How Bronson came to be

Bronson’s Flood book cover features an illustration by Dennis Packard.

The idea for Bronson’s Flood originated in a Pennsylvania campground.

The Bucks County setting got me thinking about creatures I was seeing in the woods. I started to work on a series about animals, each with special gifts worth celebrating. At the outset of the stories the animals were sometimes sad because they couldn’t do something they wanted to accomplish. But in the end each creature was able to engage in understanding and using their special gifts in some way. Success!

The problem was I wrote these intended stories using adult language. The stories were also too long!

Then, in June 2024 I discovered a children’s book editor in Minneapolis — Kellie Hultgren. Kellie suggested a path to successful editing. She also suggested adding a “near calamity” that caused the dam Bronson was building to begin to fall apart. She wanted me to add a bit of “tension.” Yikes! But Bronson and his friends didn’t give up. Together they saved the day. The dam was built just high enough to stave off a flash flood.

Kellie did a page layout for a picture book amounting to 32 pages plus cover.

Enter Dennis Packard, an illustrator I had kept in touch with over many years after he and Susan moved to Western Pennsylvania from Lansdale. Would he illustrate my first picture book? Dennis had never done that, but he agreed to take it on.

Then, my special friend, John Kahler, used his technical wizardry to create a final version of the picture book using a software called InDesign. It was all done according to Amazon’s specific requirements for a picture book, size 8 1/2 x 81/2.

Amazon did a spectacular printing job using high-gloss paper we preferred.

It’s important to note that many self-publishing authors like me are small business types. Amazon has a population of about 65 per cent of small businesses altogether.

Another part of the inspiration for Bronson was my history as a long-term recovery volunteer with Lutheran Disaster Response. Some two decades ago I worked with others along the Delaware River to help aging survivors overcome floods by undertaking repairs in their simple homes. I worked alongside members of Trinity Lutheran Church, Lansdale, PA, our congregation, and sometimes with seminarians from The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (now United Lutheran Seminary). Pastor Bill Rex, who stars as Garth Grizzly in the Bronson audiobook, was part of all that work. That’s how I met Bill. Then, my wife Lynn and I worked in Mississippi after Katrina. Some of the proceeds from Bronson’s Flood are being donated to disaster response initiatives.