I guess I'm an author now?

Hi, I'm Brian, and I'm a children's book author…

Am I? I think I still need some convincing.

This all kinda happened by accident. It started as a song that I would sing to our dog, Pepino, when he had the zoomies or was getting into trouble: "Oh, Pepino, the dog with no chill!". This one-line song developed into a full manuscript that lived in my iPhone Notes app for over a year. I entertained the idea of turning it into a book, but carving out the time with a full-time career and a young child proved difficult, so it sat on the mountain of rainy-day creative projects I've come up with over the years...

Then I lost my job...

For the first time in my adult life, I had time. At first, I squandered that time by throwing myself headfirst into the job search, spending 12+ hours a day applying, networking, interviewing, taking courses, and building my portfolio. After a few months of this, I was fried. Witnessing me burning the candle at both ends and growing frustrated, my amazing and incredibly supportive wife, Jessica, suggested I take a step back and focus on a project that would bring me joy.

There was so much to do and learn. Besides my master's thesis, I've never written a book, let alone illustrated one; I'm a UI/UX designer, not an artist. I was determined to make it happen, though.

I made some early mistakes, choosing to use my old pal, Figma, to illustrate and format a book rather than using a dedicated illustration app, being prime among them. The lack of native support for CMYK colorspace, 300 dpi resolution, and imperial units made the process harder than needed, but like my work as a designer, solving problems and working within constraints is half the fun!

And now it's done. During the time I was working on "Oh, Pepino!", I wrote 4 more manuscripts: two follow-ups in the "Pepino the Pup" series, a book about Pterosaurs, and a book to help families cope when a parent loses their job. Those are all in progress now.

One of our favorite rituals with our 3-year-old son, Grayson, is the nightly bedtime story. Grayson has become quite the book critic and has a handful of go-to stories. My main objective for "Oh, Pepino!" was to make Grayson's shortlist, and I'm happy to report that I succeeded. Our author proof copy of "Peo Book" has been on heavy rotation at the Leary house.

Despite the uncomfortable circumstances surrounding my journey to becoming a children's author, I'm happy life has led me here. If there's one piece of advice I can give those of you struggling with something in your life, it's to take some time to work on a personal project. It doesn't have to be a book. Write a song. Restore that old end table you've been meaning to fix up. Heck… build a LEGO kit. Find something to take you out of that negative headspace for a while. It certainly helped me.