Hey guys, Matt Major from Good News York. Welcome
back. We are in our new studio, but we're not
using the full -blown set yet. And I know I'm
driving Danny crazy, because he's like, come
on, can we just shoot this thing? But it's not
ready. So we're working on it. But we are taking
a portion. You've seen a few things. You've seen
our. set in the train so far. You've seen some
interviews there. You've seen some interviews
at some of our client sets in the back. And you're
going to see more of that. And today we are at
our guest area here at the Good News York set
here at Clickstream Studios. So I'm very excited.
I'm also very excited to kick off this. This
this little corner area for the first time with
a really interesting person who has done an incredible
thing Which is write a book and and to me that
is just absolutely incredible It's a children's
book and we're gonna learn a little bit about
it and her and how she got here But we were just
talking about how needed is to actually have
a physical thing, you know I'm always very impressed
with people that did create things that you can
hold in your hand. So without further ado Candice
block has joined us. Welcome to the show Hi,
Matt. Thank you. So, Candice, tell us a little
bit about this book that we're looking at in
front of us here. Well, it's a children's picture
book. It's called Marshmallow and Coco. It's
about marshmallow skunk trying to make friends.
But, you know, who wants to be friends with a
skunk because they stink. And on his journey,
he tries to make friends with a porcupine, a
chipmunk, a squirrel, and even rabbits, but they
all reject him. And he actually comes across
Coco, the porcupine, who also wants to be friends
with the porcupine because of the quills. You
know, and he actually, Marshmallow's afraid of
Coco. So, but on his journey, he encounters him
and he realizes that, you know, he's afraid also
and that he doesn't have any friends. So, towards
the end, he meets him and decides, you know,
we all need friends. You know, maybe he's just
as lonely as he is. So, they actually become
friends. This is such a cool book, and we'll
show some close -ups. I don't know how well you
can see here, but it is a true, it reminds me
a little bit of the, you know, the little golden
books, the classic children's story books. You've
got some great, where did these? these awesome
drawings come from. Are you an illustrator as
well, Candace? No, I wish I was. But no, I had
the input. I told my publisher what I wanted,
how I wanted it. It was a little bit longer process
for the illustration. They look great, though.
That's the thing. Like I said, they remind me
of the classic children's book. Yes. Goes so
well with your story. What inspired this? It
actually started out as a homework assignment.
Oh, wow. But kids nowadays, or even when I was
growing up, some of us got bullied because we
didn't look like the in -crowd or we didn't dress
like them. And I think children need to feel
loved and that their differences shouldn't Stop
them from having friends sure that they're worthy
of friendship. You know that we're all creating
God image and Our differences should be celebrated
and that they should feel belong that they belong
and that they're worthy of friendship That's
incredible. Now you this isn't your first Writings
right you you've done some other work previously.
Yes. I wrote a book on divorce Wow came back
and came out in 2017. It's a big difference.
Very big difference. Was that one illustrated
as well? No, no, no, no. It could be some funny
pictures, you know? I don't know. Yeah, no. That
was actually kind of helped me heal from the
divorce as well. That's great. But if I could
help some one person with that book, you know,
because divorce is devastating. But I just felt
Just a few years ago led to to write this so
I could help children I love that to feel like
they belong and feel accepted and that you know
kindness Matters more than fitting in Sure, you
know, and I love that and I think I think that's
a message that that kids want to hear and they
want to see reinforced That's that's almost sort
of their default nature. I feel like and until
something kind of takes it away from them and
I love reinforcing these messages. How have you,
how has it been received with folks that have
been looking at the book so far? They like the
message. They just love it. They love the illustrations.
It's great. Is there a target age range or what
would you say if people were considering it?
Is it too old, too young for their children?
What would you say? I would say ages from two
to ten. Okay. Maybe twelve. Yeah, so it's you've
got a good range there and and obviously a Fun,
but easy to understand message, which is which
is pretty cool Where can folks find this you
can get it on Amazon bards and noble books a
million anywhere. They're sold online You can
also google play, you know any ebook. That's
great It's it's so neat that we can have these
things so accessible Are you? Are you from the
area? I don't know if I even asked you that.
You're from the greater Syracuse area here. I
am born and raised. I love it. I love it. And
that's the thing that's so neat is that somebody
can come up with something like this and have
it available in places like Amazon where people
all over the globe can get this thing and do.
We've seen it's very high rated on Amazon. When
we first met, we took a look and very impressed
by that. you know seeing it all over the place
what um uh what would you like to see happen
with the book what would you like to see the
next steps are from here i would actually create
a series oh wow yeah okay maybe even a cartoon
type series as well in addition to the book series
I gotcha, so would that follow the same characters
or would you introduce new folks? Yeah, same
characters probably, you know new New characters
sure they got to meet some new friends, right?
Yeah along the way Can you give us a preview
of like what what types of things might they
do and later in the series? Uh Well, I haven't
really thought I realize that might be a work
in progress. So I don't mean I don't mean to
put you on the spot coming across you know other
characters that have maybe a disability or just
Making more friends I haven't really given it
too much thought sure sure you know it's just
an idea that I have thought of you know I just
want to You should I'm thinking I need to introduce
you if you don't know already the local animation
I don't know if you know Dean, Dean Lyons, awesome
guy. Hollywood level animator, producer and stuff
right here in Syracuse. It might be a good introduction
for when you're ready for that. He actually runs
a training camp for students that want to get
into animation and they do all kinds of things.
Um, he may love something like this. Uh, and
I think that's pretty neat. Um, one thing I'd
like to talk about, cause being the businessman
that I am myself, I'm always interested in how
these things work, right? Like behind the scenes.
