Finding Ruby: A Farmyard Mystery For Kids

Transcript

Meet Hallie Amman And Her Book

SPEAKER_01 0:00

All right. Hey, uh it's been a while since we've been on a podcast. We haven't done one in a I don't know, a couple, three, four weeks. But we're back today, and I'm Mike Innis. I'm happy to be here. Got Liz Goddard with me. And uh today we have a special guest. We have an author in the house. And uh Hallie Hammond. Is it Hammond?

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Ammon.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Amman, Amman. I put an H, it should have been an A, huh? It's okay. Extrum, right? Yes. Okay. Uh Hallie is wrote us a book. Yes. This is a suspenseful book. Had me on the edge of my seat. I'm not kidding though. It really did. She wrote a children's book.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

A lot of it's based on uh really your own farm.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

It is, yeah. Our own our own cattle herd. And the you look at the front cover, I am right now, and it's a little girl with a red cow, and that cow's name is Ruby, and she's alive and well.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Was that you when you were a child?

SPEAKER_02 0:52

It's not me. It's based on another cute little girl. Well, first of all, welcome to the show. Thank you, Mike.

Illustrations That Hold Kids’ Attention

SPEAKER_01 0:57

You're welcome. And and we got this, I got it today, and I was looking through it and I go, man, this is really good. First thing I noticed besides the story, yeah, storyline was the uh illustrations. Yeah, they just grab you. They were great. So many times, you know, I read lots and lots of stories to my kids growing up. And you know, on a page you might get one little picture, but you've got the whole pages full. And uh so shout out to your your illustrationist.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Thank you. Who's Becca Grace? She did wonderful, and we really wanted to make it come to life. I wanted bright colors, I wanted it to be able to captivate um, you know, the younger audience, which I tend to think is a little more difficult than the older generations as adults. It's you want to keep a kid's attention span, and you it's sometimes hard to do.

Ruby Goes Missing And Gurdy Leads

SPEAKER_01 1:44

So I'm not gonna give away the whole plot here. But it's a little suspenseful. The favorite cow, Ruby, is missing. And our heroess. Yep, our heroess, yes, heroine, our heroine, Gurney, and I love I love her name, Gurdy. Yeah, I I thought I thought, oh, that's a great name. She goes, she goes looking.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

She goes looking for her cow, really.

Who The Book Is For And Why

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Yeah, yeah. And uh it's kind of I said to go on, I gotta see the next page. It keeps you on your toes. It did. I enjoyed every minute of it. Good. And so uh who's this written for? What age group?

SPEAKER_02 2:18

It it's written really for the four to eight year olds. Four to eight, okay. That anyone could enjoy it. You did anyone. Um I am involved on the Minnesota Egg in the classroom board. Okay. And so a couple years ago when I got on that board, it allowed me to go visit classrooms. So what I started doing is each spring, I'd take a little baby calf with me to these kids so that they could see a real life calf.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Oh, I bet they had a ball.

Classroom Calves And Ag Literacy

SPEAKER_02 2:42

And it it was just they didn't even have to ask questions. It was just here's a baby calf that maybe many of you have never seen. And let's just welcome spring that way. Yeah. And March is um national egg literacy month, and it's just actually National Food Awareness Month. Okay. So when it came out, I thought, let's launch it in February, and it'll be real close to the Egg Literacy Month and a perfect gift for people.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Is this your first book? It is. Oh, congratulations.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Not your last, though, eh?

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Not my last. I got a couple more up my sleeve. You do already. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

What brought this one about?

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Well, last year in April, I was traveling to DC for some Minnesota Farm Bureau stuff. And when I got back, I found out that I was expecting our first kid. You personally, not not Ruby. Yes, not Ruby. Although Ruby just had her baby too here a couple weeks ago. You threw me for yes, no, myself. And he was just born in December. And so I thought, um, this book had I actually wrote it three years ago, and it had just sat on my laptop. And I didn't really think much of it. And then when we found out that we were going to be expecting, I kind of thought this would be a push for me to gift him something. And I don't know. It just gave me a little bit of a drive. So then I was on a mission.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

What's his name?

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Dawson.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Dawson. Great name. Great name.

Becoming An Author And A Mom

SPEAKER_02 4:01

So I was on a drive to find a company that uh fit my dynamics, but also fit and believed in the vision that I had for the books.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

So you did not self-publish?

