Fathers and daughters reading books together is a common ritual, and one that Clairemont residents Christophe and Naomie have done together for years. But late last year, nine-year-old Naomie did something most kids her age won’t ever do—she wrote a children’s book. And she published it.
“Nora and Brownie-Just Between Us” is the story of a young girl nervous about starting a new school, but fortunately, she has a very supportive pet cat to talk her through it and help build her confidence. Naomie’s characters are loosely built around her little sister and a kitten she briefly had.
“When my sister was younger, she thought our cat could talk—or she wanted her to talk,” said Naomie. (Don’t we all wish our pets could talk to us?)
Christophe explained Brownie’s character inspiration. “Our cat had a litter, and one of her (Naomie’s) favorite kittens was named Brownie.”
The father and daughter pair worked on the book together during Christmas vacation last year, devoting extra time during rainy days. Christophe thought writing together would be good typing and spelling practice for Naomie, as well as a good bonding experience.
Somewhere during the process, Naomie’s typing practice turned into Naomie dictating, while Christophe typed. Once the creative juices started flowing, Naomie’s tiny typing fingers couldn’t keep up with her fast-moving mind, so Christophe took over.
“When my imagination was flowing, we needed fast typing,” said Naomie, “but when it was just, like, two sentences at a time, I was typing it.”
Initially, the idea was to write a short book, and publishing it wasn’t yet on the table. But once Christophe and Naomie were knee-deep into the project, they realized they were creating a story that kids would really enjoy reading.
“Once we had three or four chapters, I was like, ‘Maybe we can actually get this published,'” said Naomie.
Christophe shared that same sentiment, noting he planted the seed in Naomie’s head about publishing her book. What started as writing together for fun for two hours a day turned into a 10-page chapter in a week. Then 30 pages. Then when it hit close to 60 pages, it was a bona fide book.
That was when Christophe, a scientist by trade, delved into research on how to get a book published. There were self-publishing options that required a minimum order, and he felt hesitant going that route for the first time. Then he found Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, which allows authors to self publish with no upfront fees in exchange for sharing the profit with KDP. Books are printed as they are ordered.
It was important to Christophe and Naomie to have a tangible, printed book and not a digital one. “We wanted the feeling of having it in your hand and having copies at home as a memory,” said Christophe.
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Naomie, now a published author, relishes her new role. “It feels really good,” she giggled. And her friends are pretty excited for her, too. When asked what they said upon finding out she published a book, Naomie said, “They’re like, ‘Oh my God! That’s amazing.”
Now that Naomie has been bitten by the writing and publishing bug, she wants to do more of it. She’d like to further develop the Nora and Brownie characters of the book, and introduce new characters.
Excitedly, Naomie said, “I really, really, really want to do a second and maybe third one.”
Several years ago, when Naomie started writing and illustrating five or six page mini-books just for the love of it, neither she nor Christophe could have imagined it would have lead to where they are today. Besides selling her book on Amazon, Naomie and her dad are looking to get the book in local libraries, and eventually some independent bookstores.
Christophe said what makes this book so special (besides the fact that his young daughter wrote it) is that it has a lot of dialogue, so it’s a perfect book for a child to read together with a parent.
Naomie, open to constructive criticism, said her friend Robin gave her one bit of advice for her next book. “He said in the next book, maybe put more adventures in it, [but otherwise] he said it was really good.” And Naomie assures readers they can definitely expect more adventures for her next book in the series.
If you’d like to support Naomie, you can order her book here.
God bless the little girl and a beautiful story. “Thank heaven for little girls.” Maurice Chevallier
shes really our neighbor! how very cool and amazing! we share the litter of cats that she mentions.. sweet! and congratulations
Awww. Love that. Thanks for sharing.