Charlie's Treasures

Follow the Journey

The Idea: The mental image of Charlie’s Treasures had formed over a long period of time.  It gelled after lay-off number 7.  I had risen to the position of Chief Financial Officer for (at the time) the third largest corporation in Sonoma County.  It was a half-billion dollar machine that treated its employees like faceless drones.  That environment tore at my heart for it’s not the way I believed people should be treated.  After almost a year of rigorous negotiations, the company was sold to an even bigger monster.  The promises of, “don’t worry we’ll take care of you” vanished as quickly as the ink dried on the contract.  All during this time, in my mind a picture was forming of a small boy standing in front of a wise grandfatherly figure.  With great pride he is holding a handful of marbles for the old man to see.   If you’ve ever met a young child with a collection of anything, rocks, bugs, trading cards, or marbles, they can tell you everything about each one of them.  And in my experience, no one has the patience to listen to a child like a grandparent.  And if that child was me, what would my treasures be?  The corporate position I had climbed to?  The stuff I owned?  Or would it be the people I had met in my life?  The Story: The story was conceived on July 10, 2001.  I know this because I was so stricken by the idea that I ran home and wrote down the date so I would never forget.  It was following corporate re-organization number 9.  I had met up with a friend of mine and we were discussing business and the things that were really important in life.  I risked sharing my vision of the young boy and his marbles.  She liked it and simply told me to go home and write his story.  So I did.  The story remains virtually unchanged from the night I wrote it.  The Artist: Charlie’s Treasures is a very visual story and it needed more than words to express the message.  My talent for painting ends with bathrooms.  I needed an artist who could paint the expression on a child’s face and hands.  Where was I going to find one?  I envisioned a book with rich illustrations in the style of Dean Morrissey.  But I was broke and he was famous, so that didn’t seem like a likely match.  I called everyone I knew and asked if they knew of anyone who might be willing to work with me on this project.  I got told “no” a lot.  And I was told a few times that no one would ever illustrate my book, not without a lot of money and never on speculation.  For months I looked.  And for months I was told “no”.  Then one day a friend of mine mentioned to me that she had a friend who did wonderful paintings, Dian DeWolf.  Dian it turned out was a renowned local painter who specializes in watercolors of her grandchildren.  My friend made the introduction.  Dian was leery and almost turned me down.  I begged her just to meet with me and read the story.  We met, she loved the story and agreed to work with me.  As it turns out, Dian has always wanted to illustrate a children’s book.  And for this project she put down her watercolors and picked up pastels.  I truly believe that no one else could bring my story to life like Dian has.   The Mentor: By the fall of 2001, I had a draft of the story with some of Dian’s sketches.  With this mock up, I began hunting for a publisher.  I believe it was in October of that year that my parents happened to meet Dean Morrissey at a book signing at Barnes & Noble in San Jose.  To my surprise, they had told them about their son who had written a children’s book and was trying to get it published.  Then they asked if he’d be willing to talk with me.  He was.  My parents gave me signed copies of Ship Of Dreams and The Christmas Carol and best of all, Dean’s phone number.  I called him in his studio in Massachusetts.  He asked me to send him a copy of the book.  A few weeks later he called.  In short, he gave Dian and I some very good suggestions as to the format and the artwork.  More importantly, I’ll never forget his first words, “You’ve got it!  This story is good.”  He also told me that I can try mailing the book to publishers, but the only way to really get published is to go to New York and sit in the lobby of every publisher you can, until someone takes notice.  That’s how he got started.   The Journey: I wasn’t able to take the time and travel to New York, so I did the next best thing.  I priority mailed copies of Charlie’s Treasures to thirty publishers and a few agents.  I have twenty-eight “drop dead and die” letters.  I had one very encouraging letter from the people at Little Brown and made a very good contact at Hampton Roads.  Both companies believe in the book, but it just didn’t fit their forte.   Between corporate right sizing I do consulting.  One of my clients is a publisher for a high-end culinary trade magazine.  The owners liked Charlie’s Treasures so much, they sent a copy to their friend who owns Ten Speed Press.  Ten Speed has a children’s imprint called Tricycle Press.  They liked the book and the artwork and called me in for a meeting.  I drove down to Berkeley and things looked like they were going well.  All my book had to do was pass one more review.  After several months of waiting, I had to call and find out the book hadn’t made it.  Needless to say, that combined with corporate re-engineering number 10 and loosing my house, it wasn’t looking like 2003 was going to stack up as a “good” year.   Out of a job and out of money, things weren’t looking up.  Then I remembered the words that Dean had planted in my head.  “Go to New York and find a publisher.”  I contacted everyone I knew and asked if they’d be interested in buying a copy of my book to raise the money I needed to go to New York.  