Chapter 7 - Carla Crane Osborne

Reading is an adventure, and so is writing! Carla Crane Osborn talks about the magic of writing children's books. 

https://www.gonasreadingranch.com/

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Emma: Childhood is a time of discovery and development, which is why reading to children is so important. Carla Crane Osborne, award-winning children's book author, is here to talk about writing to share the magic of stories with younger audiences. Carla, thank you so much for joining us today.

Carla: Oh, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Emma: Can you please tell me just a little bit about yourself?

Carla: Sure. I am an Idaho girl native. My ancestors lived in Idaho, fourth generation. I grew up on a farm in Burley, Idaho, just outside of Burley, and I loved my time on the farm. It was so great. I learned so many things as a farm girl about chores, about family, about working together, and I just felt like it was a lost art, almost, that we work together as families. And so I thought I need to recreate this, and so I decided to start putting in books. I've always loved to write. And as soon as my last child kind of left the nest, I sat down and started writing.

Emma: That is so fun. I love it. My brother actually wants to be a farmer. That's his dream.

Carla: Good for him. You tell him to do that. We need young farmers.

Emma: So I guess you kinda talked about this a little bit, but why do you write?

Carla: I grew up reading. My mother was so good. She always read to us, and then we always went to the public library. And I always wanted to have a book in the public library. And so that was a dream that came true when I was able to go back to the library that I went to as a child in Burley and be able to, you know, read my book at the public library and give it back. And so I always donate my books to the libraries because I think that's so important, that it's a place where children can come.

And when I was little, also, I always wanted to go to so many different places. And back then, that was not, you know, it's not as accessible as it is now. So my mind was always dreaming about all these fantastic places. And when I went to the library and when I got books, then I was able to go to the all those magical places, and it was right here in my mind. I love that. I love that about books, and I love that about children's books because it's magic and it creates a world, and you don't even have to leave your bedroom.

Emma: Yeah! Very convenient. It's nice for the parents too. It's a little cheaper.

Carla: Yes, it's nice for the parents too.

Emma: Maybe not. Sometimes when I was a kid, I remember I'd be reading and my mom would be like, "you need to do your chores." And...

Carla: Exactly.

Emma: "After this chapter!"

Carla: I know. I was the same way. Or you would hide?

Emma: Yes!

Carla: I would hide in the haystacks a lot to read. They always found me, but I would be out there reading.

Emma: I had a special place right behind the couch where I could just go.

Carla: Perfect.

Emma: How do you approach writing a story that will resonate and be enjoyable for both children and the people that are reading to them?

Carla: That's a good question. I try to write books that children can see different behaviors in different people, that they can be able to relate to those things, but also that will help the parents maybe see things through a children's eyes. And as the parent hopefully reads to the child, then they can see, oh, you know, maybe they can remember that magic of a child because we forget that as we get older. And I want parents and children to experience that together.

So it doesn't always really matter what's in the book. It matters the experience and being able to enjoy that together. This newest book that I am writing, it started out as one thing, and it's gone completely different. So I find that fascinating because I have in my mind what I wanna write about. So I sit down and I start to write, and more often than not, it takes a different turn. It's generally the same kind of idea, and I go down the same kind of road, but it has different twists or it involves different people than I first started out with.

Emma: That's one of the surprising things about writing. My sister is an artist, and so she's told me that whenever she's drawing a person, she has an idea of what she wants the person to look like in her head, but it never turns out exactly like that picture. You know, sometimes it turns out better. Sometimes it turns out maybe not as good as she would have hoped. But I think that's also with writing too. You have an idea in your head and you put it on paper, and you just have to let it kind of grow and develop.

Carla: That's right. You have to be willing to be able to let it develop and not force it down one way. If I start to try to force exactly what I want, then it never turns out. I need to just open up and let it go.

Emma: So how long does it take you to write a children's book?

Carla: That's a good question because with Under the Barnyard Light, my first book, I wrote it in one night. But that means that it was in my mind for a long time, and I knew exactly what I wanted to write and how I wanted it to go. I knew it was a rhyming book. I knew I wanted to talk about my father. I wanted to talk about chores. I wanted to talk about the glow that happens when twilight comes and then you're still out doing the chores and feeding the animals, and then that night sky comes and the stars pop out. It was so... I just... I loved that experience. So as soon as I sat down, it was just like it clicked, just like rhythm to me.

But the hard thing was trying to then get it out to the public, get it out and going because as you know, it takes a long process and it's hard. I'm not a very patient person. When I vision something, okay, I'm done. It's time. Get it done. Let's finish it. Let's get it going. Get it out there, and an illustrator takes a while. The whole process takes a long time. So I would say the process of delivering a product takes at least a year, and that's a long time to wait.

Emma: That is a long time. How does your process usually start?

Carla: Oh, my process is crazy. I'm asleep. I get an idea. I wake up, and I start to write. And I have notepads by my bed. I have notepads when I travel. I have notepads everywhere, but it's usually in the middle of the night and I will jump up and I will just start writing or I will start recording so I don't forget. Lots of times, I found that I don't do that because I'm too lazy or I'm too tired, and it's gone. And I try to recapture that, and it never quite comes out the same way. So I've learned that when that idea strikes you, you need to sit down, you need to put it on paper, you need to record it, you need to do something. Anyway, for me, that's what I do.

