The Philosophy Behind My Kid's Books

See the video transcript below, for those of you who prefer to read.

In the video I explain a little bit about why I chose to write The Leunam Tales and Horatio in the Wind and Rose Marie and the Crystal of Desires. 

I like to think of my books as a light fiction-infused introduction to some of the great masters of philosophy, modern and otherwise. 

I think it is us as parents who project fears and project things that we have not dealt with onto our kids and we say, oh this is too scary for them to talk about. But the reality is nobody wants to talk about loss until they have to talk about loss.

I think that we can move through life a little bit more prepared and equipped to deal with those moments, and not only to deal with those moments but to deal with them in a different way.

I think that's what I like to do. If I contemplate my mortality every day, I do my best to live that day fully and I honestly have no choice in contemplating my mortality; the thoughts about that will come to me every single day. 

It's a reality: we are in mortal bodies, we are mortal beings or spiritual beings having a mortal experience, whatever you want to call it. And I find my books where the ideas came to me as a means to broaden the conversations that we can have with children about profound subjects in life, among them the things I've learned from books and authors like Eckhart Tolle, Alan Watts, Buddha, Jesus. 

I just wanted to create in a very non-denominational way books that had almost a religious purpose, if you will, a purpose of connecting us to ourselves and to God or to the world, whatever you want to call it, and to one another. 

You'd be shocked at the conversations that I've had with children because of my books. I've had a six-year-old say that Death was her favorite character, and when asked why, which was already shocking to me, you know, growing up being so afraid of this. 

To have a kid be like, 'Oh, yeah, she's my favorite character.' Why? Because she's eternal. She has a beautiful crystal, and she can be anywhere in time. 

Another child, I think she was 5. She said to me, 'Will I become cosmic dust when I die?' 

I said, 'That's what I think happens. Um, so that's my impression, yes.’

And she said, 'Yeah, I can handle that. I think I'll be ready.' And she went on to play... 

These books are tools that help us have these conversations that may be difficult for you, the parent, to give you a non-denominational story to start having deep, meaningful conversations about some of the more profound aspects of life. 

You will be shocked at how much you will end up learning from your kids, how much fear you will heal when you hear the way that your kids express themselves after reading these books. It is not scary for them; it's scary for you. 

And this is okay, we can let our kids be our teachers. I hope that with that in mind, you overcome your little bit of fear. 

You may think 'Oh, I don't want to talk about loss, I don't want to talk about death with my kids.' 

I encourage you to get past that. It's all done through magical stories, magical soundtracks and movie-like illustrations. 

This book, The Leunam Tales, Horatio in the Wind, and Rose Marie and the Crystal of Desires, Knock My Words, they're meant to be movies; they will be Movies.

For now, they are books with Immersive, Stunning, Fully Orchestrated Soundtracks. 

I hope you enjoy them.