Welcome to the Voices for Voices podcast sponsored by Redwood Living
thank you for joining us today I am Justin Alan Hayes founder and
executive director of Voices for Voices host and humanitarian
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accessibility and disabilities while also helping people get the help
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now joining us today is an author in a disability Advocate and mother and she's
joining us from the great state of Texas please join me in welcoming to the show
Rosalie Mastaler thank you for joining us today
thank you for having me I'm so happy to be here absolutely excited to talk
to a fellow author and another individual like your site
website says you know you're promoting you're promoting hope and you know that's through the books it's through
blogs it's through interviews through podcasts that like you're doing today and
for our audience listeners and viewers and those who will be reading the
transcript of this episode if you maybe give a little background about how
you became an author and a disability Advocate and maybe one came before the
other and I think they kind of go together so whatever may be easier for you
yeah, such a good question because I feel like it's they're too they can they work well
together and I've always had a love for storytelling and for writing and luckily
I'm able to combine those two laws of advocacy and writing and I was kind of
thrown into the disability world with my son because back in 2015 there was an
accident our dog attacked him and the it had damaged his legs so bad they had to
amputate his leg so all of a sudden, we were in this disability world, and we didn't really
know what to do and we started with Google, and we looked at people who had disabilities that were
like him and we just kind of journeyed through and then a few years later he
actually was diagnosed with bilateral hearing loss so he's hard of hearing and has hearing aids and so
all of a sudden, we had another disability that we were trying to figure out and as we as he
recovered and as the years went by, I saw this huge hole in literature because I
wanted to find books for my son and for the rest of my children. He’s the oldest of three boys and he's now twelve. and so I
found this huge gap in publishing and only 3.5 percent of books published have
featured characters with disabilities and that was from a statistic done back in 2019 so I think it's maybe gotten a
little bit better maybe we're at five percent but I realized you know I can take my luck for storytelling my love
for being an advocate and advocating for my son and combine the two and
um see what I could come up with and so from there I went on the Journey of learning more about
storytelling to children and just what works you know I
joined critique groups I joined the Society of children's books writers and authors
um our illustrators I just did everything I could so I can make sure I could tell a good story and so my first
book is coming out in June and starting there and then my son is actually helping me write our next book after
that awesome and how I became aware of you in the work
that you you've done is through looking into some research and being
connected with individuals who do work whether they're an author or an advocate
because of a child or somebody they know to like you said to bridge that Gap
with the literature not having a lead character that children with
disabilities or challenges that they can relate to because I even know for myself
saying a character in a book reading about it seeing pictures photos it's
important to be able to relate to as a human being let alone a child and then a
child that may have challenges and to be able to bring all that together and just have
literature about the human being that looks and feels like them is important and so I want to
congratulate you to being able to do that to be able to be one of the one
of the authors out there that is doing that because I think that's really important because I think if
children don't see themselves in books then they might start to doubt themselves and you know we don't we
don't want that as adults we already do that enough I think that we don't need to be reaffirmed on that and
so how is your background in writing being an author education or
certificates how did that come about
yeah, I I've always loved writing it’s just it's always been something
I've done just for fun, and I remember reading this
book and it's a book called finish and it's all about finishing things and how we usually finish the thing that we love
right because we all have our own passions and I remember him saying that sometimes we get older and we in a sense
discover new passions or new hobbies something that we want to pursue but
most of the time we're going back to something that we already had a love for and that we didn't necessarily get to
pursue in that moment in time and it's funny because as I've taken this journey of writing
um you know we've been moving for the past few years, and I've been able to like dig up old things of like you know how our parents keep Awards when we're
like sixth grade all of a sudden like I pull out an award or pull-out old journals and stuff and in sixth grade I
remember I found this like little Journal it's like oh about me I'm in sixth grade now what do I write and in
sixth grade I wrote when I grow up, I want to be the writer and I don't even remember right doing that and or even
having those feelings and then it just kind of was like I do love this I love this so much and
um I've poured a lot into researching just how Children books work you know
what works for a child what's going to entertain them what is going to keep them
um reading it more than once and I would just go to the library and take a giant stack of books and read them and
regarding representation and people with disabilities seeing themselves in books
I feel like my mission is too cold I want children to be able to say hey that person's just like me and I want children to be able to see a world
Beyond themselves and I feel like that's almost a little more important because
there's you know the disability Community they are in the minority so the majority of the children who see
