These Are the Good Old Days: From Texas Book Festival to Long Overdue Book

Every morning, Monday through Friday, I hop on the city bus and take my son to preschool. Last week, I dropped him off, and when I was sitting in the back row, I saw this little kid, about the same age as my son, walk to a window seat with his grandpa. The kid wore a Cubs hat and was pointing out every garbage truck.

Out of nowhere, I thought to myself, “Man, I can’t wait to be a grandpa.”

What? Where did that come from? Fifteen minutes removed from almost the same scenario -- sitting on a bus with a three-year-old talking about garbage trucks -- and I'm ready to fast-forward 30 years into the future! Why? The only logic I can muster is that I'm heading back to work, and preschool's expensive, and there's a mortgage. But that grandpa, that guy is worry-free. No schedule. No stress. No Zoom meetings. Those are gonna be the days. Just sitting on a bus with my son’s son.

Some people wax nostalgic. I wax about the future. I'm constantly thinking ahead, whether that's "just get me to the weekend," or thinking about the 4th of July, or Christmas season, or being that grandpa on a bus. I put the golden years on a golden pedestal. The grass is greener on the other decade.

But What if These Are the Good Old Days?

I'm standing at the Long Overdue table at my first-ever Texas Book Festival, and a guy named Russ approaches. He shares the idea of his book in progress, and once I heard the title and theme of the book -- These Are the Good Old Days -- I was immediately on board. The idea is not looking into the past and saying those are the good old days, or looking ahead and thinking, "Now those will be the good old days," but instead cherishing where you're at right now and who's around. These are the Good Old Days.

The idea hit Russ about 10 years ago. He'd think about it from time to time and knew a book would likely be the format for this story. But it wasn't until August of 2023 that he started a Google Doc. Sadly, one of Russ's younger brothers, Danny, died in August of 2020. This heartbreaking event for Russ and his family began to weave its way into the book idea, giving the project a deeper sense of meaning and purpose. Russ didn't really notice it then, but looking back at the Google Doc creation date, August 13, 2023, that was the day before what would’ve been Danny’s next birthday. His brother was undoubtedly on his mind, influencing the creative process.

For the next 10 months, Russ worked on the Google Doc. Sometimes at his computer. Sometimes an idea would hit, and he'd work on his phone. He learned not to leave things up to memory.

"You can try to remember, but that never happens," Russ said, laughing. "Oh, I'm gonna remember that when I'm back in front of my computer. Nope. Never happens."

An idea led to an outline, which led to more ideas, then eventually a finished draft. Russ worked on revisions and then started searching for an illustrator. After a few months at it, Russ had a kitchen table epiphany looking at the art hanging on his wall.

"Wheels spinning a little bit, I look up and see those three pen on paper drawings on the wall," Russ recounted, "and I'm like oh! Of course. Sandra! Anastasia's mom. I should reach out to her. I texted Anastasia, who's my neighbor, and said, 'hey, I'm working on this children's book. Do you know if she'd be interested in doing something like this?'"

Russ got connected with Sandra, and she was excited about the project. This is where the fun begins. All of the ideas, the story, the sketches for characters were now coming to life through beautiful illustrations by Sandra McDougall.

I've seen this happen multiple times now, working on a few children's books, and it's nothing short of magical when an author finds the right illustrator for their project. Once you see that storyboard and then later the finished book, the story and the art are inseparable. This book couldn't look any other way. Those are the characters. That's Grandpa Dan, and that's Danny. The merger between the author's story and the illustrator's vision continues to be one of my favorite things to see in the book-making process.

But even bigger than that author/illustrator connection is the power a book has to take something really difficult and transform it into a beautiful work that honors a person, extends their legacy, and keeps their story and memory alive. I've now worked on two books that were influenced by devastating family losses. Safe Landing, the authors lost their mom and dad on American Airlines Flight 191. Russ lost his younger brother. And when I look at both of these finished books, and my apologies for getting a little religious here, but for me, it's a reminder that God is never done repairing, and healing, and recreating. Our loved ones' stories don't end when they pass away. They live on through us and the stories we tell.

I'm proud to say, "These are the Good Old Days" is now a published Long Overdue book. Congratulations to Russell Daniel and Susan McDougall on this awesome creation. It's available now in our bookstore, on Amazon, or you can stop into your local bookstore and ask if they can order a copy.

For all the soon-to-be-authors out there, I'll close with some inspiration Russ shared in our interview (which I highly recommend checking out that whole video, Russ does a great job sharing his process from writing the book, finding an illustrator, publishing the book, and now marketing the book). Here's his advice on how to get started.

"Start where you can, maybe taking a Google Doc and adding little things. Don't get ahead of yourself. Do the next thing. The next thing leads to the next thing, and before you know it, you've written a book."