While writing from my home office for various publications reporting on the latest and greatest in honeymoons and weddings, I found another muse for my writing, my animals. After months of working from my home, I couldn't help but turn my attention to my crazy furry family. Daily I found myself laughing at something crazy and off the wall my cats or dog would do. While, watching my animals, and as crazy as it sounds, my neighbor’s Cat, interact with each other, I found a story inside of my heart I needed to share. From that moment on, I turned my writing from weddings and honeymoons in an entirely new direction, a four-legged furry and funny direction. I focused on my overweight cat and his unique friend from the apartment next door, Payaso, in time, I dreamt up a 'tail' about a bunch of friends overcoming obstacles and their own fears and insecurities while going on an adventure in Central Park. I wanted the story to focus on kindness and the importance of strong character traits, like grit, zest, social intelligence and so forth.  I wanted the animals to teach lessons by examples on how to treat each other with unconditional love, acceptance and empathy.  I wanted to reach children in a way that would make them pause and reconsider how they were going to treat each other going forward after reading the book.  I loved that I was able to mix in personalities, ethnicity and ability and offer children characters that had difference strengths and weaknesses that they would relate with.  

The overall theme of this book is about a group of friends on an adventure while learning by examples the importance of treating others with kindness, anti-bullying and the importance of true and honest character.

This story takes place in New York city in an apartment overlooking Central Park.  When Phatty the cat realizes a large hawk has plans to rob his home, he takes it upon himself to venture out into Central Park and try and find the Central Park Zoo Keeper to help him capture the hawk.  Shortly after his leaving the safety of his apartment his friends head out into Central Park to find him.  This adventure story lets children experience life in Central Park in the greatest city in the world.

This book offers children everything they would want in a story; adventure, humor, challenges, friendship and a villain.  What is even more important, the book provides parents and schools an opportunity to reinforce the importance of how to treat others, how to handle bullies, how to treat those that are struggling to fit in, the vital character skills children need such as grit, social intelligence, zest and many others.  It also focusses on helping kids find their own strength and building on it, never giving up and helping others when in need.  The book teaches positive character skills, kindness and understanding.  

The Adventures of Phatty & Payaso has multiple selling points, including several topics that are relevant issues throughout schools across the country today. Below you will find a list of the topics covered in the book that children will not only relate with, but are also wonderful selling points to children’s parents, teachers and young adolescent readers.

• Bullying
• Fitting in / social pressures
• Understanding character skills & The importance of one’s character
• The pressure placed on physical appearance & the importance of fitness
• Accepting others that are different and/or have special needs, branded social “outcasts’ and/or are socially inept
• Demonstrates strong examples of: friendship, forgiveness, kindness, compassion, empathy, patience, tolerance, understanding & the importance of working as a team

The Adventures of Phatty & Payaso addresses several community needs. We know that bullying is an age-old problem that has only been amplified now that social media has allowed the bullies a platform after the children leave the classroom. In addition to bullying, the book addresses how today’s children familiarize and connect with children that have special needs and/or suffer from the ability to adapt or fit in with social groups. The book offers children a different perspective on the challenge some children face on a daily basis to fit in, feel comfortable or feel/be included. On several occasions throughout the book, children are given examples of how small acts of kindness, behavior modifications or considerate actions towards someone struggling to fit in makes a large impact on that person’s life. 

We also know through research from the non-profit organization Character Lab (Characterlab.org) that there are several character skills missing in today’s children. The Adventures of Phatty & Payaso focusses on six skills that are lacking in today’s children. They are: grit, zest, social intelligence, curiosity, self- control, gratitude. The Adventures of Phatty & Payaso demonstrates these important and necessary character skills through the actions and behaviors of the books characters.

The idea to write this book came to me while watching my cat Phatty and our neighbors cat Payaso play. The idea that two cats, both that were so different, an adopted overweight alley cat and a rare and exotic cat were inseparable for over ten years seemed quite amusing. No matter how much time passed while Payaso was at his home in Seattle, the minute Payaso arrived back in NY, the only place he wanted to go was next door to visit his best friend Phatty.

At the time, my idea was to just write a story about this unique bond and offer kids an amazing tale of adventure and friendship. I wanted to show kids that true friends helped each other overcome their fears, weaknesses and loved each other unconditionally. It would be a book about supporting your friends and overcoming the bullies of the world.

As the book took life, it evolved into so much more. It was at that time that a friend introduced me to a nonprofit called the Character Lab. The Character Lab is a nonprofit and exists to research and create new ways to help all students develop character. They have discovered that character strengths are malleable, surprisingly little is known about how they can be intentionally cultivated. Character Lab is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2013 by one scientist and two educators: Angela Duckworth, author of and the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania; Dave Levin, co- founder of the KIPP public charter schools; and Dominic Randolph, Head of Riverdale Country School.