SPEAKER_02 4:11

I did not. I went through a company to help me. So then it's legal across the board. It's currently sold on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

I was gonna ask. Yes, okay. Barnes and Noble.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

So it's it's legit.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Is that the title of the book? Yes, Ruby the Runaway.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Ruby the Runaway. Yeah, Ruby was a very bad girl.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Yes. She had a purpose.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

She did have a purpose. I know.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

We'd love to tell you.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

I know. I'm we're not going to. We're going to make them buy it. So uh uh online, Amazon online.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Yep, online, Amazon.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

How do they do that? Do they just go like to the book department?

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Amazon. You could just type it in. You could even just go to Google and type it in. And it should be.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Ruby the Runaway? Yep. Okay. Absolutely. Okay. Okay. Oh, tell me a little bit now about you. Uh you're from the Fairmont area, you were say telling us. You went to Fairmont High School. I went to Fairmont High School. Yes. You and your husband.

Publishing Path And Where To Buy

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Yep. And we met after high school, which is crazy because we both grew up in the same small town, Truman, Minnesota. You drive through and blink and you get through the town. How did you not find each other there? I know. You'd think that we would have.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

He's the same age?

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Uh he's just a year older. So yeah. That is crazy. And we run, we at the time, we still do, uh, ran with the same friend group. But he's a he's a power linesman. And so he was always gone. And so then he'd come home on the weekends. Okay. Had Saturday, Sunday to be home. Sure. And our friends happened to have a big get together, and that's how we crossed paths.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

There you were.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

I can't believe it took till 18-19 to cross paths with the same friend group. But it's funny how small the world can be.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Sometimes, you know. And now you live uh just just uh what do you tell me, north of Ormsby?

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Yes, so we're just west of Ormsby on my family's cattle farm. Yeah, I'm a sixth generation cattle farmer. We bought the property from my grandma here a couple of years ago, and uh now we've welcomed the seventh generation.

Sixth‑Generation Farm Roots

SPEAKER_01 5:59

That's good. That's that's wonderful. So Liz.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Have they always had beef cattle out there? Yes. So the farm was founded in 1903. It was actually started as a large feedlot. It was actually Hereford was the breed. Okay. And then as each generation went, I always say that each generation put their own flavor on the farm. You know, you honor the previous generation, the ancestors before, but then you find a way to put your own twist to it. How can we make things better? Sure. And so each generation did that. And when it got to be my grandpa and my father, they decided we're gonna switch from feedlot and we're gonna go to cow calf, which is what it is still today, is cow calf. So my husband, father, and I are the ones that manage the cattle herd, and we manage the day-to-day tasks that come with feeding cattle.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

So then that means that you are delivering yourself and you're right in there and gloves up and all of it.

Herd Management And Calving Realities

SPEAKER_02 6:56

We just got done here a couple hours ago. My dad and I did of pulling a calf, helping a calf be born into the world. Do you know what that means, Mike?

SPEAKER_01 7:02

I do. Exactly what it means.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

I had to shower and get new clothes on for Mike, so I wasn't coming in seeing it.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

I've seen uh what's that show uh with Billy Crystal?

SPEAKER_02 7:11

Um, Mike, you are welcome. Anytime you come help. I'll come and watch. And now, of course, this lovely weather. We've got barns to be embedded and get nice and clean for more calves to be born. How many head do you have? We have a little about 60. We're about halfway done. So at any given time, we can have about 120 to 130 animals on the property.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Wow. Okay. So tell me, I'm gonna go back to your book though.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

So what inspired this? The book, you know, I I realize you wrote it about three years ago. Yeah. But was there something that happened on the farm? Uh, the Ruby, the you read Ruby, was she the Yeah, she's special.

Why Write This Story

SPEAKER_02 7:55

She is the first cow that my husband and I purchased together. Okay. When we when we got together. So she's our she's our first, our first cow that we bought together. And I just found I've always had a love for reading. Okay. And being like I said, I'm involved with the Minnesota egg in the classroom. And so you go into these classrooms and you see these kids' imaginations and the questions they come up with. And I thought, there really wasn't a book out there that was like this. You know, there's books about learn your ABCs of the farm and learn about red or green tractors, but there really wasn't a story. I guess it's a story book. Yeah, there really isn't one out there. And I still wanted it to be realistic. I didn't want that, you know, the cows to talk or the dog to talk. I I wanted it to be how hard. Yeah. So I put some thought into it.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

How hard was it to write a book and a whole story really with so few words per page?

