A crazy year — it isn’t easy!

Nine-year-old’s story helps COVID kids in new book I wrote and published in 30 days

For weeks, the headlines built to a crescendo — pandemic life changes we only lived through fiction. Cases of COVID-19 skyrocketed in Europe, rose quickly in the U.S. and around the globe. Social distancing became the new norm.

Cable and network news brought us dramatic scenes of death and uplifting outpouring of human emotion, from musical balconies in Italy, to nightly cheers through New York City’s high-rise windows.

That was 10 weeks ago. And that’s when I first started thinking about COVID and kids.

It was March 16th, the last time my stepson and family (and for that matter anyone) was in our home.

We talked about what social distancing would ultimately look like, and for how long. Schools had just closed. Stores and restaurants shut. And 9-year-old Aiden sat at our dining room table not saying a word.

I turned to the only child in the room and asked what he thought — how he felt about all that was happening.

While our elected officials and healthcare experts escalated awareness of the severity and uncertainty of the COVID-19 threat, millions of small frightened ears listened. I began calling them our COVIDkids and spent the next week drafting and re-crafting my first children’s book, A crazy year — it isn’t easy!

In the book, Aiden tells his story of the changes and challenges of living through the 2020 COVID pandemic, amid other forever altering life events. He was about to become a big brother for the first time, to identical twin boys!

On the cover, Aiden looks out the window and thinks about missing his friends, soccer and school. “I really want to run out the door to play with the kids next door, just for a few minutes.” He knows he can’t, and he doesn’t know for how long.

As we learn more about him, he tells us it’s hard to think about sharing his mom with the imminent twins. He already has to share his dad’s attention with his new step-family. And he tells us several times: “It isn’t easy!”

Keep turning the paperback pages and Aiden begins to make a list of all the good things he notices around him. Children proudly exhibit their homemade rainbows, from sidewalk chalk art and multi-colored T-shirts hanging on a porch, to a kitchen window’s kindergarten collage. Neighbors check in to see how his very pregnant mom is doing. Friends ask if his family needs anything at the store or pharmacy.

By the end of the book, he is feeling quite grateful. He thinks about how the social distancing experience has prepared him for next time he is challenged by change and uncertainty. He’ll talk more about his feelings. He’ll offer to help others around him . . . he’ll have an easier time the next time he’s feeling “it isn’t easy!”

I knew I had a short window to get the book out into the world, so I chose photographs over illustration, a self-publishing hybrid model over time-consuming publisher pitching. Within a month, the book was written, vetted by teachers, social workers, parents and 7–12 year-olds. Design files were complete and it was at the printer, with my first proof in hand a week later. It should be shipped to pre-order customers in the next few weeks.

For me, all of that was the easy part. My challenge now is getting books in hands — helping this “engaging, hopeful, helpful conversation starter” find its way into the homes and heads of school age kids.

A 25-year+ writer, editor and non-profit communications director, my fingers, eyes and thoughts are never far from my laptop. From Twitter-length and micro-stories to long-form magazine features, I write, pitch stories and write some more.

I know marketing communications strategy, first hand and via renowned marketing gurus over time. I ghostwrote a corporate marketing expert’s book on the subject nearly 15 years ago. And I have the proven skills for promotion and media relations.

But honestly, this time, “it isn’t easy!” Maybe because this time it’s FOR me, not BY me for someone else.

My very first media pitch landed me an encouraging interview on the local NBC affiliate’s nightly news in Upstate NY. Since then, I spend several hours a day pitching national media, contacting organizations for teachers, parents and child mental health professions, and actively working the social media world — posting about the book, respectfully trolling related topics, commenting, tagging . . . repeat, repeat, repeat.

The focus of daily COVID headlines recently turned to our mental well-being. Healthcare professionals, teachers, child advocates and government officials use public platforms to acknowledge we have to take care of our kids. They are living through traumatizing events and not equipped to deal with the anxiety, uncertainty and emotional toll.

Now we’re talking!

Timing informs opportunity. So multiple people with multiple connections helped me reach out to the right contacts. Still, no national attention for a book written by a grandmother, told by her grandson, important and timely to help children cope with this pandemic, with a few chuckles along the way. Seems like a great happy hour news story. (Am I biased?)

Am I discouraged? Absolutely not!

Early on, I thought about my goals for this project. Yes, I need to get my investment back for publishing, graphic design, misc. expenses, even possibly my own time. But my fundamental goal is to get this book held by as many parents, teachers and kids as possible.

This is my true motivation. So I’ve reached out to foundations, philanthropists, corporations and unions. Every day I speak with colleagues and friends, child psychologists and educators to discuss channels for distribution.

My primary marketing strategy is the same six weeks in: invite people to gift a book to a teacher, parent, school or library. Buy a book for a child or grandchild. People are liking it, especially Zoom-only grandparents who wish there was more they could do as they worry about how their COVIDkids will be affected by what’s going on (and not going on) in their young lives.

Broadening options, I am working to secure funders to underwrite large numbers of books to donate directly to children.

Why not put a book in the bag when a young family picks up meals at a school or food pantry?

Why not have local civic organizations purchase books for teachers in their communities?

Billionaires, celebrities, mega-corp executives: so many are doing so much to help the COVID crisis, actively supporting research, testing and a cure; helping employees, customers and healthcare workers on the front lines. Wouldn’t helping at-risk kids in our most vulnerable communities deal with the emotional challenges of these crazy times be just another drop in the proverbial bucket?

It’s now 2:45 a.m. and what I started as notes to remember when I wake up is now a yellow legal pad filled with 1100 words of thought.

It can’t be helped. A writer writes.

This is my first story for Medium. We’re all in this together as global partners. Sharing our stories will help us come out of it side by side.