this book I'm hoping aren't the ones that are like the main character but they're the ones that need to see them
they need to see that world they need to see someone who doesn't look like them because that's where inclusion will
happen yeah, I agree, and I think that it is it's huge for those of us that we
don't have those challenges and it helps us to accept people for who they are
I know if little my four-year-old daughter at her age she's thankfully is
that at this point fully functioning and able to do everything
on her own that she's supposed to do and it's important with some of the books and even just some of the
experiences and examples to my wife and I talk about that you know it's okay to
read a book or to see somebody out in public that might look a little bit
different from us a good example I'm reading saved from Benjamin Hall the
the reporter that was in Ukraine his car got bombed a couple people end up
passing away and I believe he had one leg amputated and I'm not quite sure
about the other leg and so I was reading about that and my daughter she came
up and saw the book and she's like oh you have recipes, and you know like the four-year-old like oh yeah, I got a
book of recipes and then she started paging through and in the middle, there were some photos, and the photos were
Benjamin before the accident kind of during as he's going through the
treatment and kind of where he's where he's at today and so she was asking me she's like why doesn't you
know why doesn't he have a leg on this side and so trying to just explain
to a four-year-old or just getting that mindset of being prepared to talk about that that it's okay and I think
that's part of the reason why I wanted to read the story just to just to
learn about somebody else's experience and that today might not look exactly
like me and that's okay but to be able to learn like how did he
get through it what types of challenges has he had and how does he overcome to be able to
inspire and help others to show you know what I'm not going to give up I'm gonna I'm gonna continue and continue on in in
life so how growing up with Hunter post-accident how did he
take how did he take the news when you know the decision was made and
maybe it was made when he's at the hospital and under anesthesia I don't know but like when he maybe came to
it and realized was it a shock to him yes very much so
um I think what worked against us was his age he was not I'm so young to where it
was like okay like my body's just a little bit different I'm gonna just kind of get up and adapt and then he wasn't
old enough to where he could rationalize so he was about four and a half years so right around your daughter
yeah, and when he realized that he was gone it was just so much confusion
and it was a really dark and difficult time for our family because he
just did not understand it and not only did he not understand it he did not want to accept it he asked if we could go look for his
leg he asked if we could go back to the hospital to get it and to try and explain that to him was nearly
impossible and I think that's what it came down to like I couldn’t explain to him he was going to
have to try and figure it out on his own I was gonna and what really helped though was a few months after he lost
his blade we went to a camp with other kids who had limb differences and
that it wasn't like a night and day difference, but I think for him to see other kids who were like him and adults
as well just kind of made him to not feel so alone and realize okay I am
missing my leg but there's other people out there like me and I don't know what was going
through his head he had turned five the weekend we went to Camp he went he
turned five and then after that it was a slow progression and about eight months later is when he finally took his first
step so it was a very long process emotionally and mentally and physically yeah how was it for you and your
husband to see your son kind of go through that that having gone through
trauma myself and had a mental illness and having some very darn dark days and
a five-day impatience that at a hospital to be diagnosed I know it's hard for
anybody but I just thinking to my daughter I don't know how I would
how I would kind of go on I'd be maybe thinking I saw like okay Justin
you did something wrong even if I didn’t how were you able to get
through those initial days
I felt like I wanted to be the example for Hunter
and my husband too but I felt like I have to make sure I'm figuring out everything else for
myself and figuring out okay this this is our new reality and
if I sit and wallow and be bitter and just be upset then what is that teaching
him and so I really took it upon myself to just really try and
be positive but not a toxic positive but to just help him
understand okay this is how things are now we have to find a way to move on we
have to find a way to just keep pushing forward because this isn't going to change, and we can't live lives and our lives
unhappy that's not worth it it's not worth it to just being happy and to be sad so I mean there were a lot of
struggles I had to fight a lot with insurance I had to figure out how to get in Prosthetics that was, and I feel like
that probably kept me really busy that maybe I didn't even have the time to you know think right but I mean there
were times that we did even cry together you know I really tried to feel like we had these feelings so we're gonna
have these feelings but let's figure out how to get through these feelings and not push them down and not sit on them
and let them just stir inside of us for days and months and months yeah that's
that's tough that's very inspiring to be able to do that and commend you for
being able to do that to think of being the being the example and wanting to spend your days happy not sad and
and that’s incredible the think about
that experience and to be able to you know be that be that example so as
Hunter began to have a few days and months
after losing his leg and I guess I don't know at what point
he wanted to start inspiring others where it was at after the acceptance of
saying okay I'm expecting except on where I'm at and I can probably help and
maybe it's just than seeing somebody like themselves or
maybe it's somebody talking through videos or Instagram where it was like I read a little bit about on