Crafting A Kid’s Book That Works

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Yeah. And when I first wrote That seemed like a real challenge. When I I would say that from when I first wrote it to what got published, it got changed quite a bit. Once I took it more serious the last year and a half, I took a bunch of different writing courses. I tuned into a few different companies that did, you know, maybe free sessions on what if you're pick your age group, and then from there, they kind of gave pointers on what you should do to captivate that age group.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

I gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

And so a lot of people have a lot of different opinions whether you should rhyme or not. You know, a lot of books rhyme. A couple of your pages do rhyme. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And so I did a mix. Yeah. And then I also looked at it as okay, if a kid was looking through this, you know, we'll just say kindergarten to sixth grade. You can there's so much that the pages can tell you beyond the words. You know, you can talk about the farm aspect, you can talk about colors, and you can talk about the different animals that are on the farm. And these are real things that you'd find on a farm.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

Do you go to the schools and and read the story to the kids?

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Yes, I have been. I've been making my way through the county.

School Visits And Kids’ Questions

SPEAKER_01 9:59

What's their what's their what's their like number one questions or oh they love you have it?

SPEAKER_02 10:03

They I don't know if there's number one question, but everyone loves the cows and they love the dog. And the dog doesn't even talk or isn't a main character, but they love everyone always loves the dog. Really? So, but they just love then, you know, like I always ask too when I get done, how many of you live on a farm? How many of you have cows or pigs or chickens? And so then they always ask, are these cows real? Just like you did. How many of them exist? And so then it kind of tumbles into well, maybe we have to do a tour, you know, and sometimes it's a great reaction, and some kids love it. I think we're we are kind of getting distance from kids that used to live on a farm 20 years ago to how many do today.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Yeah, I grew up in I grew up in town. Yep. In big Wichita, Kansas. Yep. A big city in Kansas City, Missouri. And so to me, a farm was, you know, beef was where you go you went to a safe way or a high V or something and you bought it there.

From Grocery Store To Gate To Plate

SPEAKER_02 10:55

Yep, absolutely. And that and that's where Minnesota Egg in the classroom really comes together. They have a bunch of free resources for teachers and in schools, and that's was one of my lesson plans that I started doing through the Minnesota egg in the classroom with kids is just saying, okay, how many of you go grocery shopping with your parents? How many of you cook with your parents at home? You know, do you know where your food comes from? And right away they say, Yeah, I do. It comes from the grocery store.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

We do a we do a thing at Thanksgiving uh on how to how to cook your turkey, right? Yep. And we love it because half the kids say, I go to Walmart.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Or I go to I go to Townsend or and I we buy a turkey, we bring it home. Then the other half say, we go out and shoot it.

4‑H, FFA, And Hard Lessons

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Yep. And and we love those kids because we know they're hands on. Yeah, they are. But then that conversation does in and like was said, maybe that conversation gets a little deeper or more realistic. Well, your food, you bought it from a grocery store, but it comes from a farmer or rancher that raised it. Yeah, right. And so a lot of people, that's always what they ask. Is it hard for you to raise cattle but also eat the the beef protein? Is that a hard concept? And I always say, I'm a sixth generation farmer that's raising a delicious protein from gate to plate for people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

I like that gate to plate. I do too. That was that was one shock for me because I moved to the farm when I was in seventh grade. Yeah. And uh stu so to have them, you know, when you're when you're registering when you're registering your cattle, yeah, you're giving them an official name. So Ruby has definitely got an official name.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Ruby is registered.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Registered. So I wrote I mean, I remember going from gate to plate with an animal that you've shown that you've that you've washed, that you've lit by halter that you have. Now, hey, it's a hamburger. I know. But it is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Well, Ruby's not gonna be steak dinner every day.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Ruby will not be on your plate. But Liz and I had talked about that prior, that we were both in 4-H and FFA, I didn't have that opportunity, but it is really hard because you make a bond with this big 1200-pound animal, and then at the end of your 4-H season, if you are successful showing, then those animals go to an auction, but then that means they're being sold. And so it is a hard concept, but I think it's also again, if you look at it as a there's a lesson in there for kids. It's just a hard lesson.

Helping Non‑Farm Kids Show Animals

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Yeah. Talking that you you just mentioned FFA, and we just had FFA week in the paper. Like, was it last week, week before? Week before, I think it was. So what's your connection with FFA?

SPEAKER_02 13:29

Uh my parents, my grandparents, they were all they had the opportunity to be in it. I when I graduated in 2012, I went to Fairmont and we didn't have FFA yet, but they were went on to get the program a couple years later. And so I don't have a personal connection, unfortunately, but with 4-H I did. I showed for 12 years in 4-H, and now I still help at the county fair with it. And to be able to see these programs in small rural towns, I mean, they're still going. MCW FFA here has always done well when my dad was in it.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Right, right. Yeah, so it's great to do that. You said 4-H too, though. You're still doing with still.

