Birth of a Book

Two years ago Jennifer Cowart, a Cranston mother of three and local journalist, flew to California to celebrate the impending birth of her brother and sister-in-law’s first child. She had no idea that that visit would plant the seed for her first book.

While on that visit, she knew she wanted to leave Chris and Nina Cerbo with some thoughts and ideas about her experiences as a parent. Living on the other side of the country, Jen knew that midday chats over coffee or Sunday dinners together were just not in the cards. But having the experience of three girls of her own, she had some thoughts to share. So, Jen put pen to paper and started to make a list of things she wanted them to know.

“There was no order. I just wrote things down as they popped in my head.” Jen recalls. “After I left to come home I never gave it a second thought. I didn’t even keep a copy for myself.”

A little over a year later, Nina thanked Jen for the helpful list. So Jen asked if she could make her a copy and the book took root. When Jen posted the list on her Facebook notes page, it was an instant hit. The list took on a life of its own. Family and friends shared stories, posted comments and shared the link with their friends and families.

“If it wasn’t for Facebook and all the posts, I never would have thought to do anything with it,” Cowart said.

Driven by the emotional connections from all the postings and one person’s comment of, “If this were a book, I would buy it,” Cowart knew she needed to do something more with her list. But, she still was not sure what that would be. (Several of the posts and comments, from the original Facebook post are located on the back cover of the book.)

At the same time Cowart was thinking about what she could do with her list, she was editing a book for a new Cranston-based publishing house, Heart and Soul Publishing, owned by David DeRouin. DeRouin was in the process of publishing his wife Jayne’s first book. On an afternoon when Jen was dropping off some chapters, she happened to ask Jayne if David was going to publish any more books. The DeRouin’s asked her to send over what she had and that is how the book began to grow.

After the first planning meeting with DeRouin, both he and Cowart knew in what direction they were headed. The book was envisioned to be a small 5’x5’ soft cover. She began by laying out all the notes on individual cards and searching for photos to pair up with each page. Very early in the process, they realized that the book needed photos taken in the moment by every-day people.

“I started by going through all of my albums pulling photos I thought would or could work, but I have three dark-haired girls and the book needed to have more than just them. So I reached out to my friends and family,” Cowart said.

In all, the book contains photos from twelve families hailing from California, Rhode Island and Virginia. Nine of those families have a Cranston connection.

After weeks of collecting and sorting through photos, Jen had her first meeting with Dave Aldrich of Aldrich Design, in Lincoln. Years of scrapbooking had given Jen enough experience to walk into the meeting with ideas. Aldrich was going to take on the task of pulling together the 8 ½”x 11’’sheets of paper Jen had been working with and turn them into her vision.

 “In your head you think of something. I told Dave what it was and he made it!”

Around Thanksgiving, Cowart turned over all of her photos and Aldrich began the process of scanning the photos, turning them into black and white images and laying them out. On Christmas Eve, Jen received her first set of images from Aldrich via email. Like feeling your baby kick for the first time, Cowart knew this was real. It was really happening. Her book was taking shape.

After all the photos were chosen and paired with the proper text, there was still work to be done. The sequence of the book needed to be finalized and an introduction had to be added. Jen went everywhere carrying around squares of the pages. Whenever she had a spare moment, she would play with them moving them around and laying them out trying to get the perfect flow. 

“David DeRouin was instrumental in every step of the process. He had a schedule and made sure we stuck to it. He kept me grounded during the entire process,” Cowart said.

You would think that after all of that work and planning the book would be ready, but it wasn’t. Just when Jen thought the book was ready for print, there would be another edit needed or a slight change. But in early February, all of the hard work and effort paid off and Jen held the first proof of her book. On Feb. 19 the first shipment of 500 books arrived.

“It was perfect. Like being handed your baby for the first time,” realized Jen.

The book was just how Jen had envisioned it. In a six-month whirlwind of excitement from September to the book release party in early March 2011 a book was born.

On March 12 at the Central Library, in front of an audience of over one hundred friends and family members, including the Cerbo family, who were Skyped-in for the event, Jen shared “Baby Notes."

Mayor Allen W. Fung spoke of what a pleasure it was to be able to be there on  this day for a Cranston resident who had created something that can be a benefit to so many. With tears in her eyes Jen spoke of the experience and how she never thought this would happen to her.

“Baby Notes” is available for purchase directly from the Heart & Soul Publishing’s website www.heartandsoulpublishing.com or on Amazon.com.

Jen will be releasing her first children’s book in early summer.