Free Book: The Snake Who Wanted To Be A Horse, by Valerie Harmon and Carol Stevens

My first book in the WantsToBe children's picture eBook series, The Snake Who Wanted To Be  A Horse, is FREE from October 30 until midnight November 2.

Pick up your free copy here!

Has hit #1 Best Seller in Category and rated 4.6 STARS with over 40 reviews!

This is the first fully-illustrated children's book in the Wants To Be series.

Book Summary: Snake has a tender belly. When he sees Horse galloping by, he decides his solution is to become a horse. This idea sends him on a quest of difficulty and a surprising new friendship. This is not a typical "Be content with who you are" book, but rather "Working hard toward a goal changes you into something more." Which is why in the end (don't spoil the surprise for your child!) Snake turns into a SNORSE! This is a metaphorical example of how we all change after accomplishing hard things.

Animated app version for iPad is available now in the App Store℠. 

Tapping or swiping the stars within this app can tie Snake's tongue in a knot, send a herd of horses galloping, stick on bandages, and much more. The icons on the left release a variety of sounds effects, including galloping hooves, horses neighing or even snakes laughing. The Snake Wants To Be A Horse app teaches children to work hard toward a goal no matter what, with 71 animations, 35 sound effects, music, and dramatized narration.

It's a GREAT feeling when we can change a cover from THIS:

No Best Seller Ribbon

To This (NOT the color of the title, although we changed that because the green is more readable, and we were changing the cover anyway). 

#1 Best Seller Ribbon!!!

We added a Very Special Ribbon to the cover. See it? #1 Bestseller in category (on Amazon). This just happened TODAY! And we couldn't be more thrilled. 

UPDATE: I liked the gold ribbon, but I like this gold medallion even better. My illustrator updated our two covers to look like this (see below).  I LOVE the change. And I think Carol Stevens is an amazing illustrator--I may have said that before, and I will say it lots more, I can tell.

The Snake Who Wanted To Be A Horse hits #1 Best Seller in category (on Amazon)

We just changed our cover from this:

No Best Seller Ribbon!

To THIS:

See the #1 Best Seller Ribbon?!!

Yep, it's true! Our first children's picture e-book, The Snake Who Wanted To Be A Horse hit #1 best seller in its category yesterday. Thank you fans who made that best seller status possible, and for sharing our joy in our new cover. 

Publication Day For Book One: The Snake Who Wanted To Be A Horse

I am now the author of a published book.

I've dreamed for years about becoming a published author. With six children, and knowing my time to raise them is only a small portion of my life (I plan to live long), I've put my writing on the "takes a decade or two to finish a novel" track. And as my eldest children have entered adolescence, my writing has slowed even more.

I've been fine with the slower writing pace. Motherhood is a choice I've made and never regretted, even when it's been difficult. But that doesn't mean the dream dies. It just waits. Patient. Hopeful. And gaining in experience.

While writing as a teen, I felt my lack of experience as an obstacle to a worthy book. And I was probably right. I had only a tinge of adolescent angst, much less than most teens. With an idyllic childhood and the habits of an optimist, I didn't have enough of a story. And without conflict, there is not story. Nothing is more boring to read about than a happy life. That's why "And they lived happily ever after" is an ending, not a beginning.

So I gained in experience. But by the time I had enough experience, I was out of free time.

But then veteran illustrator Carol Stevens calls me up and invites me to write a children's book with her. And here I am, stunned and thrilled. Dinner is unmade, and it's 6:30pm. And I keep staring at my Amazon author page, my Amazon book page, and my GoodReads author page. I keep reading the wonderful supporting comments from my friends on Facebook who are rooting for my success (and over 90 of them were beta readers for this first book--THANK YOU).

And so, today has made it to "The top ten days of my life." Thank you for sharing it.