much more there is like
cover art and logos and allthese things that I hope someday
I can afford to pay someone todo better versions of for me
than just using Canva.

(48:59):
But there's so many elements tocreation that unless you're in
it, you don't necessarily knowit, and there's so much in
podcasting that's connected towriting, blogging, books and
then the visual aspect ofpresenting it, but, like you
said, they don't know it existsuntil someone tells them this is

(49:19):
how it happened.
So I'm sure that your schoolassemblies are really great
because there's so many layersto what you're educating the
kids on, beyond the book itself.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
Yeah, it is.
It's just like I said, it'sdogs, baker-svelled books, like
at all layers, like this greatlittle array of things that we
get to share about and breakdown and sometimes the
presentations and where thingsgo with the kids in these
assemblies when we have time toask questions that go in really

(49:50):
unexpected ways or reallythoughtful questions that we
were surprised came from thekids.
But they really think aboutthese things and you can tell
that they're really putting itall together.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
That's so amazing.
I can just think theirimagination's right at a point
where they're seeing in a waythat we would have never even
thought about.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
That the kids, that the times that they are
surprised that we're frombaker-svelled the automatic
sense of I'm going to get to dosomething cool.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
But I have to leave to do it.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
And these people?
Yeah, they see us and theythink we must be coming to them
from LA or the Bay Area orsomething.
There's no possible way thatwe're from baker-svelled.
So I hope that's an impression.
That's another impression we'rehaving.

Speaker 3 (50:35):
I simultaneously love that they think that we're
bigger than we are.
Yeah yeah, Love theafter-breaking that.
Yeah oh, we're just.
We're from here too.
It's fun.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Yeah, I just lived down the street, or whatever it
may be.
I think maybe a great place toend would be to talk about for
you and who knows where thiswill go for you guys as you
continue to create books.
So you created this legacy ofIndy beyond Indy herself, and so
for both of you, what this is apet podcast.

(51:08):
Coming back to the pets and Iknow it's a really big reason
why you guys started these booksis what do you want people to
know in terms of not just evenIndy's legacy, but your legacy
in creating these characters,and why pets are just so
important and why we want toeducate more people about them.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
I think that's where I'm coming from is just being
able to, like Jen said, help theplatform to talk about the
importance of responsible petownership and to make people
aware of how great the animalscan be.
If just given the chance andthat's what Indy was for us is,
we gave her a chance and sheended up inspiring a whole

(51:50):
series of children's books.
And that's just one story.
It doesn't have to be that big.
If she did nothing else but thebest dog ever that she was,
that would have been enough too.
So I think people feel Jen hassaid this before too people feel
the loves that we put into thebooks, because that's coming
from our true love of rescueanimals and community, and so

(52:14):
that's the legacy that I'd liketo see them leave.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
What about you, Jen?

Speaker 3 (52:20):
The one thing.
Like I mentioned, the book hasmultiple layers and goals and
ways that we can share andeducate, but the coming back to
the pets is always the mostimportant thing for us, because
the love for these books camefrom the love of our pets and
the love that they give back tous.
And if people take a chance ona pet, that love in your life is

(52:43):
so empowering and life-changingto have something that just
loves you unconditionally andforgives fast and just want to
be accepted and loved.
And that's what these pets dofor us and they're here for us
and staring into these big browneyes over here and I get all of
you.
My baby is 12.

(53:04):
My dog baby, my real baby, isseven and being able like.
The best thing about creatingthese books is that we lose our
pets in our lifetime becauseit's just the unfairness of
loving a dog or a cat and thatwe will live longer than them.
But that love is permanent inour hearts and now we've made it

(53:26):
permanent through these booksand we get to keep sharing it
and sharing it with other peopleand hope that inspires them to
let that love into their livesand to bring in a pet too.
So I would say that's ourultimate goal is just bringing
it back to our love for animalsand hoping that people are
inspired to bring a pet intotheir lives and give them that

(53:46):
love in that home Exactly.