on the site so you may walk through like that process and then maybe how
how it makes you feel as he's as he's doing that and then you know I said
with the books and really just hitting it on all angles yeah so
let's see it was probably around it was a few years after that I started to
write our story because I felt very inspired in this very strong
feeling to just get our story onto paper and I started writing our story as
a memoir for adults and I think we all do this with our
talents it's like if we have a talent for something we might as well use it and if we feel strongly about something we might if it's there we gotta we gotta
move forward with it so I started off with a memoir and I finished my Memoir after like a few years took some time
and then we started to like to build a platform online and it was kind of like just kind
of throwing it into the wind of like okay let's just see what sticks and let's just try it out and see if we even like it because Hunter was getting older
at this point and one of the First videos that we made that went viral
was him walking on Legos and like all of a sudden it like blew up it had um
millions of views and I was like okay we're like onto something people think
it's funny we think it's funny and we're also kind of spreading awareness and
disability visibility all those good things and so we just kind of took it from there and ran and
um my Memoir is still it's done but we're still in the works of getting that published but then I did shift yours to
picture books because I you had asked about my background experience; I've always worked with children I love
working with children I am actually a music teacher I have taught piano and voice forever ever since I was a
teenager I taught English in Russia I was a nanny Iran ran Community
Theater with kids like I just love working with kids and so this was kind of my Niche I'm like you know what let
me hit the picture book scene because I love it so much, I love kid books and
then and Hunter he has a passion for like non-fiction he loves watching
documentaries I think he loves learning about people and so we decided I'm like let's there's like no books out there
about famous people with disabilities or there's very few and so Hunter and I
were like you know what let's find all the people that we know and love that have a disability and let's put their
stories into a book and let’s have that be our book and
so we have represent volume one coming out in the fall, and he helped me compile all the biographies we picked thirty people
we researched them together and so we’re coming to Patel in about we're
doing we’re not illustrating it but the editing on the illustrating is the last thing, so we're almost done with
that one so what's it like working with an illustrator coming from the
non-fiction of talking about my mental health and in career preparation and
transition haven't really outside of the cover you know the outer partwork with
an individual but I can imagine that it may be it would take maybe more time
to do and how does that work where you have the manuscript part done and then
you reach out to the illustrator or is it an iterative process if you maybe
just talk maybe high level about that or somebody might be interested in something like that
yeah, and there's a lot of different processes you know if you end up being going with like a larger publisher
they have illustrators on hand and you there's a process with picking illustrators for that like you kind of
get to pick the style but then they go for it and they kind of run with it, so I am with the smaller press
um it's still more of the process of being traditionally published so it's not independent publishing so I was able to
find my own illustrators I have two different illustrators but it's very much okay here's my
story and here are some of my Visions for like very specific things and then I
try and just let them take most of the Liberties what has been difficult especially for this non-fiction one is that
um they're drawing people with disabilities well I've been researching and following the disability world for
years and years and years now all of a sudden, they're asked they're not even adjacent to someone with a disability
and now all of a sudden, they have to draw them so there's been like little things of like hey face this prosthetic or put sunglasses on them because
they're blind and just little things like that not that all not all blank people wear sunglasses but he typically
does so it has been a process and yes it does take longer because you basically
have two people working on it and you're waiting for them to finish after the
manuscript is finished and so it has been a process but there's many different ways to go about it
interesting yeah and so I see many books on your bookshelf behind you
all these are in in that space having characters that are showing like
individuals that they can see themselves and, in those stories, yes this is my beloved collection I even
have some on a top shelf up there oh perfect those are more Memoirs and
middle grade some are traditionally published with the Publishers some are independently
published but I have my favorites for sure and I feel like it's a treasure hunt because these books you know
they're not out there like it's they're a little bit hard to find so whenever I find one especially a new one
I'm like yes, it's like finding a diamond in the rough like I found a new one and I love it
um but it's just like any other picture book I read some that I don't love so much and then others I'm like yes, they
hit the nail on the head so right so distribution is a little bit tough so
where can viewers listeners find books that are or catered more to that
inclusive audience that they might not see in maybe the traditional Outlets the
traditional bookstores yeah so
so I actually just recently because my book just went on pre-sale and so I
was looking to see where I was at in the rankings of the you go on Amazon it shows you oh it's number one in
children's books about humor or children's books about first day of school they have all of these categories
and so what you can do is search those categories so if you find one book with a disability scroll down and look at
those categories that they're in their kind of there's a specific name for it but if you click on the children's books
