Local authors Mason and Nicole Howard have been busy writing books the past year featuring the interactions of two friends aptly named Sweet Strawberry and Salty Peanut. Sweet Strawberry is a sweet character while Salty Peanut is a grouchy, salty character. The mother and son duo came up with the idea of writing a book last winter, wrote it in the spring and self-published it last summer through Barnes and Noble. The plot of their first book, “The Ice Skating Adventure,” as well as the plots of their other two books were based on real life experience.
“The Paddling Adventure,” their second book was written last summer and published at the start of the school year; their third and most recent book, “The Shopping Adventure,” was written in September and published by MEA break.
Mason and Nicole collaborated to write the books. Mason, a second year kinesiology student at the University of Madison, did a lot of the writing of the first book. He calls himself the “Helpful Idea Guy.”
Nicole, a second grade teacher at Lanesboro Schools, said she had always wanted to write a picture book, “It’s always been on my bucket list!” Both Nicole and Mason are creative. According to Nicole, getting started was the tough part; they already had the characters in mind. The characters are not based on any particular people. Nicole commented that most people have a mix of Sweet Strawberry and Salty Peanut to their personalities.
The books are written at a kindergarten to second grade level. Nicole wanted all her students to be able to successfully read the books. She loved the idea of creating a series to encourage more reading. Nicole felt that there were not as many books being written today with a theme of friendship.
Nicole drew the books’ illustrations; this was the most challenging part of creating the books and took the longest in Nicole’s opinion. “Writing the books actually flowed pretty quickly,” Nicole shared.
Mason had previous experience in self-publishing; as a high school senior he actually wrote a novel for a class. “Something’s Missing, a Krissy Underland Adventure” had characters based on teachers and students at Lanesboro School. For the names of the characters, Mason slightly modified the names of real people at the school.
Mason’s father, Justin, had suggested getting that novel bound; Mason did a little research and learned that Barnes and Noble had a good process to help writers self-publish.
Now the entire 10th grade English class at Lanesboro write their own books using Mason’s book as an example. Mason chuckled that he’d gotten a phone call at college from a bunch of the students asking about the steps of self-publishing. While some students had given Mason a hard time for making more work for them, Mason noted that there is a sense of pride in creating your own published book.
Mason’s sister Ellie, a senior at Lanesboro, did not have the experience of writing her own book. The sophomore class began getting that assignment the year she was a junior.
Nicole said she gets ideas for the books when she’s out running or walking on the trail at Fountain. She then dictates the idea into her phone. Mason said he doesn’t have a special place or routine; he just likes to be in a quiet spot.
For their first book, “The Ice Skating Adventure,” Nicole initially only ordered five copies. She had intended to just share the books with her students. She was pleasantly surprised by the interest other people had in the book and needed to reorder more copies. “It brought me so much joy!” Nicole enthused. She loves hearing other teachers and the librarian read her book.
Each of the books ends with the line, “Stay tuned for more adventures …” Nicole shared with a smile that one of her students had added the same line when she herself wrote a story recently.
Nicole found stuffies at Scheel’s that totally look like Sweet Strawberry and Salty Peanut; the stuffed mascots now have a home in her classroom.
Mason and Nicole already have a couple more books in the works and ideas for three more in mind. Their goal is to create a series of 10 books. Beyond this series, Nicole would like to come up with another series.
When asked what they enjoyed most about writing the books together, Mason replied that he loved getting the texts from his mom with her students reading the book at the end of the process. Nicole shared that it was really fun to have a project to connect with Mason while he was away at college.
Mason’s advice for others wanting to become authors was, “Write what you enjoy!”
Nicole’s advice for new authors was, “Have something to say!”
Currently, the books are only available for purchase from Nicole and Mason; you can email Nicole at nicthoward@gmail.com for more information. In the future, the Howards hope to have an online ordering system.
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