So could you tell us a little bit of the process
of, you know, you have this idea, maybe you've
even written the book, but how do you get to
the point to having it in a physical form and
available on Amazon and things? What do you have
to do? Who do you even reach out to, to make
that happen? Um, well, I decided to go with.
Publisher. Okay. I didn't go with traditional
because I didn't want to lose my rights. I see
Because I didn't want them changing the story
and the meaning behind it. Ah So sometimes when
you do that you give them the the capability
to modify everything, huh? Yes, and with especially
with this book I didn't want to do sure that
makes sense, you know, I didn't want the meaning
to change like I said I did find a publisher
Christian faith publishing and I We signed up
with them. We went through the editing phase.
And then I started the illustrations. And like
I said, I told them what I wanted, how I wanted
it. And it takes probably about a year. So once
it was ready for publication, you know, they...
Have I guess they're connected with Ingram sparks.
I think it's called. Okay, and a few other and
they you know, they they are the ones obviously
it comes in paperback hardcover and ebook and
they all have their own ISBN number and it they
put them on Barnes and Nobles Amazon and Other
book we have tailors online. So they helped all
the distribution for you. Yes, that's awesome
and The marketing is my responsibility, but they
did create some of my social media pages on Instagram
and YouTube. So they're giving you some support
as well as helping you produce the thing, sounds
like. That's a pretty decent deal. And I did
a reader roundhouse. I don't know if I'm saying
it right. Roundhouse reader podcast and then
I did a zoom interview about the book and That's
great. Yeah, that's great Candice again Tell
folks I want to reiterate this all the best places
or maybe even the out of all the places you can
get the book What's the one you'd prefer they
they go to to check it out? Probably Barnes and
Nobles or in Amazon. Okay Some of the most popular
those are the easiest ones. So that's that's
great. That's great Uh marshmallow and cocoa
are is the name of the book. It's the name of
the characters Uh, i'm gonna hold on. I want
to guess here. Uh I'm just gonna guess because
it's left and right that the skunk is marshmallow.
Yes. Okay. See I figured it out He didn't stump
me. Um I love I just love Everything about this.
This is such a neat thing I just don't want kids
feeling like lonely because they don't have friends,
you know, I don't want them to give up You know,
I need you know, they need to be hopeful about
making friends. I love that This is such a neat
such a neat thing Candice You've got a little
bit of Um, you mentioned it was it was published
by a christian publisher. It sounds like so there's
a there's a little bit of a religious message
but Talk about that a little bit because I think
it's I think you've done it really well to where
whether folks are are into that or not Correct.
It's not going to bother them. It's not it's
there's not a sermon here, you know, um, talk
about that a little bit if you could Well, um,
well in the story I wanted to you know, I wanted
him to go on this journey to find a friend and
In the editing process I reference God and stuff,
but the way the editor suggested that this refrain
about Marshmello singing a song about making
friendship because every time he got rejected
he would sing this song so He would be encouraged
So at the end, in the epilogue, is when I talked
about God, how we're different, I'm different,
we're all different, and that we're created in
His image, and that we're special to Him, and
that we need to, you know, embrace everybody's
differences. And I even have a little prayer
there for a child that might want to pray and
ask God to help them make friends. That's great.
That's so nice. What a great what a great thing
to do I Love that you've been able to take this
idea turn into a reality share it with children
and families Around the globe really like I said
all those distribution channels get you everywhere,
right? That's kind of neat Kenneth the last thing
I'll ask you and then I'll let you get back to
to all of the cool things that you're doing What
throughout the book what's been your favorite
processor not even necessarily just writing the
book But all of this talking about a promoting
and all these different things. What's been your
favorite part of this whole activity so far?
Seeing it come to life. Yeah, you know all my
all my work and writing it and Putting you know
telling the illustrators what I want and then
just actually holding it in my hand and thinking
yeah This is this is a reality It's you know,
I I love that. Like I said, I said at the very
beginning It's such a neat thing to create a
physical thing, you know I've always worked in
in kind of service -based businesses and I've
done a lot of things for people I've built websites
and all these things but a physical product is
just I don't know to me it feels like such an
achievement so I can only imagine that Why that
might have been the best part and inspiring children
and bringing glory to God is my goal You know,
I don't children are very important. Sure 100
% 100 % that's That's what drives everything
right? Yes, we need somebody to take care of
us when we're yeah Home somewhere, right? Always
tell people you know Raising children is a little
bit selfish because you want good people around
when when they're in charge So I love it Candice.
Thank you so much for joining Good News York.
This has been an awesome awesome time Come back
in in the future When we do have new books and
fun things and different activities to talk about
we would love to have you back anytime another
book Kind of dedicated to my father. Oh, wow
Bobby's ice cream adventure Oh, wow, cuz it's
his it was his favorite thing in the whole world
was ice cream And it was just kind of a god thing
that the last thing he ate was ice cream. Oh,
wow before he passed Yeah, what was his favorite
flavor? He was such a connoisseur he just loved
ice cream ice cream, but I think it was kind
of within there cream Okay, I could be wrong,
but I know he liked that. That's that's a That's
quite a choice. So I love that. But he loved
ice cream no matter what. Well, that's going
to be great. And we'd love to hear all about
that as that project moves along too. So thank
you again for joining us. This is great. Thanks
for stopping by and thanks to everybody for watching.
This has been a great interview for Good New
York. We've got a lot more lined up this week
and then coming up soon We're gonna have our
full regular segments as you're used to with
the full -blown show So we're almost back to
that from our new location here at clickstream
studios Don't forget our sponsor ads on the go
get ads on the go comm is the website Our man
Zach with the billboard truck out there Spreading
the message of everybody's business and and we
love that so with that Peace out.