The Character Lab shared with me several of the Character Skills missing in today’s children. It was from here that I decided to build these character skills into my story. I shaped the characters around the following character skills:

• Self-control: Regulating what one feels and does in the service of goals and standards; being disciplines; controlling one’s emotions
• Grit: Finishing what one starts; persisting in a course of action in spite of obstacles
• Gratitude: Being aware of and thankful for the good things that happen; taking time to express thanks.
• Zest: Approaching life with excitement and energy; not doing things halfway or halfheartedly; living life as an adventure; feeling alive and activated
• Curiosity: Taking an interest in ongoing experience for its own sake; finding subjects and topics fascinating; exploring and discovering
• Social Intelligence: Being aware of the motives and feelings of other people and oneself; knowing what to do to fit into different social situations; knowing what makes other people tick. 
I studied these traits and then developed what character would have these skills as a strength or what skill they would need to work on. Together, they all possess these traits and throughout the story they teach each other, through actions and by example, how to grow and develop these skills. 
Throughout the story, each character learns something about themselves they didn’t know while realizing that friendship is more than just someone to play with. Friendship is about kindness, helping and caring about others and doing the right thing, even when the right thing is difficult.

This book offers children everything they would want in a story; adventure, humor, challenges, friendship and a villain.  What is even more important, the book provides parents and schools an opportunity to reinforce the importance of how to treat others, how to handle bullies, how to treat those that are struggling to fit in, the vital character skills children need such as grit, social intelligence, zest and many others.  It also focusses on helping kids find their own strength and building on it, never giving up and helping others when in need.  The book teaches positive character skills, kindness and understanding. 

Bullying is a big issue in schools today. Social Media has become so prevalent in children’s lives that they have no way to escape the bullies even after they leave the classroom.  I am hoping that children will learn how to handle bullies from this story and more importantly, I am hoping that the bullies see how horrible it is to be bullied and make better choices when dealing with kids they don’t like or that don’t fit in.  My characters all have strengths and weaknesses and they are all working on how to use their strengths to help them and overcome their weaknesses, they are also learning how to be vulnerable and take risks.  Children will also get a ‘birds’ eye view of a character with special needs, Max, the main boy in my story is on the spectrum and suffers badly when other children don’t include him or chastise him.  This story allows kids to see all different perspectives of bullying.

Many children have read this story and they find it refreshing because it is a book that allows the reader to connect with all of the characters, not just the Phatty and Payaso.  Children find themselves identifying with different characters and they like that they find themselves rooting for the underdog or identifying with a character’s fear or insecurity and experiencing the feeling of achievement when the character overcomes it.  It is not just  book about an adventure in Central Park, it is a book about kindness, character and overcoming obstacles.

Many children have read this story and they find it refreshing because it is a book that allows the reader to connect with all of the characters, not just the Phatty and Payaso.  Children find themselves identifying with different characters and they like that they find themselves rooting for the underdog or identifying with a character’s fear or insecurity and experiencing the feeling of achievement when the character overcomes it.  It is not just a book about an adventure in Central Park, it is a book about kindness, character and overcoming obstacles. Many children have read this story and they find it refreshing because it is a book that allows the reader to connect with all of the characters, not just the Phatty and Payaso.  Children find themselves identifying with different characters and they like that they find themselves rooting for the underdog or identifying with a character’s fear or insecurity and experiencing the feeling of achievement when the character overcomes it.  It is not just a book about an adventure in Central Park, it is a book about kindness, character and overcoming obstacles. I was always taught to treat other people the way you wanted to be treated and I want to share this message with kids everywhere. I want kids to be kind to each other, to stand up for the person being bullied and make that person feel loved and like they belong.  I wanted to a platform to show children that having positive character skills and kindness would take you far in this world and make you stand out above the rest. I studied sites that talked about Character traits, such as characterlab.com and I also thought back to my childhood and tried to imagine what I would have done different or even what I wish I knew then what I know now.  I don’t want kids to have regrets, I want kids to embrace the child that struggles and I want kids to understand they are not alone.  All kids have insecurities and just because you have an insecurity it doesn’t make you weak. How you handle that insecurity, how you embrace others and how you treat others matters.  Be the child that has a reputation of being kind, nice or down to earth.  Embrace kindness. 

As a child I was bullied, I can remember what it felt like to not fit in at times. I wasn’t a jock, I wasn’t the cheerleader and I wasn’t in with the cool crowd.  I kind of just floated along and befriended anyone that wanted to be friends. When I saw how my overweight cat ran from the birds on the terrace I imagined how hard it is to be an overweight child in school, or the child that isn’t cool or doesn’t fit in. I wanted to write a book that spoke to children on all levels.  I want the world to do what my mother always taught me, treat others the way you want to be treated.

This is my first book in the series

Yes

Yes, almost all of them!