The Great Unboxing (The Long and Winding Road From a Story to a Book.) Yesterday, I received a box containing my children’s book, Toolshed Surprise. Although I had self-published a poetry collection a few years ago, this box of books felt remarkably different. I can tell you I was over the moon excited! This book is the product of a two-year long wait, because of illustrator changes, pandemic shutdowns, paper shortages, and other random things that most of us wouldn’t think could affect publishing time frames. For those who may not know the history, I wrote a children’s story in 2019 for a contest that called for stories about Bigfoot. It was a fun story. It received an Honorable Mention, and I filed it away. Then, in 2020, a different contest called for a children’s story on any subject. On a whim, I polished the Bigfoot story and submitted it. That second contest was sponsored by Young Dragon’s Press. My story won, and the judge, Clarissa Willis, who ...