Trends In Projects And Skills

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Still helping at 4-H being a like a volunteer judge and yeah, being able to go to those livestock shows. And if there were kids out there that, since we don't have as many kids that live on a farm, there are kids that are looking to show animals. So how do we help them? Well, here, I have the animals. If you have the drive and the skills to show, I could be your missing puzzle, if you would. Right. Puzzle piece.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Right. I yeah, and I've I've seen for each change and grow as as more becomes acidified. Sure. I was a big sewer back in the day, but now there's even how to shop efficiently and and how to, you know, there's just it's just changed the opportunities, but yeah, still keeping with them those homemaking lifestyle, uh giving a foundation type of skills.

Choosing A Supportive Publisher

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Yeah. And I would say that there, I mean, the amount of kids in the program has maybe gone, but I think it there's always a wave, right? Because you when you get to be a certain age, you age out of 4-H and FFA. And so you kind of go through just like sports, people age out, and so then you have to wait for those kids to kind of get a little older and get back into the program. Just like when people say, Oh, we're losing 10 seniors this year on the basketball team. Well, you've got a bunch of freshmen coming up. You just gotta let give them time. Same thing for 4-H.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Right. And but I think uh uh there's been a big change, uh a transition from your generation of of of parents. You know, you are more hands-on, you're canning, you're sewing. Yep, uh, crocheting is back on people's laps. Where there was there was a big decade there where nobody was doing handicrafts and nobody wanted to can. I mean, yep. I I'm I'm a I'm I'm afraid of the canner, but yes.

Advice For Aspiring Young Authors

SPEAKER_02 15:54

I mean And I would say that there's actually now when you walk through the the barns at the Martin County Fair, you walk through the barns and you can see everyone's projects on display. There are a lot of general projects as they're called versus livestock, but I think it's easier for someone to bring a general project, like you're saying, than it is an animal, because most kids that are bringing animals, it's because they live on a farm or they know someone that has um that connection that can get them access to an animal.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Right. Excuse me. Yeah. So okay, let me ask one more thing. Uh a couple actually a couple of questions. Number one is how hard was it to get published?

Local Signings, Readings, And Library Event

SPEAKER_02 16:33

It was a little more difficult, and I probably made it a little more difficult because I was picky. I wanted a company that was gonna make help make my book come to vision but not take it over. And I wanted them to believe in it. I want, I mean, we always you always want a book to be successful, and you never know how it's gonna do. But if you have a team that believes in you, I think that's a big piece to it as well. And I found that LDR publishing company and the editor, the publisher, the illustrator, and I were all female. And so I think that was a big pat on the back too, just to that um piece of it to support other females.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

What excuse me, what word do you have for young young kids coming up who aspire to be an author?

SPEAKER_02 17:15

You just gotta believe. You gotta believe in yourself, even on the days where it's like you reread your work and you think, oh, this is not good. You gotta believe.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Yeah, okay. Just gotta believe. All right. So Amazon.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Yep, Amazon and Virgin Nobles.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Barnes and Nobles, are you gonna sell it locally anywhere on a shim shelves?

Closing And Tease Of Ruby’s Fate

SPEAKER_02 17:31

There's uh there are a couple businesses that are gonna ha stock it for me. Yes. Today and tomorrow I'll actually go and be making some. Where are you going? I'm going to indulge, yes, indulge salami. Sure, okay. And then a couple other. I'm gonna hopefully have town center.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

I thought you were oh, I bet you will.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

Yeah. And if there's any other schools out there, I've been reading to a lot of schools and looking to get into more classrooms.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Oh, that'd be great. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Getting into the library, did you mention that?

SPEAKER_02 17:55

The Martin County Library. Um, I will be with them on. Let me look at my camera.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

What are you gonna read there?

SPEAKER_02 18:01

I'm gonna have an author signing and a reading there. Exciting. It will be great. Um, April 14th at 10 a.m.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

April 14th, 10 a.m.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

Martin County Library.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Yeah, Martin County Library. You'll be there to sign and read. And read. Yes. That's exciting. All right. I'm not I'm gonna keep you in suspense because I'm gonna tell you how it ends. Ruby runs away. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Will she be found?

SPEAKER_00 18:24

She'll be found.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

We can't tell then.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Oh, I'm sorry, but that's what we do.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

It was so nice having you here. Thank you, Mike. I appreciate you coming out anytime. Next next book, bring it, bring it by. I will, I will. I want to read it. And tell Dawson we said hi.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

I will. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

And you're welcome. Liz?

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Thank you very much, Mike. Thank you again. We appreciate you. All right.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

Bye, folks.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

We'll see you next week.