Bookpleasures.com welcomes as our guest, Award winning author,Sybrina Durant.She is the author of The Rabbit and The Fox Learn To Tie Series of Books which include Learn To Tie A Neck Tie With The Rabbit and the Fox in English, Spanish and Tagalog; Ned Can Knot A Neck Tie; Nellie Can Knot A Neck Scarf and the newest addition, Cleo Can Tie  A Bow. She also the author of  The Blue Unicorn’ Series of books and has an online book store which features, unicorns, rabbits, foxes, and how to tie books plus gift items related to those things plus lots of bow-themed gifts.

Good day Sybrina and thanks for participating in our interview.

Bee: Please tell us something about Cleo Can Tie a Bow that is not in the summary. 

Sybrina: I’ve wanted to figure out a way to write a how to tie a bow book for a very long time. It was easy for me to write the previously published companion books for learning to tie a necktie because the instruction steps mimicked the moves of a very quick chase through a forest. When it came to imagining a book about bows, no matter how hard I tried, I could not get past the concept that the rabbit and the fox had to run around and over and under things in order for the instructions to work out. 

I knew using that method to tie a bow could get exceptionally long and complicated because there are so many more steps. I just couldn’t visualize it. Just when I’d finally made up my mind that I’d never come up with a good way to write a how to tie a bow book, the idea for this story suddenly presented itself to me. Luckily, I immediately came across Pumudi Gardiyawasam. She was able to bring life to all of my ideas with her beautiful artwork and accurate how-to illustrations. 

Something that I took out of the book was the idea that the fox is a vegetarian.  I had included a line about it, that seemed so humorous to me plus it seemed like such a good reason for the rabbit not to be afraid of the fox. But several beta readers said that their children could never accept a fox who was not a meat eater so, with great sadness, I removed it from the story. My sadness did not last long because that removal brought in three new characters whose sole purpose was to assure the bunny that the fox could be trusted. One of them, a snail, happens to be a real favorite with readers.

Bee: How did you come up with the name Cleo for your main character?  Do you know someone with that name? 

Sybrina: Cleo was one of the last names I thought of as I was trying to figure out what to call the main character of this bow book.  I wanted something that would flow easily with the rest of title. I knew from the beginning that the last part of it would be Can Tie A Bow.  Here are a few names that I briefly considered. Tibby, Tessy, Becka, and Chloe. There were many others but I think I picked the best name.  How about you?  

Bee: Cleo is obsessed with bows.  Do you know anyone in real life with her obsession? 

Sybrina: I do not personally know anyone in real life who is as obsessed with bows as Cleo. But I absolutely know that they exist.  While researching pictures of bows as inspiration to send to Pumudi, I came across a bow crazy fashion phenomenon called Sweet Lolita. You may know of this amazingly popular Japanese clothing trend since it has been around since 2011. 

Sybrina: We live in completely different times than we were living in when I wrote my original learn to tie with the rabbit and fox books.  That was over 30 years ago.  It was a carefree time when children played outside unsupervised until the sun went down and drank from water hoses when they were thirsty.

No one locked their doors against possible invaders, and we were still resisting wearing seat belts in our cars. Back then, the idea of a rabbit chasing a fox for dinner did not horrify anyone. It was a natural thing. And no one was offended by the idea of following the moves of a fox chasing a rabbit through a forest in order to learn to tie anecktie. In fact, most people thought it was cute.

Now, everything is potentially scary. Simple concepts and ideas can suddenly trigger a person’s deepest fears. So, for Cleo’s story, I decided that this fox was going to be a friendly, helpful soul in hopes that readers would love, rather than fear her. She helps a little bunny whose ears drag on the ground, by tying them up into a nice, neat bow. 

Before I published the book, I realized that some people might fear that this story could cause young children to want to try this technique on a real rabbit so in the book’s Dear Reader section, I went to great detail to ask parents to let their children know that it is important not to try to tie a live bunny’s ears into a bow.

Funny enough, that warning appears to be what some readers have decided to concentrate on more than anything else about the book. I can’t help wondering now…if I hadn’t placed the warning there, would anyone have paid a bit of attention to a cartoon fox tying up a cartoon bunny’s ears? There’s no telling now. In the end, I have found, you simply can not please everyone.  

Bee: Describe the room you are sitting in as though it was a scene in one of your books.

Sybrina: She looked up to see shelves full of flashbacks of the past. Two identical little cuties dressed in pink balanced their tiny bodies against a pink roadster with shining chrome stripes. So many photographs, some fading in dusty frames and newer ones, slowly bending to the passage of time, line every surface that is not already occupied by hundreds of even dustier books. The thought slithers across her mind that maybe she should let them go…the books…not the pictures. But she probably never will.  They have been with her since time began. She laughs as a thought occurs, “Maybe she should be buried with them.” That would make for an endlessly interesting after life.

Bee: What are you currently working on?

Sybrina: Now that Cleo Can Tie A Bow has finally been published, I may be at the end of my learn to tie with the rabbit and the fox series of books.

But then, I had given up on writing a how to tie a bow book, too, so others may come. In the meantime, marketing and promoting is my main focus. I have somewhat simplified that process by using a post scheduling service called Postfity. I can auto-schedule posts to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram through them.

On the weekends, I create hundreds of graphics to use for these posts.  Right now, the next three months are completely taken care of.  I also post to Pinterest nearly every day through an app on my desktop that allows me to easily pick pictures from any website for posting on my own boards.  I have a daily Wordpress blog called Sybrina’s Book Blog.

Each day I “share” those posts on Pinterest and my other social media. Right now, my Pinterest boards get about 114,000 daily views.

I’m telling you all of these things because if you are reading this and you are an author, you can do all of them to promote your own books, too.   It takes a lot of time and perseverance but hey…if I can do all of this while working a full time job at an engineering company, anyone can do the same. The main thing to realize is that no one else is going to do as much for you as you will ever do for yourself, so get busy. With that last thought, I want to say how much I appreciate Bee Book Pleasures blog for allowing me and my book Cleo Can Tie A Bow to occupy some of their valuable blog space. 

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