Emma: What do you think is one of the biggest challenges for writing children's fiction?

Carla: I love the whole process of working with the illustrator. I love the process of seeing it develop. I love that, I call them my babies, I love seeing my babies then come on print, then go into a storyboard, then you get color, and then it goes to the printers, and then it comes back and it's just a gift. So I don't really think there are any challenges. I love the whole process.

Emma: That is so fun, just seeing it all come together.

Carla: Right, right.

Emma: Some people say, "oh, writing children's books is easy because they're just so short." So what would your response be to that?

Carla: You know, that's a really good question because I just had someone on my last book that I had, Buster the Brave, and they were looking at it and he said, "I had no idea that text and illustrations took so much work in a book." He said, you look at it and it's just words and it is so not just words. It's a text that is very thought out. It's a text that has meaning. It might be just a few words on a page, but those words are very, very important and they're to a point and they are, to the author, very, very important.

Emma: Yeah. The word choice, I imagine, is very critical.

Carla: Very critical. And lots of times, I change a lot of words a lot. You know? You just decide, okay, there's a better way to put this or do it. But most of the time I found that if I record exactly what I thought in the middle of the night, it usually is the best.

Emma: So we talked a little about challenges. What is the greatest reward?

Carla: Oh, my goodness. There's so many rewards. There's so many rewards. There's the reward of seeing your product. There's the reward of seeing a little child's face light up when you read to them. I'm able to go into libraries. I'm able to go into schools, and I love that. I love getting down on the floor, and I love reading with children, and you can see the light in their eyes. And especially when I read Halloween Hunt, they're so worried. "Oh, no. What's gonna happen next?" And that is my absolute favorite. Really, it is.

As you mentioned, I am an award-winning author. To me, the awards are wonderful, and I appreciate those, and I love them. To have a child look at me and hug me and say, "Miss Gona, I love your books," is such an overwhelming feeling. I just can't... I can't express how much I feel when I read to those little children, and that's the whole purpose of the books. It's to reach out to children, to give them hope that maybe right now you can't achieve the dream that you want, but you just keep striving. Look at me. I'm a grandma, and I'm achieving my dream of writing books. You're young. Anything's possible.

Emma: Do your grandchildren like your books?

Carla: Oh, my biggest fans.

Emma: Do you have any advice that you would give to somebody who would like to write books for children?

Carla: Sure. Just start writing. Don't let anyone change your thoughts. Don't let anybody tell you what to write. Don't let anyone say this is a format you have to do. This is when you need to write. This is how many hours you need to write. Just write. Write what you love, write what you know about. I think that's very, very important to write what you know about.

Emma: And that's where you found your inspiration for Gona's Reading Ranch, isn't it? Your life on the farm?

Carla: My life on my farm, because I always thought that I would grow up and I would be a farm wife, and life takes you in a different route. And I love the life I have, and so I wanted to take that magical childhood that I had and I was able to experience and put it down on paper and to share it. So exactly.

Emma: So Buster the Brave, that's your latest book, isn't it?

Carla: Well, yes. Buster the Brave and Gona's Glittering Christmas Disaster. I wrote those two at the same time.

I actually I was writing them both at the same time, but Buster the Brave, I had to work exclusively with BSU, with Boise State University, and they were so supportive. I would go in and they would look at my book, they'd look at my text, and they'd say, "okay, this needs to be removed. As far as the illustrations, this needs to be removed." And that was a labor of love. They were so kind to me. The book is beautiful. If you're a Boise State fan, then you look at that and you can see the football field, and I loved the horse. When I go to the game, the horse is what I go for, the real horse. And I've always wanted to be the one that rides the horse and everybody always teases me, "you should be the one riding the horse," because I grew up riding and showing horses. So I thought, well, I'm gonna write a book about it. I can put myself in there just like I put myself in the other experiences that I had. I can do that. And so that's me living out my dream of being the BSU Bronco girl, riding the horse onto the field during the football game.

Emma: Writing is just as much of an adventure as reading.

Carla: Yes, it is. And I wanted to have it from the perspective of the horse. So it's all about the horse. It's not about me on the horse, it's about the horse. And the horse's dream is to one day grow up to be a Bronco horse, you know, to be the mascot. It's so cute. I love that book.

Emma: That is so cute. Now I wanna read it.

Carla: Yes. It's adorable.

Emma: I don't have kids yet, but when I do...

Carla: I'll get you one.

Emma: Oh, thank you. I mean, I enjoy reading any books. I still go to the library and just pull random books off the shelf.

Carla: They're great. Books are wonderful.

Emma: Speaking of books, I would love to hear you read one of yours.

Carla: I would love to. I'll read Under the Barnyard Light. It is the first book, and it is shorter than the other one, so I thought that might be a little bit easier. So here we go.

Under the Barnyard Light.

Soft snow falls around the barnyard light.
It's my job to feed the calves tonight.