about disabilities you click on that, and you see an entire list of those
um the hard part is knowing which ones have the most appropriate representation
because I've found books that were even on the top five list that I wouldn't
recommend to people and so what I recommend is finding repeatable sources
you know there are some a lot of people who have platforms that share only about
books diverse books and you have to find those trusted
people of like you know what they recommended it they've talked about why they like it and then go from there I
I'm not the best at blogging but I usually on my blog will talk about the ones that I specifically recommend
um so yes so Amazon's a great way and then finding those trusted people that really
um promote these books perfect and so that leads into my next question about where can people learn more about
you the work you do the books your blog follow you follow your son to keep up
with everything that's going on yeah so on my website most of our stuff
is there and it's my name rosaliemaskanner.com and then we have our Instagram platform which is mass
Taylor Party of Five we have a Facebook and so yeah most
of our stuff is just out there online our first book is out for pre-sale right now and then our second book hopefully
we'll be out we didn't mean for both puts to come out in the same year it is a little bit of a whirlwind but you
asked about working with illustrators yeah and my first illustrator broke her
wrist at one point so it pushed back production of that book which meant they
got pushed together more so we have both books coming out this year which is not the plan but we're
just running with it because we're excited to get both of them out so instead of pushing that second one back, we're just gonna release it this year
too oh yeah that's so exciting taking what life is presenting and
going with it so like you just mentioned what having somebody you're working
with have a little bit of a setback and that pushes things together so the plan
was not in the same year but it is and so go with it and embrace it I
I love that what else can we share with the viewers the listeners
uh about you about the advocacy work you do about your son that we can make sure
we get everything covered
yeah well, I feel like I'm just the messenger here I am lucky enough to love what I'm doing and just kind of be that
middle man but what I encourage because I mean I know I'm like super interesting
but I would rather direct people to learn about the disability Community
from those who have disabilities there is some of that I follow that I
absolutely love they're called The Catch polls and one thing that they just came up with was it's like a business card
and on the back of the business card is a QR code and when you scan it takes
you to a whole bunch of platforms of people with disabilities who are really
strong Advocates and activists and that's where I want to lead people I
just want to be that middle man and I also want to put out good literature too which will hopefully lead them to want
to learn more about the disability Community learn about inclusion learn about awareness and
um and you know luckily, I have my son who's helping me on that second one but
uh you know I just I wanted to lead people to the right people and that's
that's my main goal yeah that's exciting that that it’s awesome to
be able to have the resources and share those to like you said
get to the right Advocates the right authors the right people that well
everybody's trying maybe for one reason or another some are falling a little bit
short and that full representation for whatever reason and so I I'm glad that
you're doing that because I think that that's important to whether it's a catchphrase or a catch
thing or a societal thing it people sometimes
jump at things and go oh I want to be part of this I want to do that so let me go do this, but those individuals might
not do the research like you and the individuals that you're advocating for, so I think that that's so important
to have again those trusted and accepted not the Fly by Night
individuals or organizations that sometimes have ulterior motives that
were we're getting the right people the right information and really
supporting those people especially yourself and going really that extra
mile not just being an advocate through interviews, but you know putting
that together in in book form that's going to have a much bigger reach than just maybe a
interview or an event appearance well those are great being able to have
books that somebody in Ohio and Massachusetts in Alaska and Hawaii have
access to be able to do not just where you know where you have your hometown or where I have my hometown and
I think that's awesome to be able to do and it always helps to help
solidify the story and say oh by the way here's something that's tangible
about the story so I just want to give a big thank you
uh to Rosalie for joining us today for talking and speaking so strongly about
being an advocate an author for not only her son but so many out there that uh
need to and need to be able to be represented in a positive light and to
see others and them in themselves so thank you Rosalie for joining us today
uh we had a at a pleasant conversation, and I learned that Tom was taking some
notes to make sure that I'm able to share those in the show notes but then also make a couple posts about it so
people can find found find you and then find those sources to be able to
lead them and if we can help one person that's one less person that has to feel
alone or in the dark and I think that that's as human beings that's
really what we're trying to do is help people and I'm just thankful to have you as a
guest on our on the podcast today well thank you for having me I really
appreciate it like I said it's great being the messenger, but I love these
opportunities and I'm grateful to have this opportunity so thank you so much you're welcome absolutely and
also want to give a thank you to our audience our viewers our listeners thank you also for joining us I say thank you
to Rosalie again for taking time out of her day and until next time I am Justin
Alan Hayes and we hope you have a great day and be a voice for you or somebody
in need [Music] [Applause]