Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway: Tales from Cloud Canyon by Dr. Rachel Kowert PhD

Welcome to my stop on the virtual book tour for Tales from Cloud Canyon by Dr. Rachel Kowert PhD. This book tour was organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. On my stop, I have an excerpt from the book as well as the inspiration behind the book. There's also the tour wide giveaway for a chance to win a $75 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card and one copy each of the books in the series. Be sure to visit the other stops on the tour for more content. Enjoy!

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Series: Tales from Cloud Canyon

Author: Dr. Rachel Kowert PhD

Publisher: Your Own Castle, LLC

Expected Publication Date: June 2022

Genre: Children's Fiction

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THE STORIES

Tales from Cloud Canyon is a series of character driven, topical short stories celebrating the everyday child, doing everyday things, with their everyday abilities designed for children aged 3+. Developed by a research psychologist and mom of 3, these stories were developed to be entertaining, educational, and celebrate the power of the everyday within our the beautiful, diverse world.

This Kickstarter collection features three topical short stories from the Cloud Canyon Universe: Here, There, & Everywhere, The Secret to Success, and Invisible Friends. Each of these titles are fully illustrated from artist Randall Hampton and are about 25 pages long.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE WRITING

The fictional characters in childhood stories are some of our earliest teachers. We learn a range of things through the observation of these symbolic models, such as what is right and wrong, a desirable and undesirable behavior, gender roles, norms, stereotypes, and more. The role of models is particularly influential in childhood as it can have a long lasting impact on development.

Each story in this collection was developed to not only be entertaining but educational as well, with the stories' characters modeling a range of age-appropriate skills spanning four areas of human development: intellectual, social, emotional, and moral. The skills that are modeled within any particular story are displayed on the back cover of each book and explained in more detail on the last page of the book.

DIVERSITY, REPRESENTATION & INCLUSION

Tales from Cloud Canyon changes the narrative by reflecting and celebrating the beautiful and diverse reality of our world. The characters within the Cloud Canyon Universe were developed to represent a range of shapes, sizes, abilities and disabilities, and traditional and non-traditional families.

In the Cloud Canyon universe:

-More than half the characters are female

-More than half the characters come from an ethnic-minority background

-1 in 10 characters have a visible disability

-Characters come from traditional and non-traditional families

-Different body shapes are represented

-she/her, he/him, and they/them pronouns are represented

It was also equally important that these details were not the central theme of the stories themselves as our shape, level of ability, and what our family unit looks like are just some of the many parts of who we are and not necessarily the defining feature of our stories.

PRODUCTION AND RELEASE

All of the stories have been written and are currently being brought to life through the illustrative magic of Randall Hampton. The physical production of the books is expected to start in June 2022. Time from production to shipping is about 6 - 8 weeks (+/- 2-4 additional weeks due to COVID delays). Once Rachel receives the books, they will be shipped to backers. There is an expected arrival date of the books no later than November 2022.

Kickstarter Campaign

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BOOK TRAILER:

Watch the book trailer below or by clicking here.

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EXCERPT:

(Here, There, & Everywhere is the story of Eli and Ophelia. Ophelia notices Eli isn’t at school one day only to find he is at home mourning the loss of his grandmother. This is a story about death, dying, and grief told in a child appropriate way from a faith-agnostic perspective. Meaning, it would be just as appropriate in a religious home as it would be in a non religious home.)

“First we are kids, then grown ups, then wrinkly and old,

And life is a cycle that way, so I’ve been told.”

Eli paused and looked back up at his friend,

“But what about after? What happens in the end?”

“Well, that is a really big, difficult question,

There are a lot of ideas, superstition.

Some say you go up in to Heaven in the sky,

And reunite with everyone who passed you by.

Others say you come back here as something different,

A bird or butterfly, something significant.”

“But whatever happens, a part of them stays here,

Inside of all the people they’ve met and held dear.

We hold pieces of everyone we’ve loved, embraced,

Those who are still here and those in a different place.”

“Though she’s not here, your grandma is a part of you,

Who you are and the things that you think, say, and do.

The way your hair springs up, your encouraging gaze.

Those are just two of the many possible ways.

So really you two will always be together,

In your heart and your mind, today and forever.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dr. Rachel Kowert is a research psychologist, award-winning author and mom of three. In 2019, she launched her first Kickstarter project from the Cloud Canyon universe was a collection of female centered stories entitled Pragmatic Princess: 26 Stories of Self Sufficiency and raised more than $25,000 in 30 days and won an INDIES award for educational children's picture book.

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GUEST POST:

- Who or what was the inspiration behind this book series?

The initial ideas behind Tales from Cloud Canyon came to me in 2019 when my daughter was 4 years old. I was lucky enough to pick up about a hundred different paperback books at a garage sale of a former teacher and had started reading her a new book every night before bed. After a few weeks of this, I started to notice a theme: there were very few books with female protagonists and when there were, they were pigeonholed into a damsel in distress or only successfully navigated their challenges with the use of superpowers. While there is nothing wrong with a female superhero or a knight in shining armor, I wanted something different.

After a bit of digging I realized there was a dramatic lack of representation in children’s literature. The Nielson 2018 book scan report found that of the top 100 best selling children’s books, 1 in 5 did not feature a single female character, only 2 out of the top 100 featured a black, Asian, or minority ethnic character in a central role ( with 70% of the black, Asian, or ethnic characters were in non-speaking roles) and only 1 out of the top 100 featured a disabled child but they did not speak or have a key role.

After some encouragement from a friend, I decided to sit down and see if perhaps I could be the change I wanted to see in the literary world and in less than two weeks I had written what ended up becoming the first collection in the Tales from Cloud Canyon Universe: the 26 stories of Pragmatic Princess. In 2019, I successfully kickstarted these stories as the collection Pragmatic Princess: 26 Superb Stories of Self-Sufficiency and raised more than $25,000 in 30 days and earned an INDIES award for educational children’s picture books. So I guess I can write children’s books.

Over the last few years, I have continued to write and expand the Cloud Canyon universe and am excited to announce that I am launching a second Kickstarter June 4 for a BRAND NEW collection of three topical short stories: Here, There, & Everywhere, Invisible Friends, and The Secret to Success. These stories are the ones that I felt were still missing from my children’s library.

The primary motivation for these stories continues to be the desire for every child to see themselves as the hero of their own story. When children grow up not seeing themselves reflected in the media they consume, they grow up feeling like they don’t matter. So within the Cloud Canyon universe more than half of the characters are female, more than half come from a minority background, and 1 in 10 have visible disabilities. It was equally important that these details were not the central theme of the stories themselves as our shape, level of ability, and what our family unit looks like are just some of the many parts of who we are and not necessarily the defining feature of our stories.

My goal with Tales from Cloud Canyon is to change the status quo around children’s literature and let children know that they are the heroes of their own story, no matter their gender, ability or background. I want all children to have the opportunity to celebrate the power of the everyday through the magic of storytelling… and maybe learn a thing or two along the way.

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ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR:

Randall Hampton is an author, illustrator, husband and father of 3. He is the Creator of "The Little Game Master" series of books and considers himself a story teller above all else. When he is not spending time with family and friends, Randall enjoys reading, video games, music, and table top games of all sorts.

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GIVEAWAY:

Dr. Rachel Kowert PhD will be awarding a $75 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card and 1 copy of each of the 3 Cloud Canyon books (available in November) to a randomly drawn US winner via Rafflecopter. Good luck!

(All the Ups and Downs is not responsible for this giveaway, its entries, or the prizes. Goddess Fish Promotions and the author assume all responsibility over this giveaway.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway