What an honor it was to work on this project. I never would have thought I’d get a shot to do something like this when I first started writing or when I contacted the Tony Sly Music Foundation For Kids.
Writing and illustrating Tony’s Butterflies was incredible. Not only did I get to create a fun book, I got to do it for one of my idols. Tony Sly was one of my two idols, up there with Dr. Seuss. I listened to Tony’s acoustic songs and to No Use For A Name (the band that Tony was the frontman of) all throughout high school. It has a tough message that I believe is more obvious for adults than kids, but it’s what we wanted to bring to the book. After speaking with Jon and Brigitte about where to go with the story, it was a joint decision to let some of Tony’s songs do the talking. Jon mentioned centering the story around “Keira” since the song was created as a lullaby. After a joint decision to let any of Tony’s songs influence the book, I began writing it. The rest I think might be kind of boring, so I’ll just leave it out and you can read the book to check out what came of all of this.
Months later and this has been one fun project that I still feel extremely honored to be a part of. So be sure to purchase your copy and check out what came of this project, but remember that all of the profits for every book will go to the Tony Sly Music Foundation For Kids so they can keep helping kids make music.
“I don’t even think a book could say enough for you.” No Use For A Name – For Fiona