Robbie the Butterfly by Robert Larson
Today we are delighted to “take the baton” from Lori Boatman to promote Robert Larson’s new children’s book on Ascension, Robbie the Butterfly.
I asked Robert about the actual process of writing his book -I know a lot of Spiritus members are authors, or thinking of becoming authors -so I was interested to find out how Robert did it!
1 – What were the very first words you wrote of your book, Robert? Whereabouts are they to be found in the book? How did they come to be the first ones you wrote?
“Once upon a time there was a caterpillar named Robbie who grew up in a strange caterpillar world. Even as a tiny caterpillar, Robbie felt different from the other little caterpillars because deep down, Robbie knew he was destined to transform into something wonderful. However, he didn’t know exactly what and it took him years to find out.”
I wanted to set the tone for the entire story at the beginning. Robbie feels alienated from the rest of the world, but I wanted to emphasize that this was not a bad thing. He is destined to one day transform into a butterfly and lead the way for the other caterpillars, but at first he feels out of step with the rest of the caterpillar world.
This parallels exactly the way I always felt as a child, and now as an adult, I realize my mission as a starseed. To lead the way for the ascension of planet Earth. This is how it is for all starseeds on the ascension path. We feel out of step with the rest of the world because we’re leading the way for others to follow.
2- Where did you actually do most of your writing? What worked well with that choice? Would you change that in the future?
I wrote my entire manuscript at my home computer. It was perfect for me because I didn’t have to go anywhere. There were no distractions. No I definitely wouldn’t change that because I was able to write at my own pace and focus on my passion.
3 – Who was the first person to read the completed manuscript? What did you feel as you gave it to them to read?
There were 3 people who I e-mailed my manuscript to. My Aunt Viv, my spiritual teacher Zakairan, and my friend Brenda. I was very excited to send it to them because I made them all characters in my book.
Aunt Viv is Vivy, Zakairan is Zaki, and Brenda is Prissy. These are people that stood by me through thick and thin in my ascension journey. So when I got the idea in my head to write a book as a metaphor for my own spiritual awakening, I decided to make everyone I know characters in my book.
Of course they all loved my story, and were very proud of my accomplishment. They were all very honored to be characters in my story.
4 – Why did you choose the format you chose? The font, the font size, the page size etc? Was it difficult to choose?
When I wrote my story I used a slightly larger than normal font size. I usually use font size 14 for everything including e-mails because I like my letters to be big and bold so everyone can read them.
I realize some people can’t read small letters very well, and everyone can read larger fonts. I did this on my website too. I did font size 14 and made the letters BOLD so they stand out. Also, it’s important that the colors be simple so people can read the words. Like, black letters on white or light blue paper is best. Who wants to try to read purple letters on red paper. I’ve seen that on some websites and it’s hard to read. As for page size, I just used the standard size for Microsoft Word. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.
5 – when did you start marketing your book? Why have you chosen to do this blog tour?
Well, I am a first time author so I’m new to this whole world of marketing. I’ve read that you should start marketing your book long before it even gets published, but I honestly didn’t know the first thing about marketing. So I had to learn all about this on my own. I finally built my website and set up a facebook account last May.
So I’m really just getting started marketing my book, even though it was released June 28. Things have been going really good for me on facebook so far, and I recently learned a great way to get your message out there, and that’s a virtual blog tour. I love expressing myself in writing, and this is a great way for me to share my passion with my target audience. It’s also a great way to reveal all the hidden messages in my book, which I have done in all my articles. I also get to share all the reasons why I wrote my story and all the ways I feel the message can help children.
6 – What is the single most important thing you want people to take from reading your book?
UNITY. That is the goal for all us lightworkers. We want to create unity. All the years I grew up there was so much separation among children. All the kids were labeling each other and gossiping about each other. It was always about proving how tough you were. Creating false identities that were based in ego.
The main message in my book is living in the now is the key to spiritual transformation. If children were taught to live in the present moment school would be a different place than I grew up in. There would be peace, and no labeling. Everyone would honor and respect each other for their differences, because they would realize that differences are only in the mind. If everyone had no thoughts running through their minds, everyone would be the same. Past and future are all in the mind. It’s all memory and anticipation.
The present moment is all there is, and when you realize this fully you open yourself up to unconditional love. That’s what I want for the children of the New Earth. It all comes back to Unity. In the present moment we are all the same. There’s literally no time for false perceptions and judgements.
Thank your Robert -I hope everyone reading this is as fascinated as me in your answers!
You can follow the tour tomorrow with Hillary Raimo.
Robert’s website is www.robbiethebutterfly.com.
His publisher’s website is: www.pickawoowoo.com.
Find him on Facebook or his Facebook fan page and his group Children’s Spiritual Books
Buy Robbie the Caterpillar on Amazon.
-
Posted by spiritus on September 16th, 2010 filed in Spiritual Marketing
