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My Journey…Self-Publishing

Once my manuscript of “The Triplet Ballerinas” was finished, I needed to decide how to publish it: traditional publishing or self-publishing. In traditional publishing, you have very little control over your manuscript once it is accepted by a publisher. I decided on self-publishing so I could control the outcome that was most important to me: getting my book in the hands of readers as soon as I could.

With self-publishing, I could also control how my characters were illustrated. I envisioned my characters as human and that is how I wanted them portrayed. With traditional publishing, the main characters in “The Triplet Ballerinas” might have ended up being hedgehog ballerinas or mice ballerinas (oh wait, that one has already been done!). This is because the illustrations of the characters in those children’s picture books are usually left up to the illustrator the publisher chooses. The author has little or no control of how the characters they created are portrayed.

I had to make many more decisions as a self-publisher though. The first and most important one was to find an illustrator for “The Triplet Ballerinas”… Beverly

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My Triplet Ballerinas… Fighting and Fairness

My triplet ballerinas are my triplet grand-daughters, Makenna, Jaeli and Maysie.

As with all siblings, these triplets are prone to fighting with each other. Surprisingly, it is usually one-on-one instead of two against one, and it is usually, but not always, Jaeli and Maysie who are the ones arguing or fighting. Makenna tends to be the peacemaker. She is the one who runs and finds a substitute to whatever they are fighting over so that they both have something similar. Of course, sometimes Makenna finds herself in the middle of a fight or argument and there is no one to save her since her sisters aren’t as accommodating to her! Most times, their squabbles are easily resolved by one solution or another and the three of them go back to being sisters and best friends.

Again, I am sure it’s probably like this with most siblings, but these triplets are all about fairness. It doesn’t matter what it is, if one gets it, the other two need to get it too or you will hear all about it. It doesn’t matter if it is food (especially candy), toys or even new clothes, it has to be fair and equal. This can sometimes be challenging to find three of the same or similar. When they were younger, whatever was given didn’t necessarily have to be the same since they were just happy to have something new. As they grew older and more aware, it was a different story. They were never far apart then, so if you gave something to one of them, you needed to give the same to the other two. Even though they are not always together now, if they find out you gave to one and not all three, you will certainly hear about it! Beverly

My Triplet Ballerinas… Identical or Fraternal?

Guest Blogger:  Megan J.

My triplet ballerinas are my triplet daughters, Makenna, Jaeli and Maysie.

When I was about 7 weeks along with my pregnancy, we learned we were having triplets. At that time, we were told the babies were all fraternal because they were in three separate sacs.

After the triplets were born and in the NICU, we noticed right away that Jaeli and Maysie looked a lot alike. We had trouble with which triplet was Jaeli and which one was Maysie while Makenna was easily recognized. At only a few weeks old, we took the girls back to the hospital for pictures and had to remove Maysie’s hip brace and Jaeli’s heart monitor. After taking the pictures, it was time to put everything back on. This is the only time that I was ever confused about who was Maysie and who was Jaeli. Thankfully, I had previously painted Maysie’s toe nail in case this would happen. This made me start to wonder though if Maysie and Jaeli were really fraternal. I remembered hearing from another triplet mom that she had her triplets tested with an at-home DNA test. This was very cheap and simple to do, so we decided to have it done. The lab called one day and said they were emailing me the results but wanted to let me know that the test showed a 99% match for Jaeli and Maysie being identical twins!

As Jaeli and Maysie have gotten older, it is easier now to tell them apart. They may be identical, but they are also different in many ways. Like their fraternal triplet sister, Makenna, they each have their own individual personality that makes them their own person.  

My Journey…Writing

When I first started writing a children’s book, I had no idea what I wanted to write about. I even carried around a notebook to write down ideas. One day, a lost puppy was found on our doorstep and was soon reunited with his hunter master. I thought about writing a story about this, but it was quickly discarded. Then, I got the idea of writing a story about triplet sisters, since it was something I was familiar with. At first, I was going to title it “The Triplet Girl” since it was a story about triplet sisters but only one of them (Macie-my main character) liked ballet and the other two (Annie and Jamie-names that sounded more boyish) were more interested in their new ponies. I soon changed the title to “The Triplet Ballerinas” though. I still have one of the rough (very rough!) drafts of that story and here is an excerpt:

After ballet class, Macie finds her sisters playing with ponies in the field. Holding her nose, she tiptoes to avoid stinky, smelly pony poop. Waving a paper in her hand, Macie says, “Look, what Miss Carol gave me.” She announces, “OUR BALLET SHOW PROGRAM.” “It says, ‘Dance of the Triplet Ballerinas’.” “Isn’t that exciting?” she asks her sisters. “NO,” says Annie. “NO,” says Jamie. Macie twirls around and around. “But, don’t you remember how we love doing pirouettes together?” “NO,” says Annie. “NO,” says Jamie. Macie leaps high. “Isn’t it fun to do jetes’ like we practiced?” “NO,” says Annie. “NO,” says Jamie. Macie gallops around the field. “We could add these to our dance,” she says. But, suddenly, a pony gallops toward her. “OH, NO,” says Macie. She bolts. She leaps. She trips. She falls…right in…STINKY, SMELLY, PONY POOP.

Luckily, I soon received the critique that sent me on the journey of writing about three main characters-triplet sisters who become triplet ballerinas-instead of one and the story developed from there including changing the name “Jamie” to “Julie”. It sure was fun to write about those ponies and the stinky, smelly pony poop though. Maybe someday…. Beverly

My Triplet Ballerinas…Characteristics

My triplet ballerinas are my triplet grand-daughters, Makenna, Jaeli and Maysie.

One of the things you have to do when writing a story is give character traits (words used to describe a person) to your characters. For my first blog post of “My Triplet Ballerinas”, I decided to compare the character traits I gave to my “pretend” triplet ballerinas to the ones of their counterparts, my own triplet ballerinas.

“Annie” is spirited and fearless. She is very confident in her abilities. I have a feeling she might be bossy too! Makenna is intelligent (she is very smart and studious) and creative (her drawings and ideas are so good). She is always curious (wanting to know about everything). She can be stubborn (at times), but she is always helpful (whenever she sees someone in need, she will help them without being asked).  

“Julie” is determined and hardworking. I think she can be self-critical, but never critical of her sisters. She might be a bit of a perfectionist too! Jaeli can also be self-critical at times. She could also be described as being shy (something she struggles with especially in making friends). She loves to read so solitary might be a word to describe her. Some other words to describe her would be: loving, sensitive and hopeful.

“Macie” is shy and timid. She is also uncertain, but hopeful. She is definitely a follower, not a leader! Maysie is very imaginative (she is always coming up with great ideas like writing a story!). She is the spirited and fearless triplet. Some other words to describe her would be: kind-hearted and fashionable (she loves to “dress up”).

Beverly

The Triplet Ballerinas

Welcome to my website and thank you for checking out my blog. After “The Triplet Ballerina” releases on January 8^th, I will start posting in My Blog once a week. The first week of every month, I am planning on posting about “My Triplet Ballerinas…”. This will be stories about my own triplet grand-daughters. The second week, I am planning on posting about “My Journey…”. This may be my journey to writing my children’s book, my journey in researching my story or even my journey to self-publishing. The third week, I am planning on a guest blogger of triplet girls sharing their own stories of “My Triplet Ballerinas…”. I am not sure about the posts for the last week of the month yet. It may be about “My Thoughts…” or “My Life…” or I may go in a whole new direction…. Beverly