The response was overwhelming.  In one hour I had raised half of the money I needed for the trip.  And so the challenge began on January 24th,, 2004 to find a publisher for Charlie’s Treasures.  Whether or not I found a publisher who would print Charlie’s Treasures, the journey I knew would be well worth it.   New York: Anyone who has been to New York in the winter knows just how cold it is.  And this was the coldest winter in a decade.  Add to that my thin native Californian blood and it was really cold.  I can honestly say I have walked 50 blocks in the snow one way to deliver a manuscript.  And it always felt like the 50 block walk home was uphill as well.  Why walk?  Because I couldn’t afford the price of a cab or the subway.  My room at the Pickwick Arms Hotel was small.  So small in fact that I could stand in the middle and touch both walls.  The bathroom was down the hall and the light didn’t work.  I had to buy a flash light and hold it in my teeth whenever I ventured to the WC.  The heat in the room was nonexistent if and when it worked.   The first stop was with an editor at Little Brown.  They had been very supportive of the work, but couldn’t quiet find a way make the book fit into their catalog.  She was extremely helpful, gave me some good ideas and wished me well.  In the end, I managed to contact and knock on the door of 110 publishers and agents in 10 days!  Every “How To” book tells you never to contact agents and publishers in person.  I would not suggest this as a course of action, but I contacted them by phone first and in almost every case, they either agreed to meet with me or at least allowed me to drop off a manuscript in person.  Halfway through my adventure I ran out of books and had to find a print shop open on the weekends who could make additional copies.   At the end of every day I would send out an email to everyone who had supported me on the journey.  A friend and supported of Charlie’s Treasures from the publishing house Hampton Roads, was kind enough to send me cab fare.  I will be eternally grateful to her for that and so will my toes.    One of the last places I stopped was Frank Weimann’s office at the Literary Group.  And then I headed home, artwork tucked under my arm and an empty suitcase.  Almost Again: Less than a week after returning home I got a letter from Frank, they wanted to represent Charlie’s Treasures.  This told me so much.  Normally when you send a manuscript out, it’ll be months before you ever hear from an agent or publisher, if ever.  Frank had just signed a deal for one of the actors from the Lord Of The Rings movies for a huge six figure advance.  For him to respond so quickly to a nobody like me, mean that the story had merit.  If nothing else that vote of confidence was worth the trip.   Try as he could, Frank ran into the same walls I had.  The story is meant for adults, it’s told and illustrated like a children’s book.  It falls into the same category as Jonathan Livingston Seagull or The Little Prince.  It’s a “read-to” not a “read along” book.  The big guys just can’t push a book that doesn’t fit well on a shelf.  It takes too much time and resources to bet on an unknown.  A Night At The Opera: While Frank pounded on doors, Dian finished the artwork.  She had created more than twenty full sized pastels.  They are a true accomplishment and an incredible work.  This deserved a celebration.  Fortunately at the time, I was working as the Director of Finance for the prestigious Napa Valley Opera House.  The interim executive director had offered a few nights each year for the employees.  I think I was the only one fortunate to take advantage of his offer.  It was a spectacular event.  You can see the pictures from it.  We were honored by a surprise visit by the VOENA children’s choir who gave an incredible impromptu performance.  Frank was gracious enough to stay on as our agent until after the show.  Ghouls, Goblins and Lawyers: A few days after the showing my wife and I parted ways.  It was not unexpected.  What was unexpected and hurtful was that Charlie’s Treasures became subject of a long drawn out and very unpleasant divorce.  Needless to say all of my efforts turned to taking care of this and keeping a home for my son to live in while he finished his senior year in high school.  A year later I was actually standing on the corner of a vacant lot in Santa Rosa.  I had lost all of my retirement, all of my cash and savings, I lost my home (those are kind of big things to misplace), I was unemployed (another casualty of the divorce), I was forced to buy back my own inheritance, everything I still owned was crammed into a tiny self-storage locker and I had no place to live and I was so deeply indebt that I doubted I could ever dig out of it.  But, tucked under my arm was Charlie’s Treasures.  I had given up everything to protect Dian’s work and my story.   Stone In The Surf Press: I did what any other person would.  With the grace and kindness of a good friend I had a place to live over her garage.  I wrangled the funds necessary to start my own publishing company and by day after Thanksgiving 2005, the first printed and bound copies of Charlie’s Treasures arrived.  This has not been easy.  I might be willing to say that Charlie’s Treasures has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.  To that I will add it has also been the most rewarding.  Every person who buys a copy and I can see their reaction, makes every step of this journey worth it.   I can sum it up with one man who I met at the LA Times Festival of Books.  He read the book cover to cover then looked up at me and said, “Thank you for writing this story.”   That’s it.  That’s why I write.  And that is why I will never give up on Charlie’s Treasures.