Oversized bottles with steamy warm milk cradled in a bucket so they can't spill a drip.

Off to the calves' pen and into the night,
under the glow of the soft barnyard light.

Black and white babies, so little and quick, bawl at my coming while they jump and they kick.
Black shiny noses reach through the rails, nuzzling and pushing and flipping their tails.

"Hey, that tickles! Okay. Take my fingers and wait your turn."

Soft sucking sounds fill the still of the night
under the glow of the soft barnyard light.

"You're all done. Your tummies are full. Now curl up in your straw and stay out of the snow. I'll see you all tomorrow,"
and I skip away, catching new snowflakes as they float down my way.

Drop off the bottles and back into the night.
It's cold and it's scary as I leave the barnyard light.

As I grab his hay and his buckets of grain, Dandy watches me come and tosses his mane.
"Hey there," he whinnies. "Where have you been?"

I crawl over the railing and into his pen.

"Hey there, boy," I whisper as I hang around his neck.
He tosses his head lightly, and I kiss his soft nose.

"You're my favorite, you rascal," and I know that he knows.
I curl my fingers under his coarse winter mane. He's a mighty giant, gentle and tame.

"I brought you a sugar cube and a brush for your coat," I lovingly say as I give him a soft stroke.

"It's time to go in. Finish up with your chores." I look up to see my dad surrounded by snow.

"Alright, Dad!"

I give Dandy one last kiss. I spread the hay in the manger and sprinkle it with grain.
Soft, low munching fills the still of the night
under the glow of the soft barnyard light.

"I'll see you all tomorrow," I call as I go,
catching new snowflakes on the arms of my coat.
Everything seems magical in the still of the night
under the glow of the soft barnyard light.

Emma: That was beautiful. The illustrations—for those listening, they can't see the illustrations, but they are absolutely gorgeous. But the image that is painted with the words is equally gorgeous.

Carla: Oh, thank you. Thank you. I just—that book almost brings tears to my eyes because it's so dear to me because it was my first book, and it is so typical of what we would do every night, but how beautiful that was... And a chore wasn't a chore. A chore was an adventure. It could be everything there, anything that you wanted, and I really did love our animals. We really did love them, and Dandy was my very favorite animal. He was the animal that I took to the fair. He was the animal that I won the reserve grand champion with and very special to me.

Emma: Gona is your, we'll say, heroine for most of your books.

Carla: Yes.

Emma: Tell me more about her.

Carla: So Gona is very rambunctious. She's very, very curious. She's very mischievous, but she's a very good girl. But she always seems to be getting in trouble. So all of these adventures are based on me because they are what happened to me when I was growing up. And I just never could sit still, I always wanted to go see the new thing, you know, if I heard something out in the field in the middle of the night, I wanted to go check it out, I wanted to go see what it was. And so she is a tomboy and she grew up with six cousins that were all boys and they could not pronounce her name and so they came up with this nickname, Gona. So ever since I was a little girl, I have been called Gona. My husband today calls me Gona. My siblings call me Gona. My parents called me Gona, and it's a very endearing name to me. It might be a harsh sounding name, but to me, it's a very endearing name.

Emma: Is there anything else that you would like to share?

Carla: Yes, I would. I would like to share with children and parents of children that reading is so important. Reading creates imagination. It helps us, like I've said so many times, it helps us to travel to different places. When my children were little, I would make them read with me, and I would always give them one word to read. So it would be a simple word, like if they were three, then I would give them "so," or "I," or "me," or "my." I would point to it and they would always have to say that word. So by the time my daughter was four, she was reading. So when she went to kindergarten, she was able to help the teacher with other students help them read. So I think it's so important that we introduce books early, but that as parents, we take that time and we read to them and we share our experiences with them as we read too.

And we need to set the example. We need to read in front of them ourselves. Maybe put down our smartphones and they look at us and, oh, they're not on their smartphone. They're actually reading a book. So that's my soapbox.

Emma: I love it. When I was in middle school, I was constantly reading. And then I got to high school and I was just... I'm so busy. I can't find the time to read. But I realized there's more time than you think. Every time that I wanted to pick up my phone, I'd be like, oh, I'll pick up my book instead. And I could find time that way, so I love that. That's great.

Carla: Yes. It is.

Emma: If you'd like to hear more of Gona's adventures, you can find Carla Crane Osborne at Gona's Reading Ranch, her website, and she's also on Facebook, Instagram, and on YouTube. And, actually, Carla reads to children on YouTube. Would you like to tell a little more about that?

Carla: Sure. Gona's Reading Ranch is where I live now. It's not a true ranch for true ranchers out there, but we go around and I have about 15 acres and I read at different spots on the ranch with different animals. So I'll be reading with my horses, I'll be reading with my sheep, I'll be reading with dogs, and that's a lot of fun. And I have children too that come and we will read, and there's also a newsletter on that YouTube page that we put out, a lot of things that are interactive for parents and for children.

Emma: Well, thank you so much for coming in today.

Carla: Oh, thank you. I really appreciate it. It's been a wonderful time. Very gracious. Appreciate it.

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