Speaker 2 (53:49):
And then having the books, julie.
It does give us the.
It gives us the ability toanswer the call out from our
local groups.
I'm proud to say that on GivingTuesday we were able to donate
a total of $450 to threedifferent animal rescue group
missions, and that makes us feelreally good to have the ability

(54:09):
to do that.
Our books are not a bigbusiness per se.
We're not going to be on thestock market.
We've found a formula that thebooks that we make do well
enough that we can continue tomake books.
But they also give us theability to donate books, to
donate money to host eventswhere we ask for people to bring

(54:32):
things that the shelters areasking for.
So that's another part of it.
We get to give back to animalsthat give us so much.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Yeah.
So that's a whole of that.
People don't realize everypiece of it matters.
The education the kids all agesneed to be educated.
The piece of inspiring someoneto adopt, because who rescued
you?
They're going to rescue youright back, probably 10 fold
Right, because they just haveall the love waiting to give you
and no matter what theirbackstory is their unconditional

(55:03):
love.
None of that really matters inthe end when you give them the
time and the commitment.
But also, you know, like you'vesaid, is not, it's the monetary
donations that are rescues andshelters need so desperately
right now, whether it's actualmoney or donations, as well as
time.
I've learned that I had nevervolunteered for a rescuer
shelter before I started thispodcast, and so you realize the

(55:27):
value in your time, whether it'shosting events for them or
volunteering in the shelter, orfostering and volunteering your
time in your home.
All of those things are soimportant and if one book can do
that for one person, like youguys said, you've achieved what
you want.
And it pets, our connection,pets and stories and books, and

(55:47):
people will stop the scroll whenI have a cute picture of a dog
and they'll go oh, there's apodcast.
And I know you guys have thesame thing with your book and so
it's a powerful tool and, likeyou said, you guys have had a
creative relationship that'sallowed it to be something that
people respond to.
So, from my perspective, I wantto thank you guys for putting
your time and energy into this,because you are educating the

(56:08):
next generation and so manyothers, not just about pets but
our community, and I thinkthat's great and I just hope
more I'm going to keep postingit and more people will buy it
and they'll learn and they'llsay you know what?
That Indie was a pretty awesomedog.
I might have to go find myselfone too.
I would be great.
Yes, thank you both.
Again, it was so great to meetyou both in the setting.

(56:30):
Hopefully we live I don't knowhow many minutes away from each
other that we can work togetherin other capacities.
I'm always.
I'd love to work with you guyson whatever I can do to help
promote your books, but alsojust the message of pet adoption
and also just education, andthere's so many layers to it

(56:51):
that we can help with, and Ireally I love meeting you and
hearing more of your story andseeing that connection of what
the purpose is behind both ofyou, so thank you for your time.
Thank you for giving pieces ofyou to the listeners to learn
about you and your stories andwhere these books are coming
from, and I hope that afterhearing this, many more people

(57:13):
are going to comment by thesebooks.
They're great gifts for kids ofall ages, so just thank you
again for being here.
It was great to meet you bothand get a little picture of the
pets that have been in yourlives.
If one person listening decidesto foster or adopt from this
conversation, it'll be worth itfor all three of us.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Absolutely yes.
Thank you so much, Julie.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Thank you, my friend, for being here and listening to
this episode of the story of mypet podcast.
I hope you were inspired andtouched by this amazing pet
story and I hope you come backto listen to more episodes soon.
Make sure you don't miss anynew episodes by clicking
subscribe wherever you arelistening to this podcast right

(58:06):
now.
Want to help the podcast grow?
Then hit rating and reviewwherever you are listening to
this podcast.
Every review helps get thepodcast in front of more people
and heard by more listeners, sothat the podcast can inspire
more people to rescue, fosterand adopt animals in need today.

(58:27):
Thank you so much for beinghere and much love to you and
your pets.